You are Never Alone

 

I have been asked to speak this Easter Sunday at our small branch with our Highs Counselman.  Weeks ago I ran across a conference address  given in April of 2009 by Elder Jeffery R Holland entitled:  "None Were With Him."  When I was asked to speak I knew I was going to use Elder Hollands Conference address as a reference.  This years conference he again gave a talk that totally touched me to the core of my soul and left tears in my eyes as I heard his anguished plea.

I have been listening to his address each and every day this past week along with a few others that touched my soul deeply.  His words so tie in with the words he gave in 2009.

I have recently joined a group "Letter Against Depression."  It is a place where you write letters and send encouraging notes and cards to strangers who are battling with depression.  As I have read their stories I am saddened by how many are in the dark room of depression that Elder Holland talked about this conference.  I have an artist friend who creates the most beautiful cards and I have asked her to create for me bright optimistic birthday cards and thinking of you cards which I in return send as "hugs" through this non profit who in return send them to those who most need a ray of sunshine in their day.  I have wrote a few letters to those who spoke to my soul encouraging them and letting them know they are not alone and that they are loved more than they know.  As I was reflecting on my talk these hopeless friends were first and foremost in my mind.  

In my talk I share an insight I had many years ago as my husband and I were sight seeing in Alaska.  We ran into a couple who were travelling and we hit it off, so we journeyed together for a day.  As we were parting I was heartbroken when this sweet sweet wife took my hand and said, "You can be in a roomful of people and still be alone."  My heart still aches as I think about her and wonder if she is still in that crowd and feeling alone.

Elder Holland made this comment in his 2009 address, "...to all such I speak of the loneliest journey ever made and the unending blessings it brought to all in the human family.  I speak of our Savior's solitary task of shouldering alone the burden of our salvation.  Rightly He would say, 'I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me...I looked and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold me."

I have been in that dark place where there no was "none with me, none to help and none to uphold me."  During that time I had no relationship with my Heavenly Father and I was looking for "the arm of man to support me."   I found myself in the darkest pit with no way out.  I remember looking out my apt window and wanting to just put an end to it all but in that dark moment the Spirit whispered, 'Hold on, help will come soon."  I managed to find my way out of that dark pit but still had no relationship with my Heavenly Father when I was hit with the loss of out babies and then my brother ending his life.  Once again, there were none there to support, comfort of uphold me.  I went right over the edge.  But again the tender mercies of the Lord put me on a path who introduced to me a trusted friend and mentor who was there to uphold, support and most of all each and every one of my broken pieces.  He then in return re introduced me to my Heavenly Father and reminded me of His great love for me.  It took me years to place myself on what President Nelson calls the "Covenant path."  But my feet are firmly planted on that path and I learned that during all those dark moments when people let me down and were not there to support me I had never been truly alone because my Savior had been there by my side loving me and encouraging me to keep going.  All because He is truly walked the loneliest path.  

Elder Holland in his 2009 address shared the Savior's journey, "...He was betrayed by one of His own for thirty pieces of silver, He was condemned by the people, who wanted a "Godless, son of the father set free while a truly divine Son is His Heavenly Father moved on to be crucified."

His disciples let him down.  While He was in Gethsemane "Sorrowful onto death. With great drops of blood as he pled with the Father to let this cup pass..."  He went to his trusted disciples for support and found them sleeping.  I can only imagine His sorrowful plea as He asked, "Could you not watch with me one hour?"  He returned to the Garden and twice approached His sleeping disciples and on his third return He compassionately said, "sleep on now and take your rest."  And as Elder Holland noted, "There would be no rest for Him."  During HIs trial his Chief disciple denied knowing him three times.  His circle of support and friends became smaller and smaller.  Elder Holland then stated, "Peter stayed close enough to be recognized and confronted.  John stood at the foot of the cross with Jesus's mother.  Especially and always the women in the Savior's life stayed close to Him as they could.  But essentially his lonely journey back to HIs father continued without comfort or companionship."

As I have read the comments with these young and older people from all over the world, I am taken back to my dark days when I did not have a relationship with my Savior.  Many of them profess to be Christian and some are no faith.  My heartbreaks that they are feeling alone and forsaken.   I shared a copy of my talk with those who claim Christian and offered words of encouragement to the others.

Each week I try and send a envelope filled with hugs, another week birthday cards, and another week hand written letter.  I am hoping to share Elder Hollands talk from our most recent conference address with them.

Like Elder Holland I would like to close my words with the Prophet Joseph Smith's cry:  "Go forward [my beloved young friends]. Courage, … and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad.”

Below is Elder Hollands word's may it speak hope to those of you who are feeling lost and may you read his words from April 2009, "None were with Him."

You are never alone!!  The Lord has promised that He will never forsake us.

Fear Not: Believe Only!

By Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Begin your search for happiness by embracing the bounty we have already received from the giver of every good gift.

I direct my remarks today to the young people of the Church, meaning anyone President Russell M. Nelson’s age or younger. I seldom use visuals, but I can’t resist sharing this one.

This cri de coeur comes from my eight-year-old friend Marin Arnold, written when she was seven. I will translate for you her early reformed Egyptian:

Dear Bishop

generle confrins

was Boring why

Do we half to

Do it? tell me why

Sinserlie, Marin

Arnold.¹

Well, Marin, the talk I am about to give will undoubtedly disappoint you again. But when you write your bishop to complain, it is important that you tell him my name is “Kearon. Elder Patrick Kearon.”

For nearly two years a pandemic of biblical proportions has enveloped our planet, and while that plague brought a halt to almost everything socially, obviously it did not bring a halt to brutality, violence, and cruel aggression politically—nationally or internationally. As if that were not enough, we are still facing long-standing social and cultural challenges, ranging from economic deprivation to environmental desecration to racial inequity and more.

Such stiff winds and dark days can be discouraging to the youth among us, those to whom we look for optimism and enthusiasm regarding the tomorrows of our lives. It has been said that “the power of youth is the common wealth for the entire world. The … young … are the faces of our … future.”² Furthermore, our children are the trustees into whose hands the destiny of this Church will be placed.

Given our current times, it is understandable if the idealism of the young is waning a little. Dr. Laurie Santos, a professor at Yale University, recently created a class titled Psychology and the Good Life. “The first year the class was offered, nearly [one-quarter] of the [entire] undergraduate student body enrolled.”³ Over 64 million people then visited her podcast. Writing about this phenomenon, one journalist noted how painful it is to see so many bright, young students—and adults—desperately “looking for something they’ve lost” or, worse yet, longing for something they never had.⁴

My plea today to our youth, and to you parents and adults who advise them, is to begin your search for happiness by embracing the bounty we have already received from the giver of every good gift.⁵ At precisely the moment many in the world are asking deep questions of the soul, we ought to be answering with the “good news”⁶ of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which holds aloft the mission and message of the Savior of the world, offers the most eternally significant way to both find good and do good at such a needful time.

President Russell M. Nelson has said that this generation of young people has the capacity to have “more impact [for good] on the world than any previous generation.”⁷ We, of all people, should be “sing[ing] the song of redeeming love,”⁸ but that takes discipline—“discipleship,” if you will—the kind that guards against negative attitudes and destructive habits that would pull us off-key as we try to sing that song of eternal salvation.

Even as we stay “on the sunny side of the street,”⁹ we do run into that fellow from time to time who is determined to find something bleak and dismal about everything. You know his motto: “It is always darkest just before it goes pitch-black.” What a malignant vision, and what a miserable existence! Yes, we might sometimes want to run away from where we are, but we certainly should never run away from who we are—children of the living God who loves us, who is always ready to forgive us, and who will never, ever forsake us. You are His most precious possession. You are His child, to whom He has given prophets and promises, spiritual gifts and revelations, miracles and messages, and angels on both sides of the veil.¹⁰

He has also given you a church that strengthens families for mortality and binds them together for eternity. It provides more than 31,000 wards and branches where people gather and sing and fast and pray for each other and give of their means to the poor. This is where every person is named, accounted for, and ministered to and where lay friends and neighbors voluntarily serve each other in callings that range from clerical work to custodial duty. Young adults—and senior couples as well—serve missions by the thousands at their own expense with no say whatsoever as to where they will labor, and members young and old trundle off to temples to perform sacred ordinances necessary to bind the human family together—a bold activity in such a divided world but one which declares that such divisiveness is only temporary. These are a few of the reasons we give for “the hope that is in [us].”¹¹

Of course, in our present day, tremendously difficult issues face any disciple of Jesus Christ. The leaders of this Church are giving their lives to seeking the Lord’s guidance in the resolution of these challenges. If some are not resolved to the satisfaction of everyone, perhaps they constitute part of the cross Jesus said we would have to take up in order to follow Him.¹² It is precisely because there would be dark days and difficult issues that God promised He would, out of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, guide prophets, give an iron rod, open a narrow gate leading to a strait path, and above all grant us the power to finish the course.¹³

So please, please, stay for the whole feast even if you are not sure about the broccoli. Bask in His light and lend your candle to the cause.¹⁴ They have it right in Primary: Jesus really does “[want you] for a sunbeam.”¹⁵

When the Jewish leader Jairus pled for Jesus to heal his 12-year-old daughter, who lay dying at home, the surrounding crowd waylaid the Savior so long that a servant soon came saying to this anxious father, “Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.”

“But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.”¹⁶

And she was. And so will you. “Fear not: believe only.”

Because each of you in this audience is precious to God and to this Church, I close with this special apostolic declaration. Before you ever received the gift of the Holy Ghost, you had the Light of Christ planted in your soul,¹⁷ that “light which is in all things, … giveth life to all things,”¹⁸ and is the influence for good in the hearts of all people who have ever lived or ever will live. That light was given to protect you and teach you. One of its central messages is that life is the most precious of all gifts, a gift which is obtained eternally only through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Light and Life of the World,¹⁹ the Only Begotten Son of God came to give us life by conquering death.

We must commit ourselves fully to that gift of life and run to the aid of those who are at risk of giving up this sacred gift. Leaders, advisers, friends, family—watch for signs of depression, despair, or anything hinting of self-harm. Offer your help. Listen. Make some kind of intervention as appropriate.

To any of our youth out there who are struggling, whatever your concerns or difficulties, death by suicide is manifestly not the answer. It will not relieve the pain you are feeling or that you think you are causing. In a world that so desperately needs all the light it can get, please do not minimize the eternal light God put in your soul before this world was. Talk to someone. Ask for help. Do not destroy a life that Christ gave His life to preserve. You can bear the struggles of this mortal life because we will help you bear them. You are stronger than you think. Help is available, from others and especially from God. You are loved and valued and needed. We need you! “Fear not: believe only.”

Someone who faced circumstances far more desperate than you and I ever will once cried: “Go forward [my beloved young friends]. Courage, … and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad.”²⁰ We have so much to be glad about. We have each other, and we have Him. Don’t deny us the chance to have you, I plead, in the sacred and holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Master, amen.