Chapter 9
“All Things Shall Work Together”
In his first epistle to the Corinthian Saints, the apostle Paul speaks at some length about the gifts of the Spirit, including which of those gifts are of greatest value in edifying the members of the Church of Jesus Christ. The twelfth chapter ends with this verse: “But covet earnestly [be zealous for] the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). What follows, of course, is a beautifully crafted and beloved sermonette on charity, which Mormon calls “the pure love of Christ” (Moroni 7:47). Toward the end of what is to us the thirteenth chapter, Paul writes: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (v. 11). This verse has been employed by Christians through the centuries to teach a variety of lessons, not the least of which is the need for people to grow up, to set aside matters of lesser worth. In its context, however, Paul appears to be instructing the Corinthians that greater than tongues, healing, discerning of spirits, grander than wisdom, knowledge, and even prophecy, is charity, which is God-like love, the very love that Jesus Christ has demonstrated so abundantly and perfectly toward all of us (Ether 12:33–34). I believe Paul was calling the former-day Saints to Christian maturity, the kind of maturity in which God-fearing people have become spontaneously tender and loving toward all the children of God.
Things Will Work Out
A most fascinating verse in 1 Corinthians 13 is verse 12: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Latter-day Saints use this verse to refer to the veil of forgetfulness that is placed upon our minds as we leave the first estate and enter the second estate by birth. You might find other translations of this passage worthwhile:
“We see in a mirror, dimly” (New Revised Standard Version);
“Now we see but a poor reflection” (New International Version);
“At the moment all that we can see are puzzling reflections in a mirror” (Wright, Kingdom New Testament);
“We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist” (Peterson, The Message).
It’s as though Paul is reminding the disciples that in this life we don’t have the whole picture; we are, for now, kept from seeing and understanding the end from the beginning. For the time being, that grand panoramic scene is reserved for God and a few of his anointed servants, often dispensation heads like Enoch (Moses 6–7), Abraham (Abraham 3), Moses (Moses 1), and Joseph Smith (D&C 76).
One of the painful results of having an incomplete picture is that we cannot see at once how a given moment or series of events in our lives fit into the larger scheme of things. This is particularly true when we face mortal challenges and tragedies. The seeming enormity and, in some cases, finality of a given vicissitude in this life can overwhelm us when we are fixated on the present and lose that elevated perspective that comes only from God. When, for example, a mother and her six children learn that their father has been taken in death, it is extremely difficult, almost impossible, to see anything but the painful present and feel nothing but despair and even hopelessness toward the future. What that mother and her children cannot see is how they will get by, how they will have the money to sustain their needs, how Mom and the remaining family will survive. In those traumatic, emotionally strangling seasons, few of us would be able to fathom how things will ever work out.
That same meridian apostle wrote to the Romans: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). It’s mighty tough to grasp how a tragedy of the magnitude of the one mentioned above will ever “work together for good” in their lives. To be sure, God does not send all of the trials that come into our lives. Some of them we bring upon ourselves through mismanagement of our lives, and others come to us as a result of other persons’ unwise or even evil misuse of their moral agency. Paul’s message here, a message sounded beautifully in Restoration scripture, is that God can cause things to work together for our good. Being omniscient, omnipotent, and, by the power of his Holy Spirit, omnipresent, our Father in heaven can, if we will let him, turn the most miserable of life’s losses toward our eventual gain.
This is what Lehi meant when he consoled his son Jacob: “Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain” (2 Nephi 2:2). That same Jacob, in engraving some of his own doings and teachings, observed: “Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions” (Jacob 3:1). As Amulon began to intensify his abuse and persecution on Alma’s people, the voice of the Lord came to the people: “I will . . . ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage [or pain or distress or depression]; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions” (Mosiah 24:14). It was in Liberty Jail that the Prophet Joseph Smith penned a letter to the Saints in which he pleaded to God for divine intervention. The Lord’s response was: “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment” (D&C 121:7). Truman Madsen reminded us that “That ‘small moment’ turned out to be five more years of incredible struggle. But comparatively, it was a small moment. And that, I submit to you, is a real force in facing suffering. To believe, better, to know that this lonely or crushed or deprived or painwracked condition won’t last forever; that it will somehow, somewhere be over, is a balm of comfort. Without it, certain kinds of suffering would be unbearable.”1
Later, after recording every conceivable horrendous situation into which Joseph might be thrust, the Savior inspired the Prophet to add that, “above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good” (D&C 122:7). “Life is an obstacle course,” Truman Madsen pointed out. “And sometimes it is a spook alley. But the before was a time for visioning the after. And some of our prayers are like the gambler’s, ‘Give me the money I made you promise not to give me if I asked for it.’ What does a true friend do in such a case? God will honor our first request, to let us go through it; and He will provide you with (let Him) the way to make it bearable. More, to make it productive.”2
At the funeral of President Gordon B. Hinckley, President Henry B. Eyring stated: “I heard [President Hinckley’s] voice so many times when a difficult problem facing the Church was brought to him. He would listen carefully, perhaps asking a question or two, to be sure he understood the magnitude of the difficulty facing us and that those who brought the problem to him knew he understood. Time after time, he would quietly say something like this, with a pleasant smile, ‘Oh, things will work out.’
“He was an optimist. Some of that came from his great personal capacities. Many problems he could work out himself. . . . That unfailing confidence in the power of God shaped what he was able to see in the progress of the Lord’s Church. No one was more aware of problems than he. And yet time and again he would say of the Church that we have never done better, and he would give you facts to prove it. Then he would say with conviction in his voice, ‘And the best is yet to come.’”3
Sister Neill F. Marriott, a member of the Young Women General Presidency, explained that many years ago “my husband, children, and I chose this family motto: ‘It will all work out.’ Yet how can we say those words to one another when deep troubles come and answers aren’t readily available?” Sister Marriott then drew upon a personally difficult situation, the unexpected death of her 21-year-old daughter, Georgia. “Following Georgia’s mortal death,” she said, “our feelings were raw, we struggled, and still today we have moments of great sorrow, but we hold to the understanding that no one ever really dies. Despite our anguish when Georgia’s physical body stopped functioning, we had faith that she went right on living as a spirit, and we believe we will live with her eternally if we adhere to our temple covenants.” Sister Marriott then added: “Our family motto doesn’t say, ‘It will all work out now.’ It speaks of our hope in the eternal outcome—not necessarily of present results.”4
Search Diligently
In a revelation given to Joseph Smith in March 1833, the Savior challenged us to “search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another” (D&C 90:24). I believe this remarkable bit of counsel is crucial to how we should pursue answers to hard questions, how to handle difficult doctrinal matters, and how to gain perspective on historical events.
We are counseled first to search diligently. We search for answers. We dig. We research with energy. To be diligent in our search is to be “constant in effort,” to “pursue with persevering attention,” to be “painstaking,” to be “tireless.”5 Clearly, to search diligently is not to be casual, laissez-faire, or haphazard. It is not to take a moment to glance here and peruse there, but instead is to undertake a steady, perhaps even systematic study. It is to read widely, as well as deeply. It is to become more conversant with what leaders of the Church or LDS scholars have written or spoken on touchy matters.
A few years ago while working at my desk in my BYU office, I received a phone call from a man in Salt Lake City. He introduced himself, spoke of the fact that he had been raised in the Church, had served a mission, been a bishop, and had presided, with his wife, over one of the missions of the Church. He explained that recently he had come across some writings about the history of the Church and then decided (before he had read them himself) that he would purchase copies for his family. The family had dived into the work and had not traveled very far into it when he and his children had begun to encounter what he described as “shocking” historical matters. He asked me, “Brother Millet, did you know that Joseph Smith practiced polygamy?” I replied: “Yes, I did know that.” He came right back: “How long have you known that?” I was then rather startled, paused for a few seconds, and said, “Oh, I don’t know exactly, but probably about fifty years.” “Well I didn’t know about it,” he said, “and it was a real shocker for me and my children. Some of the family have begun to question their testimony of the restored gospel. Tell me, Brother Millet, why hadn’t I encountered it before now?”
We spoke for a few minutes, I recommended some reading material for the family, and the conversation ended. I sat there stunned. I asked myself: How in this world could a person grow up in the heart of the Church, serve in responsible Church callings, and not know that Joseph Smith had indeed entered into plural marriage? How could a member of the Church read the Doctrine and Covenants and not know that? The correct and most direct answer to the brother’s question was really, “I don’t know why you have never heard of it before. In fact, I have trouble believing that you could travel this far in the Church and not know about it.”
There are so many things with which active, faithful, curious, reading members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should be well acquainted. Members ought to be aware of and well acquainted with the “Gospel Topics” essays on lds.org, in which faithful LDS scholars were asked to address some of the more controversial and sensitive issues facing the Church. These essays were vetted and scrupulously reviewed at the highest levels of Church administration. They contain a wealth of information, and perhaps more important than the facts, they provide a perspective, a context for understanding the topic. “Yet however grateful we are for the information provided in these essays,” Latter-day Saint scholar Patrick Mason pointed out, “we can’t expect the church to do all the work for us. Just as we are accountable to “work out [our] own salvation” (Philippians 2:12), we have to take personal responsibility for how we will approach, process, and ultimately handle challenging issues in church history and doctrine.”6
Mason stated that “we don’t belong to a church of experts.”7 He is of course correct. So what do members of the Church do, after they have read and studied the Gospel Topics essays, prayed for divine guidance, and still come away not quite satisfied, not yet prepared to let the matter go? Elder M. Russell Ballard encouraged religious educators to teach their students “about the challenges they face when relying upon the Internet to answer questions of eternal significance. Remind them that James did not say, ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him [ask of] Google!’
“Wise people do not rely on the Internet to diagnose and treat emotional, mental, and physical health challenges, especially life-threatening challenges. Instead, they seek out health experts, those trained and licensed by recognized medical and state boards. Even then, prudent people seek a second opinion.
“If that is the sensible course to take in finding answers for emotional, mental, and physical health issues, it is even more so when eternal life is at stake. When something has the potential to threaten our spiritual life, our most precious family relationships, and our membership in the kingdom, we should find thoughtful and faithful Church leaders to help us. And, if necessary, we should ask those with appropriate academic training, experience, and expertise for help.
“This is exactly what I do when I need an answer to my own questions that I cannot answer myself. I seek help from my Brethren in the Quorum of the Twelve and from others with expertise in fields of Church history and doctrine.”8
One other guiding principle is to consult the right kind of people. If one were eager to know more about Jesus, he or she might not be well served by confining their study to what Annas, Caiaphas, or Pontius Pilate had to say about the Savior. Peter, James, and John, along with folks like Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene, and the sisters Mary and Martha would be especially helpful in acquiring accurate inside information. If my topic was the apostle Paul, then to spend the bulk of the interview time with the Judaizers or with Nero Caesar would be foolhardy.
If I felt driven to gain a deeper and more personal look into Joseph Smith the man, how lopsided and skewed would be my investigation if the bulk of my information came from Alexander Campbell, E. D. Howe, John C. Bennett, or William Law. Yes, it is often helpful to know what the critics and opponents have to say, but wouldn’t those who knew the person intimately well be in a better position to comment and explain things? Similarly, if someone were genuinely seeking to find solutions to their doctrinal concerns or better explanations for sensitive historical moments, why would they want to immerse themselves in the writings or conversations of counter-cult groups, Ex-Mormons for Jesus, or persons who have left Mormonism but now cannot seem to leave it alone?
Pray Always
Sadly, when a person has fallen into serious sin or allowed himself or herself to be drowned in anti-Mormon propaganda or critiques by nonbelievers, too often the first thing that begins to slide is personal prayer. Odd, isn’t it? God the Eternal Father is the ultimate object of our worship (D&C 20:17–19), the God and Father of Jesus Christ and of each one of us (John 20:17), the one true Source, the one Avenue where we go to learn for certain if something is of the Lord or of Lucifer. He is the Father of lights (James 1:17), the One eager to grant wisdom to all who seek it faithfully (James 1:5–6). Further, as Elder Neal A. Maxwell observed, “Unlike us, God has no restrictive office hours.”9 Surely there could not be a more compelling reason or a more propitious time for an individual who is searching or struggling with faith issues to intensify their prayers and spend appreciable time “listening” during and following prayer.
President Thomas S. Monson spoke of a personnel officer “assigned to handle petty grievances [who] concluded an unusually hectic day by placing facetiously a little sign on his desk for those with unsolved problems to read. It read, ‘Have you tried prayer?’
“What that personnel director did not know when he placed such a sign upon his desk was that he was providing counsel and direction which would solve more problems, alleviate more suffering, prevent more transgression, and bring about greater peace and contentment in the human soul than could be obtained in any other way.”10
When we are earnestly seeking to find answers from on high to our questions on historical or doctrinal matters, we are requesting information, insight, perspective, context, enlightenment. When we are seeking to alleviate the discomfort in our hearts and reduce the confusion in our minds, we pray to know where to look; we pray to see the greater and grander picture, to be given, as it is appropriate, a God’s-eye view; we seek the Lord diligently to sense those to whom we should look for advice or direction. We pray for clarity, for composure, for comfort, for a calm spirit and a peaceful and satisfied mind. And this sacred endeavor isn’t just about feelings, although our feelings are vital in coming to know the truth and gaining a witness of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. The Restoration is rigorous enough to withstand careful scrutiny, and each of us has a right to receive a witness, an understanding that is as satisfying to the mind as it is soothing and settling to the heart. “Brethren and sisters, I know that you are a praying people,” President Hinckley declared. “That is a wonderful thing in this day and time when the practice of prayer has slipped from many lives. To call upon the Lord for wisdom beyond our own, for strength to do what we ought to do, for comfort and consolation, and for the expression of gratitude is a significant and wonderful thing.”11 On another occasion, President Hinckley said simply, “Believe in prayer and the power of prayer. Pray to the Lord with the expectation of answers.” Finally, “Be prayerful. You cannot make it alone. You cannot reach your potential alone.”12
Be Believing
A believing heart is a precious possession, a most worthwhile divine gift, especially in a day like our own. One who hears the servants of the Lord speak in general conference, for example, and who senses that what they are saying represents the mind and will of the Almighty is in a blessed condition, especially in a day of compounding unbelief. “Blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble,” Alma explained; “or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God . . . without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe” (Alma 32:16). Or as the Risen Lord said to Thomas, “because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen”—which, of course, would be the overwhelming majority of members of the Church of Jesus Christ—“and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
It was Nephi, son of Lehi, who, “having great desires to know of the mysteries of God”—those sacred verities that can only be known by the power of the Holy Spirit—“did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father” (1 Nephi 2:16; emphasis added). No doubt many of us read these words carefully and are a bit surprised, for we know Nephi as a man who already had a heart that was receptive and attentive to spiritual realities. But we are all growing, day by day. Now notice what follows in the Book of Mormon: “And I spake unto Sam, making known unto him the things which the Lord had manifested unto me by his Holy Spirit. And it came to pass that he believed in my words” (1 Nephi 2:17; emphasis added). Sam leaned on Nephi, sensed and felt assured by the Spirit that what his younger brother taught was true and from the Lord, and that crucial decision by Sam to believe impacted the remainder of the Nephite history.
Just before the conversion of Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah, Mormon wrote that “there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers. They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ.” Some two decades had passed, and the “rising generation”—the young people, the youth—chose not to believe what their parents had felt and understood from King Benjamin’s mighty sermon (Mosiah 2–4). Then followed this poignant insight from Mormon: “And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened” (Mosiah 26:1–3; emphasis added).
Men and women who don’t believe don’t understand. People who have allowed their hearts to become hardened, who revel and even delight in cynicism, such people will forevermore fall short of what they might know and grasp, unless they repent. People who allow their questions to morph into doubts, and who delight in, and maybe even celebrate and parade those doubts, will never understand doctrines and principles that are beautifully plain to “the weak and the simple” (D&C 1:19, 23; 35:13). Those who have unanswered questions, who allow themselves to simmer in skepticism, and who eventually become hardened in their ignorance, are generally those who either chose to keep their questions to themselves, refused to admit their need for knowledge, and faced their fears alone, or instead turned in the wrong direction for help. In short, there are some people who, because of their refusal to believe, will never comprehend the truths of greatest worth. On the other hand, a boy or girl, a woman or man who has a believing heart—note, we are not speaking here of a gullible heart—will see and feel and grasp sacred matters that others whose minds are closed and whose hearts are hardened will never know. How glorious is the promise of the Lord: “And whosoever shall believe in my name, doubting nothing, unto him [or her] will I confirm all my words, even unto the ends of the earth” (Mormon 9:25; emphasis added).
Conclusion
Trials come. Challenges confront us regularly. And questions, tough questions arise in the lives of those who read and study and do serious thinking. Repeating the scripture with which we began this conversation: “Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good” (D&C 90:24). “This doesn’t mean all things are good,” Sister Marriott clarified, “but for the meek and faithful, things—both positive and negative—work together for good, and the timing is the Lord’s. We wait on Him, sometimes like Job in his suffering. . . . A meek heart accepts the trial and the waiting for that time of healing and wholeness to come.”13
It isn’t that we can cause all things to work together for our good, although we certainly need to be open to the Lord’s purposes unfolding in our individual universes. Rather, it is our Heavenly Father, Who, knowing all things and having all power, can coordinate the comings and goings of his children, can so orchestrate events and people and circumstances as to achieve the greatest possible good and the deepest happiness. Knowing that God is in charge is both liberating and calming!
Notes
1. Madsen, Four Essays on Love, 82–83.
2. Madsen, Four Essays on Love, 76.
3. Eyring, “Things Will Work Out,” address delivered at the funeral of President Gordon B. Hinckley, 2 Feb. 2008, in Ensign supplement, Mar. 2008, 26, 28; emphasis added.
4. Marriott, “Yielding Our Hearts to God,” Ensign, Nov. 2015, 31.
5. Random House College Dictionary, s.v. “diligent.”
6. Mason, Planted, 80.
7. Mason, Planted, 80.
8. Ballard, “Opportunities and Responsibilities of CES Teachers.”
9. Maxwell, “Repentance,” Ensign, Nov. 1991, 31.
10. Teachings of Thomas S. Monson, 225; emphasis added.
11. Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 468.
12. Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 469–70.
13. Marriott, “Yielding Our Hearts to God,” Ensign, Nov. 2015, 32.