We live in a trial averse society. To a degree this makes sense – who wants to go through pain and suffering when they can avoid it. We are currently making laws, rules, regulations, and setting precedents to insulate ourselves from any form of injury or suffering – a doctors’ group is seeking to ban trampolines because injuries occur on them; DCFS was called to investigate a family who allowed their child to walk the dog unattended. Etc.

 

Now I’m not advocating that we reject safety standards or leave our children unprotected, but when we continue to wall ourselves in out of fear of injury or suffering we become less willing to suffer or endure if we’re asked to do so.

 

The story of Jonah is a great example of this. Jonah was asked by the Lord to perform a difficult task. The Lord asked Jonah to go and call repentance to a people that Jonah hated. Jonah hated the Ninevites because of the ugly history between the Hebrews and the Ninevites which included a history of the Ninevites killing Hebrews.

 

Despite that history of the Ninevites killing some of God’s chosen people, God asked Jonah to call repentance to the Ninevites so that God could save them.

 

Jonah did what I believe most of us would do – he tried to run away from this responsibility. Jonah didn’t want these people saved. Jonah knew that if he went he was facing the high probability of abuse or even death. This would be an emotionally and psychologically difficult task, but the Lord was asking him to do it and endure it.

 

Please note, that Jonah’s trial didn’t go away when he fled. Even though the Lord certainly could have called another to go and call repentance to the Ninevites He did not, because this was a trial Jonah needed to go through to be tested in hope of progression.

 

Now compare Jonah’s response with Nephi’s response to the Lord’s request to go and get the brass plates – Nephi knew the task wouldn’t be easy and even failed the first two times, but still Nephi looked at the task and said “let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord.” (1 Nephi 4:1)

 

Trial aversion may keep us from seeking forgiveness from someone we’ve offended, or keep us from a promising but difficult career path. A trial averse attitude may end an otherwise salvageable marriage, or be a cause to put off marriage or children. If we allow trial aversion to rule our lives we will be less willing or able to do or endure that which the Lord asks us to endure or what we must endure to grow and progress.

 

Another way our trail aversion uncovers itself is in our speech. We hear the word “hard” used often when describing a task we believe to be difficult. But “hard” is a subjective word necessitating the question: “hard compared to what?”

 

Hard has no meaning without the fact that softer or easier things exist.

 

I’ve heard it said on several occasions by people, usually youth still in school, that “math is hard.” But often what these youth mean when they say “it’s hard” is that they don’t want to do it; they don’t want to try. But math, like our lives, did not become hard until it became easy. The advent of the calculator made traditional math “hard.” Prior to that, math simply was what it was – everyone had to learn math the same way. Previous generations were more likely to say they were either good or not good at math, but it wasn’t hard because it had yet to become easy.

 

In our lives all of our modern conveniences make our lives easier. Cars, electricity, clothes washers, dishwashers, cellphones, remote controls, all make travel, cleaning, communication etc easier.

 

Some sad personal examples of how the ease of modern conveniences can really take hold of us are:

1. My wife and I’s dishwasher broke, and the earliest time the repair man could come was in five days. As the days went on the dishes piled up in the sink, because the thought of actually doing all the dishes by hand was just such a painful thought! 🙂 We would wash the minimum dishes necessary to survive and constantly ask each other when the repair man was coming, so we could avoid doing all the dishes by hand.
2. While living at my in-laws home in order to save money to put toward my school debt, we were asked by the Ward to help with a neighborhood block party. These were not official church activities, which meant the church was not planning on contributing financially to the parties. They asked us to provide the drinks for our block’s party and told us to plan for 40 to 50 people, which meant buying 10 to 15 2-liter bottles of soda. With my crushing student loan debt on my mind I began to complain to myself about having to purchase all this soda. I was then immediately chastised by the Lord as I thought about the pioneers giving all to build temples and church houses. Even within my parents’ generation they were asked to donate more than tithing for the building of their own church houses and temples. Life in the church had gotten easier, so asking me to buy the soda seemed harder, so I flinched. After the Lord’s chastisement however, I gladly went to purchase the $25 worth of soda.

Now by castigating the use of the word “hard” I don’t intend to diminish the true difficulty of some of our trials. I absolutely believe that there are degrees of difficulty to our trials. But as with math, or hand-washing dishes, what our trials are mostly asking of us is a little more effort, a little more faith, a little more study, a little nearer to God.

 

But what if you find yourself in the midst of a high degree of difficulty trial and you have no more to give? In the October 2016 general conference, Elder Ballard, an apostle of the Lord, gave us permission (for those that felt that they needed permission) to take a break. Go ahead and take it – a nice, emotional, psychological, or physical break. Elder Ballard said:

 

“Brothers and sisters, accepting and living the gospel of Christ can be challenging. It has always been thus, and it ever will be. Life can be like hikers ascending a steep and arduous trail. It is a natural and normal thing to occasionally pause on the path to catch our breath, to recalculate our bearings, and to reconsider our pace. Not everyone needs to pause on the path, but there is nothing wrong with doing so when your circumstances require. In fact, it can be a positive thing for those who take full advantage of the opportunity to refresh themselves with the living water of the gospel of Christ.”

 

So now that we have permission to take a break from our trials, how do we refresh ourselves? How do we regain the strength necessary to carry on?

 

Mathew 11:28-30 states: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

 

A few interesting facts about these versus is that the Greek word used for “rest” in the versus actually means “refreshment;” and instead of the phrase “learn of me,” the more correct Greek translation would be “learn from me.” So what the Savior is saying is that if you take his yoke upon yourself and learn from Him He will give you refreshment.

 

But what is the Savior’s yoke? As you undoubtedly know, a yoke was always used for labor. Whether an animal was pulling a wagon, or pulling a plow, the yoke always meant work. So the Savior is saying that we will find refreshment by doing his work. And what is his work? “To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man,” which “man” includes you! But what makes His work – His yoke – easy and His burden light?

 

When you take the yoke of the Savior upon you, you see that His yoke is a vast yoke reaching to the horizon on either side with the Savior in the middle. You see that neither you nor He are pulling alone, but so are the angels of heaven, the prophets of old, your own faithful ancestors and pioneers, the modern-day prophets and apostles, your own ward and stake leaders, and your own good neighbors and friends. From the view of the yoke you can clearly see how this work is progressing – how far it and you have come – and you clearly see the glorious end as you all pull together toward it. But the part I appreciate most about His yoke is that the spot next to His is always open. It’s open for you to come and share your burdens with him, as he kindly listens and pulls you along. It’s open for you to come and learn from Him the love he has for you. It’s open for you to come and learn from Him the things to carry you through.

 

I can testify to the truthfulness of these things, because I have experienced them. At the time of some of my heaviest trials, when I’ve had nothing left to carry it, I chose to leave it where I stood and yoked up with the Savior. As I labored I cried to Savior in anguish about my burdens and He kindly listened and pulled. After laboring and conversing with the Savior for a time and after finding refreshment, I came back to find my trial gone. At other times, I’ve come back, my trial still there, but with strength to carry it the rest of the way.

 

So as we look to the inevitable trials to come, when you meet them first challenge them – make sure this trial isn’t simply something that has become difficult because your life has become too easy. But if the trial you find yourself in is a highly difficult one: take a break, yoke up, and be refreshed.