Sunday

Yesterday as I sat in church waiting for Sunday School to begin I started watching the people around me.  I knew that the woman preparing to teach the lesson had lost her child to a difficult disease over a decade ago.  I didn't know her at that time, but I have vague memories of her son passing away because he was friends and peers with several of my friends.  This weekend in a random conversation, I was reminded that his death actually happened ON Christmas day.  Can you imagine the heartache and the emotional time Christmas must be for her now?  I watched her faithfully setting things up and bustling around the room with her lesson ready and was touched by her strength as I considered the heart-wrenching pain she had experienced.  To look at her you would never know she had faced such a loss.

My eyes began to wander around the room to others that were there.  I saw an elderly couple sitting side by side.  Just a few weeks ago I dropped a salad off at the church for the funeral of his mother, who had lived with them.  Last week the sister shared her testimony in Relief Society and expressed the heartache she felt despite the fact that her mother-in-law was quite old and her death had been expected.  It was still a loss and she felt the pain keenly.

Just behind that couple sat a woman who's father had slipped off a ladder and hit his head.  He passed away just a few days later.  His funeral was just a few short days ago.

I sat in the next row behind her, but behind me was another woman I admire.  She is caring for her elderly mother, who is starting another round of radiation for a recurring cancer.

I looked over to the other side of the room and saw the man who was just newly called into our bishopric.  About a month ago he had called my husband, networking for jobs.  His employment recently went through a change in their pay structure, and he is suddenly facing unexpected financial strain and desperately striving to find a way to keep up on their expenses.  I was touched that at a time in his life when things may seem out of control and overwhelming, he is willing to faithfully offer countless hours of service to his neighbors each week.

And a row or two in front of him was the man who had lived without the gospel during thirty years of inactivity, but shares his testimony every week through his comments and participation in the lessons.

Many of the other people in that room are still strangers to me.  But I know of several tragedies that have been faced by the individuals in my ward - death of loved ones (spouses, parents etc), health concerns, employment issues, divorce, infertility, heartbreak for one thing or another.  Knowing these histories I scanned the room and was strengthened.  These people have been through the fires of life, and yet here they were, stronger and more faithful than ever in their commitment to Jesus Christ.

The lesson began and we talked about many beautiful things.  We discussed the Savior appearing to the people in America after his resurrection.  While He was there He taught them the same things he spoke of at the Sermon on the Mount.  We read a verse in the Doctrine and Covenants which said,

"When men are called unto mine everlasting gospel, and covenant with an everlasting covenant, they are accounted as the salt of the earth and the savor of men"

and then a few chapters later we read:

"For they were set to be a light unto the world, and to be the saviors of men; and inasmuch as they are not the saviors of men, they are as salt that has lost its savor."

We discussed what it meant for us to be saviors of men and suddenly the strengthening I had felt, simply by being in the company of the people around me, began to make sense.  The Savior did not just tell us the way - he showed us the way. 

In prophesying of the Savior, King Benjamin said:

"And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people."

One of the things that made the Savior our Savior was that He came to this earth.  He experienced life.  He does not ask of us to do anything that He didn't do himself.  (In fact, He asks much less.)  CS Lewis said,

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.  After all... you find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”

The Savior spent a lifetime of hardship and difficulty.  But ultimately, He didn't falter.  He lived the life the Father asked Him to live.

Likewise, as I scanned the room, I saw a group of people who had been battered and bruised.  Much like the Army of Helaman - all have been injured.  In this group of people who, both past and present, have experienced difficulty beyond their comprehension, I saw valiant children of a loving Heavenly Father who had not given up or been lost, but who had been strengthened.  And I realized, these are they who can then turn and become saviors of men.  They can truly say, "I know you can be healed, because I was healed."  They can testify of THE Savior because through their experiences, they came to truly know Him.  They have firsthand experience with His power.  They know that the peace He offers is stronger than any storm.

I sometimes reflect on the difficulties I have faced in my own life.  A lot of them didn't seem fair and I wondered what I had done wrong or why I was being punished.  Certain experiences seemed to come at costs that could never be compensated for.  Damages seemed irreparable and sometimes having an eternal perspective only seemed to heighten the heartache, not resolve it.  But in retrospect I see things differently.  Never have I faced a struggle that the atonement of Jesus Christ hasn't healed me of.  Line upon line I learned and experienced His healing power in ways that had been previously beyond my comprehension.  Daily I continue to see miracles occur, prayers answered, and blessings given.  I realized that in my own small way, perhaps I can stand as a savior to men, through my testimony of THE Savior of men.

It felt good to be in the company of these people - this group who can act as saviors of men not because they had it easier or better than other people, but because they have gone through fires and struggles.  From the outside they look simple and ordinary.  But their strength is sure, and it made a difference to me.  I'm so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and to be blessed by the people I see at church each week.