Light And Air

God will not allow us to be tempted above that which we are able. There are two important parts to this that are beautifully illustrated by the story of the brother of Jared in the book of Ether. When they were building barges to cross the sea, the Lord warned them that they would from time to time be cast into the deep, where there is no air and no light. The Lord said He would take care of the air. When we are cast into the deep, it is the Lord's responsibility to make sure that we keep breathing. He will not let us drown or suffocate or perish. I can answer unequivocally the anguished cry of Christ's disciples on the sea of Galilee that yes, the Master does care if we perish. He knows our end from the beginning, and as He told the prophet Joseph Smith, "thy days are known, and thy years cannot be numbered less; therefore, fear not…hold on thy way" (D&C 121:8). However deep the waters, however boisterous the wind or towering the waves, whether lightning is striking all around us, or sharks are circling, or weights are dragging us down, God will not suffer us to perish before our time. He will take care of our air, but there is more to the story of the brother of Jared. The Lord had the air covered, but what about the light? Even if the Lord would not allow them to perish in the depths, must they go through that terrifying ordeal completely in the dark? God told the brother of Jared that he would have to come up with some way for them to have light in the deep. And he found a way. He presented the Lord with clear stones and he asked the Lord to touch them and fill them with His divine light. When we are cast into the deep whether we want to or not we are going to learn some cold, hard facts about the world and our place in it. We will have suffered much to make and obtain these cold, hard facts and they may be unpleasant to hold or carry with us. But like the brother of Jared, we can reach out to the Lord with faith and hold out these cold, hard facts, like clear stones, and say Lord, touch these, fill them with thy divine, brilliant light, make them holy, give meaning to the suffering, and light to the darkness. Carrying these no longer becomes a burden. The cold, hard facts are softened with divine truth, radiant with divine light, warmed with divine love. When we are cast into the deep, whether we want it or not, God will not suffer us to perish before our time, but God relies on us to reach out to Him in faith, to open our eyes and our hearts and ask Him to touch this incredibly dark, undeniably frightening, and irrefutably hard experience that He may fill it with His light. We have a choice to barely survive the deeps - because God will make sure that we survive - and come out more shrouded in darkness, hating the dark and hating God for keeping us alive through all that pain and suffering - or, when we are in the deep, pleading with the Lord to bless and sanctify and give meaning to our suffering and give us light when we are in the deep that we can carry with us even when we finally make it back to the surface again. With or without our help or cooperation or approval, God will keep us alive until it is our time to go, but He will not force His light and His love and His truth upon us. He is waiting anxiously every single moment to flood us with as much light as we will let in, but we must reach out in faith and ask for it. We are all going into the deep, and we are all coming back out, but only some of us have the courage to ask for light while we are down there.