By Sean E. Brotherson, with Jack D. Brotherson

Job was a man like few other men who have lived upon the face of the earth.  He was a noble man.  He was a rich man.  He was a respected man.  And he was a righteous man.  The scriptures refer to him as a man who was "perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil" (Job 1:1).

The prosperity and power that Job enjoyed in mortal life did not endure.  He lost the social position that gave him power among his peers and associates.  His wealth vanished away into the dust.  His esteem among others diminished and he was scorned and persecuted.  At one point he laments that "the days of affliction have taken hold upon me" and "my welfare passeth away as a cloud" (Job 30:16, 15). 

Beset by suffering and heartache, Job strives to maintain his faith in God and to honor Him even in the midst of his trials.  His difficulties were so severe that even the Prophet Joseph Smith, in calling upon God for relief from the many afflictions thrust upon him and the Saints, is told by the Lord that "thou art not yet as Job" (Doctrine and Covenants 121:10).

What are we to learn from Job and his trials?  He does not teach us how to avoid suffering, for indeed, suffering is a part of the mortal experience.  He does not provide answers as to why suffering must exist.  He teaches us, instead, about how to live in the midst of suffering and pain.  His answer to suffering is the quality of his life.  Our response to suffering often reflects our discipleship.

The Heartache of C.S. Lewis

Some years ago we viewed the movie Shadowlands, a film about the noted British author C.S. Lewis, of whom we are real fans because of the things that he has written and how he has written them.  The movie itself is about the love story of his life, centered in and around his romance with an American woman named Joy, the lady who eventually became his wife.  C.S. Lewis had been a bachelor, a successful professor at Oxford University, a man with friends and a full life.  Then came Joy.

Prior to meeting Joy, C.S. Lewis had a very tidy life in many ways.  His life was very well-manicured, in a sense, not unlike the countryside that he grew up in.  In the film, a very interesting juxtaposition is presented between his cleanly, manicured life and the countryside of Great Britain which is also so beautiful and well-kept.  Scenes would flash to him and some of the events occurring in his life, then to the English countryside and careful manner in which they have taken care of their landscape.  C.S. Lewis' life thus seems insulated, as it were, from life itself and its major buffetings or problems.  He seemed to withhold himself from that.  He wanted to teach and write about the condition of man, but didn't seem to really wish to be involved or immersed in life himself.

Then along came Joy.  As she came into his life they first became acquaintances, and then began to become friends.  Although she returned to America, she later came back to England and desired to stay there.  In order to stay in England and not depart she needed to marry, and so she simply asked C.S. Lewis outright if he would marry her so that she would not have to leave the country.  He was willing to do so.  It was nothing more than a marriage of convenience so that she might have his name and remain in London, and he did not move in with her at first but carried on his own activities and lifestyle.

As C.S. Lewis associated with Joy he came to know her and then to love her.  He looked forward to a meaningful life with her.  And then they learned that she had cancer.  It came as a thief to steal her life and the life they were learning to share.  The disease slowly began to consume her, but not before they were able to enjoy some time together before she passed away.  This drew C.S. Lewis out of that cocoon and the shell of his manicured life into the real world of pain, sorrow and trial.

During that marriage to Joy, C.S. Lewis and his wife were actually married twice.  The first time they were simply married by a judge so that she could stay in England.  But later, falling in love, he wanted to solemnify his commitment to her before God, angels and the Church.  She was then in the hospital with cancer and they were married once again in a quiet hospital room.  Their love had grown deep and their care for each other profound, but the marriage vows now stated:  "Until death do you part."  He had found the love of his life.  And then her life ended.

In the final scene of Shadowlands, C.S. Lewis is sitting in the attic together with the little boy of his wife, Joy.  The little boy looks up and says to C.S. Lewis, "Do you believe in heaven?"  He answers, "By all means, I do."  And yet there is the echo of the marriage vows taken in the quiet hospital room, "until death do you part," and the aching question of whether he and Joy will ever see each other again or be a part of each other's lives in the eternities.

The aching questions that beset the aching heart of C.S. Lewis upon being parted from his dear wife, Joy, led him eventually to author a book called A Grief Observed.  In it, he talks of his loss, his feelings and his frustration, and his wonder at hoping he might be with her again.  He suffered at that loss.  He suffered at the thought that she had been ripped from his arms and his life.  He suffered at the cruel and lonely parting.  And yet, he writes eloquently and personally of such tragedy and the role of Christ in helping us as individuals in facing such trials.  Again, we observe suffering in the life of a man with great Christian conviction and deep faith.  And how does Christ answer us in the midst of such sufferings?

"Master, Carest Thou Not?"

Too often in our lives we also experience major challenges or difficulties, which are traumatic for us.  The path through life becomes hard and hard times result.  We sometimes flounder because we don't know the future or feel that we don't understand why we are suffering.  We can become confused and lose our direction.  We may find difficulty in believing because of these traumatic experiences that come our way.  We tend to feel isolated and alone.  We feel that no one else knows or understands.  We don't really know where to turn. 

In those difficult moments, there are many of us who want to cry out.  All of us will. It is likely that there will not be any of us who will escape this life without encountering pain and suffering of major proportions.

Life is not easy.  What, then, do we do?  Where do we turn?  Let us turn to the scriptures and an incident in the life of the Savior.

In the New Testament, an account is related in the Gospel of Mark about a time when Christ has been teaching "a great multitude" on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee.  After his preaching on this occasion, the Savior desired to get into the boat and go across the Sea of Galilee to the other side of the lake.  He entered into the ship with his disciples, with several others following along, and the account in Mark 4:35-40 reads:

And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship.  And there were also with him other little ships.

And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. (v. 35-37)

As we ride upon the waves of mortal life, for us there are times the winds arise and we must face the storms.  Consider the example of C.S. Lewis and his quiet, pleasant existence without many severe pressures, and his experience of falling in love with Joy and finding suddenly that this person whom he loves so much is dying.  Think of their parting, and his knowledge that the vows of marriage extended only "until death do you part." 

The waves come up and the storm becomes heavy.  Do you ever feel that maybe the storm is becoming too heavy and the waves are beating ceaselessly upon you?  What then happens? 

The account continues in Mark 4:38:

And [Christ] was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

We have thought quite a bit about this particular scripture.  It has become important to us for a lot of reasons because of some experiences we have encountered in life.  My father, Jack, has written the following brief account of losing his oldest child, Mark, and this feeling:

On the occasion of the death of our eldest son, when I came upon the scene of the accident that took his life, it was a time of great difficulty.  I can remember standing there at midnight.  They put my wife in an ambulance and she was ready to go one direction, and my daughter, who was in a helicopter, had gone another direction.  My son who had been in the accident had another helicopter there waiting to transport him, because the report had been unsure of his condition and so they had sent life support for him.  I think the hardest moment of my life came when they turned that helicopter off, while the other lifted away with my daughter to Salt Lake City.

That was a time when I understood more fully than ever before that "there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, and it was full" (v. 37).  I can remember standing on the edge of that road and nearly screaming into the wind a cry not unlike that also, "Master, carest thou not that [I] perish?"  It was a hard time; a time I shall not soon forget.  I was hurt and did not know where to turn.  I felt isolated and alone.  I felt lost. 

Have you ever had a time in your life when you felt like you needed to cry out to your Heavenly Father that He didn't hear and didn't know?  Many of us have experienced such feelings.  Yet we need not be without hope.  The account in Mark then recounts:

And [Christ] arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still.  And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? (v. 39-40)

It is a remarkable passage.  In answer to the plea that came to him, Christ stood forth and calmed the storm.  He has the power to do so.  There is power in the gospel and comfort through the Holy Ghost that can bring about such calm in our lives when the storms of life rage about us.

When Life's Storms Arise

In the moving account of Elder John H. Groberg's mission to the island kingdom of Tonga, a precious insight is given regarding the challenges that come to us in mortality.  Traveling between the islands of Tonga by boat, it was not uncommon for Elder Groberg to encounter tropical storms that would delay the journey or move them off course.  The storms of life may affect us in a similar manner.  On one occasion he and his traveling companions were caught at sea in a howling storm that overturned their boat and left them swimming alone in deep waters.  He cried to the Lord for safety and assistance.  Elder Groberg later wrote that in the midst of struggling against the storm, he came to know that "sometimes the Lord calms the storm, and sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms His child" (In the Eye of the Storm, 1994, p. 5).

When life's storms arise and we cry out for God's steadying touch upon our fears and anxieties, at times He may stand forth and command that the storm be stilled.  Yet it is equally as critical to understand that in many cases our plea is that God will calm us, and thus allow us strength to face the storm.  We need to recognize that the Lord's answer is not always the calming of the storm, but rather sometimes is the calming of the soul, or the person, while the storm continues to rage. 

We may be as Job.  The storms about him were not stilled.  Yet as we seek the companionship of the Holy Ghost and to live righteously, there may come to us the comforting influence of Christ's outstretched hand to calm the storm within our souls.

It requires faith to face life's difficulties, but it is not faith alone that can aid us in overcoming such tests.  Elder Dallin H. Oaks has taught, "The first principle of the gospel is not faith.  It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" (Ensign, May 1994).  It isn't just faith; it is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Only by coming unto Christ, then, can we find calm in the midst of life's storms.

Seeking Comfort in the Midst of Pain

Several years ago my father, Jack, traveled on business to the Hawaiian Islands and spent two weeks there before returning home.  During that time he had rested from the cares of the world and some of the burdens associated with church service.  After arriving home, within a few days he had six of the most difficult cases of human suffering that he had ever encountered in his life come into his office.  At the end of the third day of reviewing such cases, he went to bed and then woke up later in the early morning hours.  He felt very sick and hurt like he'd never hurt before. 

I remember visiting with him by phone as he struggled with the burden of worrying about these individuals.  I asked how he was doing and he answered that his heart was sick, meaning that he felt sick, but was actually heartsick.  He commented then that he did not understand all that he was experiencing, but yet he knew that there was something in the process that the Lord intended him to learn. 

The Lord uses many opportunities to teach us.  In this circumstance it was the pain of others that came to him and he was responsible for trying to help them.  They were seeking comfort in the midst of pain.  Each of us, whether serving in our community or caring about family members and friends, will find ourselves faced with circumstances of suffering and pain.  We will encounter those seeking a shelter from the storms of life.  Individuals may encounter major health challenges, crippling debts, or marital strife. 

How do we take courage in such situations when we of our own abilities seem unable to help others?  There is a message in the beckoning call of the Savior that teaches us about faith in Jesus Christ.  It is perhaps something that each of us must come to understand and remember.

Faith is Launched Only from a Position of Hope

There may be times when each of us will cry out individually, "Master, carest thou not that I perish?"  Or as we seek to protect our families, we may cry, "Carest thou not that we perish?"  That will be a true, honest and meaningful expression of the heart.  And yet there is one thing we must remember in the midst of life's storms.

We must remember that Christ is not asleep.  Our cry is one of limited vision, and the Lord is not asleep.  That is why Elder Dallin H. Oaks has declared to us that faith is not the first principle of the gospel, but rather, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the first principle of the gospel.

The understanding that is important for us to know as we seek to comfort others in the midst of pain, those who are experiencing serious problems and the depths of suffering, is that as long as their lives are in despair it is difficult to truly do much to help them.  Unless there is hope in something, specifically hope in Jesus Christ, you cannot launch faith.  You only launch faith from a position of hope.  Faith is not launched from a position of despair.

The prophet Moroni asks in the Book of Mormon, "How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?" (Moroni 7:40).  In the midst of suffering and pain, what source of hope can we look to for eventual relief and comfort?  Only Christ.  Moroni promises that "ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal" (Moroni 7:41). 

To feel such hope in the power of Christ's atonement to lift and sustain us requires our hearts to be touched and lifted from despair.  It is the divine mission of the Holy Spirit to witness of Christ's eternal gift of hope to the hearts of men and women.  Moroni goes on to teach that it is "the visitation of the Holy Ghost" that touches our hearts, "which Comforter filleth with hope" (Moroni 8:26) and thereby makes it possible for us to renew our faith when it is dimmed by doubts or fears or pain.

The cases of human suffering that we encounter may be traumatic and difficult, yet if we prepare ourselves we can receive the companionship of the Holy Ghost in those encounters.  We must pray specifically that as we come together to talk through the problems, the hurt and anguish, and the difficult circumstances of each difficult situation, that we ourselves and each person we encounter might feel the touching of the Holy Ghost.  For a person to launch faith they must first experience hope.  It is that touching of the Spirit, or that communication and experience with the Holy Ghost, which will begin to inspire hope in the heart of a person suffering from trauma or pain.

Suffering and Sanctification

Mortality is a great teacher.  Being in this life we are buffeted by diverse trials and circumstances.  Again and again we come across challenges to our well-being, our testimonies, our feelings and our faith.  We seek the Lord out for support.  That is why we go through mortality - it is a place where we learn.  It is intended most of all to be a place where we learn to come unto Christ.

It has been well stated that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not an insurance policy against pain and suffering.  Indeed, it may be said that at times suffering is a central course in the curriculum of coming unto Christ.  Rachel Naomi Remen, a psychiatrist who has worked extensively with cancer patients and the chronically ill, has written:

Suffering is all around us.  We may have friends and family who have lost a breast to cancer, or who have AIDS or Alzheimer's; and no matter how young we are, we may have friends and family who die... We avoid suffering only at the great cost of distancing ourselves from life.  In order to live fully we may need to look deeply and respectfully at our own suffering and at the suffering of others.  In the depths of every wound we have survived is the strength we need to live.  The wisdom our wounds can offer us is a place of refuge.  Finding this is not for the faint of heart.  But then, neither is life. (My Grandfather's Blessings, 2000, p. 138)

There is a pattern in coming unto Christ and coming to know him as our personal Savior that reveals to us how we may learn to live in the face of life's trials and traumas.

Of all the learning that we do in mortality, there is none more important than coming to know Christ.  If we do not know Christ, then we will never know the Father.  Jesus Christ has said that we come unto the Father only through him.  There is within the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ an enormous amount of power to grant to each of us the kind of blessings which will eventually bring us back into the presence of the Father.

It helps us to remember that during the time Christ himself was here on the earth that He at times had to ask for help from his Father.  During the time of His awful anguish in Gethsemane, Luke records that "his sweat was as it were great drops of blood" and that "being in an agony he prayed more earnestly" to his Father for strength to face the storms of suffering that encompassed Him (see Luke 22:44). 

In modern-day revelation the Lord acknowledges that He received "grace for grace" from his Father, or gifts of divine power and strength, until he "received a fullness of the glory of the Father" (Doctrine and Covenants 93:12, 16).  In turn, He says that as He received "grace for grace" from his Father, so each of us "shall receive grace for grace" through Him so that we might "come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fullness" (Doctrine and Covenants 93:19, 20).  He makes a divine connection that brings us back to the Father.  His atoning sacrifice is thus a mediating atonement. 

It is our faith expressed in Jesus Christ, our Mediator, that allows for the storms of life to be calmed.  As He sought his Father in suffering, so might we seek Him also as our comfort, strength and guide in the midst of suffering.

As we walk the gospel path and follow Christ's way, we can be clothed with gifts of spiritual strength and we can know the comfort of Christ through the Holy Ghost.  In the blessings that flow from receiving the Holy Ghost as a constant companion, the Holy Ghost will take from the things of the Spirit and reveal them to us, as it were, in the flesh, in our times of need.  As we seek Christ in our sufferings, we find the opportunity to receive at times the gift of grace, or divine assistance, that enables us to respond to suffering with continuing discipleship. 

The Calming of the Storm

As a young father I entered the hospital for the birth of my first daughter with great anticipation.  It was a time of expectation and joy.  But during the hours before my daughter's birth it became clear that all was not well, and immediately upon being born she was whisked away to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit.  Within hours the doctors had told us that her life was at risk and it was questionable whether she would survive.  I stood there in the hospital, only twenty-four years old, and felt almost helpless.

After much time at the hospital, I returned home and spent many hours in prayer to my Heavenly Father.  I came to know during those hours that he loved my newborn daughter as much as he loved me.  I came to know that He had a blessing for her to receive if I would exercise faith in Him.  The storm raged within my soul, but the peace of the Spirit brought calm and I was able to gather with my father and father-in-law at her bedside.  Under the hands of a priesthood blessing, God blessed her and brought her forth from the shadows of death.  I cannot look at her today without remembering that moment.             

In this experience I came to know and understand more fully that God blesses our lives.  I came to know and understand that the power is in the Master whom we call upon to calm the storms of life.  In instances of importance, whether it be disease or other afflictions, if we ask for the blessings of the Spirit we will often see the burden lifted and the raging storm quieted, so that we may get on with our lives in a more healthy manner.

The Calming of the Soul

Christ has the power to calm the storms in our lives.  Yet mortality is not meant to be free of pain or confusion or difficulty.  It is intended, instead, as "a probationary state," a "time to prepare to meet God" (Alma 12:24).  The gospel does not insure that you will live your life in the dream world of "Happily Ever After" with no pain or suffering involved.  It is not so.

As I have noted, late one evening some years ago my family and I were traveling home across a valley in central Utah from a day spent at the family ranch in the Uintah Basin.  We had enjoyed a most glorious day with my whole family at a reunion.  My father and I were following my mother and came around a bend in the road and looked ahead, and there saw a light flashing.  We knew that something had gone seriously wrong.

We arrived on the scene of that accident and there were members of our sweet family spread across the road.  The car had rolled about four or five times and bounced and now rested upside down.  My mother was still inside the car hanging from her seatbelt.  Two of my siblings lay eighty feet from the car where they had been thrown.  The law officer who had been coming toward them just as the accident happened was there working to revive my older brother.  My father and I sensed at that point in time that his life on this earth was over, although we didn't want to say it or believe it.

My father, Jack, in writing of this experience, shared the following with me:

I remember sensing as the people came and everyone helped, and a lot of things were happening, that the storm began to become very fierce.  I just didn't know what to do.  I felt lost and alone.  It was late at night.  The ambulance came.  The helicopters came, one each for my son and my daughter.  There was still a great hope in my heart that I had made a mistake about my son.  There was a moment in time when I stood out there on the edge of that road and was so alone.  I was in the depths of crying out, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?"  It was a genuine and piercing cry of hurt and need.  Two helicopters arrived.  One took off and the other one shut down.  Then I knew that my worst nightmare had come true.

But I had asked and had cried unto my eternal Father.  In those next hours an inordinate burden came upon me:  my wife in the hospital in a small Utah town; my injured daughter in Salt Lake City; my oldest son in a mortuary, I knew not where; my youngest children at the family ranch in eastern Utah; my second son left standing alone at the scene of the accident.  The turmoil of the storm raged within my soul.  And yet, I began a process of feeling some comfort from that cry and my prayer, and the continual prayer which I had in my heart.  Over the next several hours there began to be a calmness come to me - yet the storm kept raging.

The following day was Sunday and I had a visit from one of my dear friends.  He was my home teacher.  As he came into our home he had a message for me and my wife.  If ever the power of prayer was answered it was then, for he came to us and said, "I have for you a gift from our Father in Heaven."  He was a temple worker.  He had gone to the temple in my behalf and on behalf of my family.  With his message came an understanding that brought a great calm.  It was my heart and my soul that was calmed, and yet the storm still raged.

At times the storm still rages.  There is never a time that I travel to the ranch that I don't have deep emotional feelings as I pass the spot in the road where that boy's life was taken.  Every time I read a good book and I'd like to share it I think about him.  It is hard to walk up that fence line at the ranch and have no son to be there with me.  It still hurts.  But I am comfortable and calm in the assurance of one thing:  the power of covenants sealed by the power within Christ.  It is the power to know that death will not part us.

There is power within the covenants we make to honor and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is a power that changes our lives and changes our vision.  It is a power that gives us the strength and the calmness of soul to go forth in the midst of life's storms.

The Pearl of Discipleship

We often find ourselves in the midst of life's storms.  Pain, heartache, disappointment, suffering, despair - these are not uncommon companions.  Yet we are not left alone.  The Master is not asleep.

Among the most valuable creations to be found in the world is the pearl that comes from the soft inside of an oyster.  Pearls are often rare and highly prized.  Rachel Naomi Remen has observed:

An oyster is soft, tender, and vulnerable.  Without the sanctuary of its shell it could not survive.  But oysters must open their shells in order to "breathe" water.  Sometimes while an oyster is breathing, a grain of sand will enter its shell and become a part of its life from then on.

Such grains of sand cause pain, but an oyster does not alter its soft nature because of this.  It does not become hard and leathery in order not to feel.  It continues to entrust itself to the ocean, to open and breathe in order to live.  But it does respond.  Slowly and patiently, the oyster wraps the grain of sand in thin translucent layers until, over time, it has created something of great value in the place where it was most vulnerable to its pain.  A pearl might be thought of as an oyster's response to its suffering.  Not every oyster can do this.  Oysters that do are far more valuable to people than oysters that do not. (My Grandfather's Blessings, 2000, p. 139-40)

In life, Christ offers us the opportunity to transform experiences of pain into pearls of discipleship as we seek comfort and guidance in a relationship with Him.  In the scriptures, Job reminds us of someone who faced suffering with such discipleship.

Finding himself in the midst of life's storms, Job expressed a hope that he might "be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity" (Job 31:6).  He was challenged and lost his wealth, his status, his power.  Yet Job did not lose that which gave him the riches of eternity and the esteem of heaven - his integrity and uprightness before God.  He recounted, "I put on righteousness, and it clothed me" (Job 29:14).  Job's answer to the question of suffering was his life and his commitment to discipleship to Jesus Christ.

There are many insights offered to us by the wisdom of Job's narrative in the Bible, but among the most interesting is the concept of putting on righteousness and the resultant clothing of our souls.  In the gospel of Christ, to be clothed is to be blessed by covenants.  It is to be blessed by understanding in the face of despair.  It is to be blessed by conviction despite a chorus of doubts.  It is to be given the companionship of the Holy Ghost to minister to us in our afflictions, and its potent power to lift us, help us, and sustain us when we are discouraged and life has become difficult. 

To be clothed in righteousness is to be clothed in the covenants that we have made to follow Jesus Christ.  A covenant with Christ is a pearl.  Covenants with Christ represent power in our lives.  It is the power of Christ's grace which can lift and elevate and bring a person fully unto Christ, and therefore unto God the Father.

Conclusion

Faith alone is not the first principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is, rather, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and all that entails and means to us. 

The Lord does have the capacity to calm the storms in our lives.  These are the cases of people who are healed of infirmity through the power of the priesthood or led to new opportunities by the prompting of the Spirit.  There are many such occasions and the storms are often calmed.

In other cases, the Lord does not calm the storm.  Rather, in those cases the Lord fortifies the person so that he or she might get through the storm, and then He lets the storm rage.  Those are two alternatives to the resolution of the storms in our lives.  Both of them take a great deal of the expression of faith.

It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and seeking to come unto Him and to know Him, that enables us to learn and understand that Christ's atoning sacrifice will provide for all facets and possibilities of our hurt or pain.  The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ is all-encompassing relative to the pain or suffering of any individual or human being.  It is simply a matter of learning to love Him and turning in His direction and moving towards Him.

            The storms of life will come.  When you stand at the center of the storm, let your cry be one of faith in Him who is the Master of earth and sky.  Christ is the center of the universe.  He must also be the center of our faith and our spiritual orientation.  As we seek Him in the midst of life's storms, either the storms will be calmed or we will be fortified while the storms rage and we pass through them.  Then we might see with the eye of faith and know that on a clear day we can see forever.