No Good News

What do you do when you are confronted with day after day, hour after hour, even minute after minute of no good news? Tonight, I was listening to talks from previous speakers at my church's general conferences.

In one of the talks, the speaker relayed a story about a nine-year-old being accidentally run over by his father while backing out of a driveway. At that very moment, I needed to stop listening. I was unable to take into my thoughts one more catastrophic event.

I now write a little later. I went back and completed the talk. I learned that through the power of the Holy Ghost, the gentleman’s wife, and a ministering companion, the father was able to find himself again and survive the pain of his son's loss. Had I never gone back and finished the talk, I would have missed my lesson—the lesson of what we can do when faced with such an event in our lives.

We can draw upon the strength found in the grace of the Holy Ghost and our commitment to serving our fellow men to comfort and potentially save the life of a suffering friend.

In recovery, we will face times where our emotions will be stretched, yet we are taught to turn these emotions into strengths. There is an AA saying: "Fear knocked at the door; faith answered. No one was there." And as the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous teaches: "Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God’s will into all of our activities. 'How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done.' These are thoughts which must go with us constantly." (p. 85)

I am reminded in the writings of C.S. Lewis that seeking God's will, rather than our own, brings true fulfillment and identity. He wrote: “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become—because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.” — Mere Christianity

From a spiritual point of view, we should not fear the sorrows of our world but take up the challenge to help in the healing of such suffering.

In Isaiah 41:10, we are taught: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." This is a call to overcome fear and trust in God's strength while serving others.

In Doctrine and Covenants 81:5, we are told: "Wherefore, be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed unto you; succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees." This is a direct command to seek out and help those in distress.

In the end, I have learned that even though there may be things in this life I do not want to hear, the same may be just the lesson I need to hear in order to become the person I search after.