Calamity

As the attention of the nation shifts from one tragedy or catastrophe to another (and will continue in the days ahead), it would be well for us to examine our premises and the conclusions we draw from them.  If not a ‘tragedy’ or calamity of nature’s forces, or of the designs of evil persons, it will come in our own family, or of a close friend or acquaintance or of ourselves.  How are we prepared to view and respond to the inevitable? 

A perspective that has greatly tempered and informed my views on the seeming tragedies of our lives was that given over 50 years ago by a great Church leader of my faith—a man named Spencer W. Kimball who knew intimately, through revelation and his own suffering, that of which he spoke.  Following are some of his edited and paraphrased remarks (in italics) taken from his address at Brigham Young University titled “Tragedy or Destiny?” Interspersed, in standard type, are some of my thoughts which were stimulated by his remarks. 

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Many People critically blame every tragedy upon the Lord—they ask, Why did the Lord let this happen?  People who ask this need to check their premises.  

Was it the Lord [who caused this]?  Was He responsible? Or did He in His wisdom allow it to happen? 

Was it untimely…do we know?

Could the Lord have prevented this?  Yes! But if He did, the very purposes of mortality would be frustrated.  For we need opposition in order to exercise our agency which, in turn, drives our responses to such ‘tragedies.’ Mortality is our test. Suffering can make saints of people.

Every act of God is purposeful …He sees the end from the beginning.  Man, often, does not; we “see through a glass darkly.”  But not all things are ‘acts of God.’

[Because death is the most riveting of life events, are some people, or all people,] appointed unto death at a certain time?  Yes. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die….” 

Even the righteous will not always be healed as we appropriately pray for them or be spared these events of mortality.  Pray as did Jesus, “thy will be done.” But know, even solemn prayers may be answered…negatively and that is God’s will.

Know that we are born into a fallen world.  We will all experience pain, sorrow, suffering and death; they are part of what we came here to experience and respond to.  Through and because of them we learn great lessons and are sometimes given great opportunities to respond.  Bless the responders.  

But provision has been made for these eventualities.  Without the Fall there would be no need for a Savior or for a plan of redemption. The Atonement of Jesus Christ as our redeemer and Savior is the central doctrine of the Christian faith. We will live again.

It seems clear that the Lord does not , like we usually, consider death a calamity.  Death is a part of life. “The Lord takes away many, even in infancy because they were too pure….” (Joseph Smith, Jr.) He takes them to a better place.

Even seeming tragedy may be a part of a purposeful plan.  Or it may be the consequences not of God’s will at all, but of man’s choices or actions.  Many wars or acts of crime or terrorism or preventable catastrophes may be of this nature.  Many die before their time because they abuse themselves or are careless… (but many more –most?--have an allotted time to live).

The gospel of Jesus Christ  teaches us that there is no tragedy in death…but only in sin.

Of course we do not want any to suffer or to die.  But think of the consequences of that if we had the power, without the wisdom, to curtail suffering and death:

Would we spare  Jesus of Gethsemane and Calvary? Would we have the apostle Paul healed from his ‘thorn in the flesh?   Would we protect the martyrs for Christ?  What of all the innocents, the infants, the little children, the mentally handicapped? Jesus knew when “my time is come”   and I think he knows when our time is to come.  Until that day, because we do not know when our ‘time is come’ we should live as fully as we can, a day at a time,  as long as we can exercise some control of our own destinies. We should do what we can to prepare, but we should not fear.  

Is eternity so frightful…so awful?  No.  The righteous or innocent have absolutely nothing to fear.  

“Be still and know that I am God.” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:16)