In his book “One More Strain of Praise,” Neal A. Maxwell wrote:
. . . fundamentals can comfort us even when our tactical situations may be grim, providing us with gospel gladness even amid momentary sadness. Hence the pressing and vexing things of the moment should not be allowed to obscure the things of eternity, “things as they really will be” (Jacob 4:13)
The trouble is that, unless careful, we still tend to let some obscuring occur, don’t we? It is only through our Spirit-led experience that we can come to savor the distinction between things of eternity and things of the moment. The things of the moment can be so real and intense. In fact, they are designed to get our attention!
This same precious perspective was needed on another occasion when, at night, the resurrected Jesus stood by an imprisoned Paul, instructing him to be of good cheer (Acts 23:11). Once again the circumstances of the moment hardly favored cheer. They included Paul’s having been humiliatingly and publicly struck on the mouth by order of Ananias, the high priest. Forty individuals were plotting Paul’s death. He faced a trial for sedition. Why, therefore, should he be of good cheer? Because, Jesus announced, Paul, though then in depressing circumstances, would take the “glad tidings,” the good news of the gospel, to Rome! Never mind that martyrdom also awaited Paul there.
. . . We, too, can “hang on” when we know who we are, and when we trust God’s purposes. We, too, can truly be trusting and be of good cheer even when the swirling circumstances of the moment still toss us about.
Therefore we should not be murmuring—even clever murmuring—undercut good cheer by our half-suppressed resentments or muttered complaints. We all remember in Fiddler on the Roof Tevye’s verbal asides to God. Since the ultimate “Addressee” of some of our murmuring is clearly the Lord, as when the people complained against Moses, at least Tevue honestly acknowledged to whom he addressed the complaints. (See Exodus 16:8)
Instead of gladness, murmuring seems to come so naturally to the natural man. It crosses the spectrum of complaints. We need bread. We need water. (See Numbers 21:15). . . “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”(see Numbers 11:20.). . . On and on goes our murmuring, and, it is significant that it almost always focuses on tour tactical frustrations.
. . . Too many of us seem to expect that life will flow ever smoothly, featuring an unbroken chain of green lights with empty parking just in front of our destinations.
By knowing that the everlasting and ultimate things are firmly in place, can we not then better endure irritations such as a dislocated travel schedule? Besides, how can it rain on the just and the unjust alike without occasionally raining on our personal parades. (see Matthew 5:45.)
. . .In the midst of this mortal experience we will even see the unrighteous succeed—at least temporarily and in worldly terms. On occasion we might be tempted to complain, as some did anciently, that the wicked seem to get away with it (See Malachi 3).
Such conditions in our days thus call for spiritual spunk in each of us. Spiritual spunk can actually break up spiritual stumbling blocks, turning them into stepping stones, just as weakness can be transported into strengths (Ether 12:27)
Besides, others are counting on us to be of good cheer. Otherwise, an irony can occur—one application of which Malcolm Muggeridge expressed as follows:
“I see it as one of the greatest ironies of this ironical time, that the Christian message should be withdrawn for consideration just when it is most desperately needed to save men’s reason, if not their souls. It is as though a Salvation Army band, valiantly and patiently waiting through the long years for Judgment Day, should, when it comes at last, and the heavens do veritably begin to unfold like a scroll, throw away their instruments and flee in terror. (Quoted by William F. Buckley Jr., “Christianize Dartmouth?” National Review, March 23, 1998, p. 46.) ~Neal A. Maxwell, One More Strain of Praise (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1999), 23-27
(Posts with a preamble asterisk * are for a more general audience, and not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
