Let Your Light So Shine
I have been pondering a question for a while. How does suffering enhance our human experience? How does God transform a tragedy into a miracle on our own behalf? If death, sin, mistakes and loss cause us pain, how come we are required to pass through earthly tribulation in order to become refined, as he would have us be?
Talking to friends, acquaintances, members of my faith community, and family, I do not know a single person who has yet to pass through hard times; the loss of a spouse, or a father; separation or divorce; financial hardship; mental instability; disease and disorders caused by heredity, or personal choice; the death of a child, or a baby; addition to drugs, pornography, or other reckless activities. The list could go on and on. And yet, we are promised that the trials we suffer can help us come closer to God.
One Man’s Journey Into the Jaws of Hell
After enduring a horrible season captive in the Liberty Jail Joseph Smith pleaded to the Lord for deliverance, for comfort, for solace. In his darkest moments of mortality, save it be the loss of his life, the great creator, even Jesus Christ did not stay the burdens of the fallen world, but offered some of the most poetic descriptions for the purpose and rhythm of tribulation.
D&C 122:5-7
“If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea; If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb; And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and 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.”
Quite honestly, breathing through this scripture, and really reading it, I imagine it as a rolling advertising for an upcoming Hollywood block buster, can you even fathom the ferocity and tribulation that the Prophet Joseph was required to go through? But no more than the Lord himself, who descended below all things was asked to endure.
Providing some clarity Elder Orson F. Whitney said, “There is the reason. It is for our development, our purification, our growth, our education and advancement, that we buffet the fierce waves of sorrow and misfortune; and we shall be all the stronger and better when we have swum the flood and stand upon the farther shore.” (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, pp. 5–6.)
Color Variety Provides Bright White Light
During sacrament meeting a few weeks ago, I sat pondering this question, “How in the world can God transform suffering into something that is good for me?”
An illuminating thought entered my mind.
When we mix pigments of paint together, the result is a transformational darkness. You cannot create light by sharing physical matter, only a darker color of paint, made new. For example, if you mix blue into yellow, the result is green paint. If you mix every color of paint together, the result is black paint. There is a startling difference between mixing paint and mixing light. The opposite is true, the more colors of light you mix the whiter an object will become, or appear (depending on if it is the light source, or if it is being shined upon.)
The only way for our eye to see white light is to combine the three primary colors, red, blue and green. From the website exploratorium.edu, I found a great explanation of this concept, demonstrating how putting light onto an object, or a backdrop will create a white light, such as on stage.
” The retina of the human eye has three receptors for colored light: One type of receptor is most sensitive to red light, one to green light, and one to blue light. With these three color receptors we are able to perceive more than a million different shades of color.
When a red light, a blue light, and a green light are all shining on the screen, the screen looks white because these three colored lights stimulate all three color receptors on your retinas approximately equally, giving us the sensation of white. “
Here is another great description from Sciencelearn.org about an actual light source, and how an object creates white light, and how our eyes perceive the color of an object.
“Visible light is the small part within the electromagnetic spectrum that human eyes are sensitive to and can detect. Visible light waves consist of different wavelengths. White light is actually made of all of the colors of the rainbow because it contains all wavelengths. Light from a torch or the Sun is a good example of this.
Color of an Object – Objects appear different colors because they absorb some colors (wavelengths) and reflected or transmit other colors. The colors we see are the wavelengths that are reflected or transmitted.
White objects appear white because they reflect all colors. Black objects absorb all colors so no light is reflected.“
So what does all this suffering have to do with suffering?
What if I labeled each of my human experiences a specific color. The primary colors of light are red, blue and green, when combined can create millions of different shades. There are so many human experiences it is difficult to label the top three that can be multiplied into millions of feelings, but for delving into a spiritual concept I am labeling the three; sacrifice, service, and sanctification; when combined in different fashions we can experience and feel a wide variety of emotions; anger, frustration, joy, happiness, success, failure, fear, trepidation, worry, guilt, shame, pride, confidence, surety, connection, loss. It is through reception that we can perceive the experience of sacrifice, service and sanctification. And it is through the reception of others that they can see the light of sacrifice, service and sanctification in us.
The Red Light of Sacrifice
I have felt physical pain as if my body were being ripped into two when I delivered my fourth child without any modern day medication. The pain was acute and swift. It also left as quickly as it came. The sacrifice of child bearing has provided me with an eternal and significant gift of motherhood, of raising a sweet boy unto God, of night time wakings, ongoing feedings, laundry, and nursery rhymes. (I am sure you could substitute my experience of child birth equating to sacrifice to any number of difficult circumstances that you have faced.) The emotion and experience of sacrifice provides a light of intensity, of selflessness, of focus and determination. For some the light of sacrifice comes in the courageous feet of burying a child, or accepting the loss of the dream of motherhood. For others the gift of sacrifice is time away from family to serve in a demanding church calling. (Thank you to the many men who serve as Bishop, and the wives who support them.) Sacrifice could be the gift of tithing, and a generous fast offering. The gift of sacrifice could be a husband’s sacrifice to lovingly encourage his wife some much deserved self-care time with her girl friends to recharge.
The Green Light of Service
I have a friend who knows in the deepest part of her being the value and purpose of service. She is renowned in our neighborhood for stopping in to those in need and providing heart felt service. There are countless occasions where she has acted in love to help those in her midst, gardening in a neighbors yard before a big family party, cleaning after someone has surgery, helping a very pregnant mom run errands and clean house (that was me!) The amazing thing about service is that it provides growth in love, compassion, and appreciation. Just today when we were talking she shared, “Every morning I would get down on my knees and ask the Lord who needed my help today. Most days, the circumstances would just present themselves, in the smallest way, where I could help someone in need.”
Another friend in my church is currently in medical school, raising an infant on her own while her husband is in flight training with the military in a different state. During church on Sunday she commented something like this, “It is times like this, when I need help, is the time when I truly appreciate the tender mercies of a loving Heavenly Father, and the service from those around me. Its not that I didn’t appreciate it before, but I didn’t rely so much on Heavenly Father day to day like I do now.”
The gift of service isn’t just by giving, it is also of receiving. There are many women in my community who feel ashamed to receive help, I myself have been counted among them, thinking that I cannot burden others, or should be able to do all that is required of me, by myself. But the truth is, giving and receiving service can only happen together. They are opposing requirements that provide mutual sanctification, when offered and accepted in humility.
The Blue Light of Sanctification
In Sunday School our instructor taught a quick version of the process to refine gold, from ore to the gold that makes up gold bars and such. There is a process when the gold needs to be sanctified, or purified. All of the impurities are eliminated by heat, and rise to the surface, while the pure gold sinks to the bottom of the container, awaiting the next step. Sanctification is an intense process. How could the fiery furnace, extracting out the impurities not be intense? In his loving mercy, sanctification begins at the onslaught of challenges, those that test our faith. The heat, as it were might be the feeling of loss, abandonment and grief. It comes come at the onslaught of financial hardship with the faith to trust in God, always, and ever. But, the choice to let go of our impurities is ours alone. Do I choose humility in the face of heartache? Do I let go and let God? Do I trust in His arm, rather than the arm of flesh? In doing so, my ungodliness is let go, and my true worth is made pure.
Julie Hanks, author of “The Burnout Cure,” so eloquently describe the difference between many women’s modern day understanding of being Christlike, meaning always happy and charitable, to Christ’s actual demeanor and full range of emotions, including; anger, compassion, empathy, sorrow and joy. If he was perfect, and walked through the sanctification process to the full extent of its meaning on our behalf, don’t you think that we have the same opportunity to walk the path of sanctification, with our God gifted emotions in tact? Emotions are indicators, not directors. We can choose how we deal with the range of emotions that we experience through the process of sanctification.
It is through the experience of all challenges and joys that Christ is able to reflect all light, in the brightest light imaginable. As I continue on my journey, each experience, including happiness and turmoil creates a new color and depth to my soul. In this way suffering brings the brightest of light to my soul.
When our sanctification is complete, we will be pure, providing a vessel to see the image of Christ in our countenance.
We Shine White Because of Sacrifice, Service, and Sanctification
Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He also asks us to, “Let our light so shine,” to magnify Him in us. To this end was I born, to shine because of Him.
