Challenges and Changes

Mortal experience often requires us to venture into challenges and changes, which we may or may not have chosen, and may or may not have already known. In faith we may move confidently forward.

Challenges, Answers, and Residue

“You serve a Master who loves you, who knows you, and who is all-powerful,” assured Elder Patrick Kearon.

 He has created . . . opportunities for your growth. You can pray to Him with confidence and ask, “What would you have me do next?” If you listen humbly and with faith, you will feel an answer. And you will, if you are wise and good, set about to do that which your Master has commanded. And you will leave the residue in His hands.

I like his use of the word residue—something that remains after a focus part is gone. We all experience challenges and changes in our lives; they are part of the mortal experience. As we pray for, receive, and follow the Lord’s help and guidance, we do what we are able to do. We work hard and do our best. But residue may be left after something seems to be finished.

Elder Kevin S. Hamilton told of a man who had been off and on with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was reading about change in the Book of Mormon, when “a powerful feeling come over him and he knew . . . what he must do.” He fell to his knees in prayer, “pleading with the Lord . . . to give him the strength needed to make changes in his life.”

He received the answers he desired, and he experienced widespread changes. “His mind, his heart, his actions, his very being were changed.” This would have been an extremely complex process. We may wonder about residue “left after.” If there was, the Lord took care of it and the changes could be complete.

Our Father in Heaven and our Savior, who know us individually perfectly, give wise and appropriate guidance as we exercise our spirits, our minds, and our agency. The Lord is also skilled and experienced in dealing with residue. He anticipates residue may include challenges that are spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, relational, social or otherwise—involving any or all person(s) or aspects in our lives. We can trust him to take care of it.

Challenges and Changes with Blessings

Our part is to approach challenges and changes and think prayerfully about what we should do. “Consciously shift your focus and elevate  your thoughts,” advised Elder Mathias Held. This would include learning from our challenges and recognizing that positive changes can and will come “according to God’s will.” Elder Held  expanded his message, mentioning gratitude, belief, faith, and trust in God.

I’ve known many people who have done this so well.  I’d like to share a few.

 Life Interrupted.  In an instant, a young man’s life was changed, with widespread challenges. In a farm accident, he lost both of his legs, facing life as a double-amputee. As the brother of one of my students, he became one of my heroes. His sister’s love and support for him made her a hero as well. She told us with excitement that he was “running” the Boson Marathon from his wheelchair (in 1982, when it was not such an “in” thing to do). He could have been defeated by his disability; he chose to “run” with it. Residue? On the streets of Boston, probably—but he didn’t let it stop him, and neither did the Lord.

Love and Loyalty.  Service with a sigh?  Not for this family.  A close colleague of mine at BYU deeply loved and gratefully served her three children, with particular concern for her youngest, a daughter with a severe disability. The challenges of this daughter increased as her age increased, and she eventually had to be carried everywhere.

 Her mother carried her, watched over her, waited on her, and adored her. One day she was concerned about taking something to her son in middle school, as she had no one to watch the younger child. Immediately as she entered, carrying her daughter, her son ran to them and gave his sister a big hug—in front of anyone who happened to see him. Adolescent peer concern was not a troubling residue.

Tragic Challenges. Many years ago I taught at a private parochial school with a preschool teacher whose time with her students was love in action. She had immigrated from England to Texas. When I knew her, her challenges and changes had been very difficult. Her husband was in prison, and her son, her only child, was headed there.

This courageous lady was blessed to qualify to teach the three-year-old class; she was just able to make ends met. Love was in her face and in her voice as she was with the children. My son was one of her happy students. More residues seemed to be relieved with her beautiful singing voice, which enabled her to participate in local amateur theater, which she loved and where she was loved, appreciated, and fulfilled.

Like most of us, I know what faith and love can look and sound like. Remembering these friends, I particularly like Elder Held’s conclusion: “Adjust, learn, seek, choose are all action verbs. Remember that we are agents and not objects.”

We all experience challenges and changes, as well as residues, differently. Elder Uchtdorf’s words are comforting.

Everything He does—every blessing He gives and every blessing He, for a time, withholds—is for our eternal happiness. With this kind of faith, though we may not understand why certain things happen or why certain prayers go unanswered, we can know that in the end everything will make sense. “All things [will] work together for good to them that love God.”

We may not see residue. But God does, and He stretches out His arms with love.