Opposition in All Things

When Lehi preached to his sons that there must be opposition in all things, he was really on to something. This principle is not limited to theological discussions.  In the physical world, there are more examples than I could possibly enumerate, but here's a few:

• Gravity:  That which keeps us from flying off this planet is also that which causes us to fall down.
• Air Pressure:  Without it, many things wouldn't function properly (not to mention we wouldn't be able to breathe) but when we go biking our running, we don't like it and try to minimize it.
• Food Chain:  Without the perfect balance of predator vs prey, the prey is completely wiped out (and the predator soon follows).  Or we see invasive species which quickly move through an environment, to the detriment of everything around it.
• Muscles:  Muscles only atrophy with disuse, when they have none (or little) resistance.  Conversely, they only get stronger with increased resistance.

In physics, friction is a force that limits our inertia.  Friction slows us down, is the counter force to our applied force, and generally just makes things hard for us.  But if there was no friction, no movement occurs.  (You can see this principle in action if you try to walk after there has been freezing rain.)  Friction both slows your car down, and allows it to function as you apply a greater opposite force. Simple things like nails, screws, and bolts would not stay in place; a cork would not stay in a bottle; a light globe would drop from its socket; a lid would not stay on a jar.

It is the same with us spiritually.  Without any friction, we stagnate.  Our spiritual "muscles" atrophy, and we neither move forward nor progress.  But when we have friction, we groan and curse at our lot in life, pondering on the unfairness of it all.  We ask, "Why me?  Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?"

This will sound trite, but here goes: it's all part of the plan.  The plan was explained to us beforehand, and we agreed.  We might not have understood completely what we were in for.  "So, there is to be torture? I can cope with torture."

So why does it always appear so unfair from our perspective?  Because of our inability to see the whole scope and grandeur of the plan.  Life is fair...  Just not this segment of it.  This segment is filled with "individualized injections of irony", as Elder Maxwell put it, sore trials or temptations carefully crafted for us and expertly executed such as to give us maximum growth.  It is often the righteous who are called upon to shoulder the most difficult trials.

Remember, we are to cheerfully submit to all things that the Lord sees fit to inflict upon us.  Cheerfully.... right.....   How do we do that?  This implies that it is not merely enough to bear them or to simply endure.  We must overcome, be changed by, be refined by our trials and weaknesses. We must do the best we can with what we have.

It's also about attitude - not just the mental state (although that is helpful at times).  In aeronautics, the word attitude is used in airplanes to determine not only its direction, but its angle of attack into the wind and its stability against rolls.  Your direction might be right, but without watching your altitude, and without keeping the craft stable, you won't make it where you want to go.  We must be actively engaged in pursuit of our eternal goals.

Consider a sailboat.  A sailboat can maneuver its way to any direction, even somewhat paradoxically toward the source of the wind (a feat it accomplishes by tacking, travelling in a somewhat sinusoidal motion toward the wind).  It takes real effort, but it is possible.

It reminds me of a favorite poem:

One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.
Like the winds of the seas are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through life:
'Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

There are three things a sailboat needs for forward progress: a keel (which uses friction against the water to provide a counter force to the wind), a sail pointed in the right direction, and the wind itself, without which no movement is possible.

Our covenants are much like a keel.  They provide friction against the sea of false ideas and give us leverage to cut through.  If we have not made our covenants, or if their effectiveness has been ruined by breaking them, the effect is the same: we are blown about, unable to make forward progress, even if we hold our sail in the right direction.

Our sail is like our will.  When we are careful and meticulously give attention to its position, making subtle course corrections as necessary and trimming our sails appropriately (yielding our desire to his), we will make forward progress.  He has instructed us and continues to instruct us on how to match our will to the will of the Master, who has successfully made it through.  We can choose to go against or to ignore His guidance, kicking against the pricks, in which case we will go off course.  He doesn't give up on us, though, but will continue to try to influence us to come back on course.  If we cut off communication (which only occurs from our end), we will find ourselves adrift, subject to every wind of doctrine or current of temptation.

The wind is like our trials and temptations.  Paradoxically without them, we are stuck, trapped in a state where we cannot move forward.  In the midst of the storm, we long for respite, and petition God for reprieve.  We find it hard to fathom the reason or the utility of this strife.  We may not know in this life (and almost certainly not at the time) what the Lord has in store for us, the purpose for this trial or that.  Like in the poem, "Mine is not to reason why, mine is but to do ... ", but unlike the poem, and live.

President Kimball (no stranger to trial) said, “Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery” (Faith Precedes the Miracle, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1972, p. 98).

God has prepared a way for us to pass through our trials and temptations.  The way is not obvious.  He will open the way as we have faith, and as we are faithful, and a the right time.

Though trials seem vast as the sea,
He surely will comfort thee.
He opens a way to walk through on dry land
As we put our trust in His hand.

- Come to the Mercy Seat

So, therefore, we are to go forth through our trials or our temptations, with cheerful heart because of our hope in Christ, casting upon Him our every care.  We will, like Paul, glory in our infirmities, as we know that they make us strong, stretch us, and can filter out our impurities.  We will keep careful watch on our attitude, set our controls the way He has instructed us, and monitor the radio for needed course corrections.

He will open the path for us.  But if not: happy day, all is well!  We will walk the path that He set for us.  And when the storm is past, if we have been faithful, we will know that He has carried us through, and that His ways are the right ways.  We will say, as Job:

He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.  My foot hath held His steps, His way have I kept, and not declined.