I was asked to give a talk recently from Elder Bednar's "Bear Up Their Burdens With Ease" from the April 2014 conference:
In the April Conference this year, Elder David A. Bednar told a story of a friend who purchased a 4WD pickup. He said:
In the April Conference this year, Elder David A. Bednar told a story of a friend who purchased a 4WD pickup. He said:
“Shortly
after taking possession of the new vehicle, my friend ... decided he would cut
and haul a supply of firewood for their home. ...[the] snow already had fallen
in the mountains where he intended to find wood. As he drove up the
mountainside, the snow gradually became deeper and deeper. My friend recognized
the slick road conditions presented a risk, but with great confidence in the
new truck, he kept going.
“Sadly, my friend went too far along the snowy road. As he steered the
truck off of the road at the place he had determined to cut wood, he got stuck.
All four of the wheels on the new truck spun in the snow. He readily recognized
that he did not know what to do to extricate himself from this dangerous
situation. He was embarrassed and worried.
“My friend decided, “Well, I will not just sit here.” He climbed out of
the vehicle and started cutting wood. He completely filled the back of the
truck with the heavy load. And then my friend determined he would try driving
out of the snow one more time. As he put the pickup into gear and applied
power, he started to inch forward. Slowly the truck moved out of the snow and
back onto the road. He finally was free to go home, a happy and humbled man.”
Elder Bednar pointed out that it
was the load of wood that gave the truck enough traction to get out of the snow
and return home. “Each of us also carries a load,” he added. “Our individual
load is comprised of demands and opportunities, obligations and privileges,
afflictions and blessings, and options and constraints.”
We need to ask ourselves, “What
am I carrying in my truck?” Or as Elder Bednar put it, “Is the load I am
carrying producing the spiritual traction that will enable me to press forward
with faith in Christ on the strait and narrow path and avoid getting stuck?”
Here are a few points I took from
Elder Bednar’s story to help me get my truck out of the snow:
First, watch what I put into the back of my truck. I worked for a
moving company for the year before my mission and I saw people pack things I
considered to be odd. One family brought their water storage with them, others
brought stacks and stacks of old newspapers and magazines, furniture
restoration projects in various stages of completion that they were going to
get around to finishing “one day”, the old-fashioned metal milk cans (the tall
ones) full of wheat, boxes and boxes of books that had never been read. Then
they were usually confused at the end why we couldn’t get everything to fit
into the truck.
We had an experience several
years ago when we moved from Edmonton to Strathmore that helped us learn the
lesson of prioritizing what goes into the truck. My experience in moving helped
me determine that we needed the large truck, even though at the time we only
had two small children. I made the reservation a few weeks in advance and when
I went to pick it up, the truck wasn’t available and we had to use a
medium-sized truck. I knew right away we wouldn’t have room for everything, but
despite my protests this was our only option and we had to make some decisions
about what we wanted to bring with us. Friends who came to help us load the
truck found themselves taking things home with them so that we would have room
to pack the items we really needed.
While we weren’t exactly thrilled at the time, it did help us to weed out some
of the “nice” things we really didn’t need in favor of the items that we needed
most.
Elder Bednar cautioned, “we
should be careful to not haul around in our lives so many nice but unnecessary
things that we are distracted and diverted from the things that truly matter
most.”
There is a quote attributed to
the French writer Voltaire, “The enemy of the best is the good.” If we put too
many good things in our truck, we may not have room for those things which
would give us the best traction. Elder Oaks said in his Oct 2007 conference
talk, “Consider how we use our time in the choices we make in viewing
television, playing video games, surfing the Internet, or reading books or
magazines. Of course it is good to view wholesome entertainment or to obtain
interesting information. But not everything of that sort is worth the portion
of our life we give to obtain it. Some things are better, and others are best.”
(Oct 2007 General Conference)
There were probably many other things
Elder Bednar’s friend could’ve used to fill the back of his truck, but the load
of wood was the best to provide the necessary weight and traction.
Second, like everyone else, I’m going to have to carry a burden. That’s
part of the terms and conditions we agreed to when we said we’d follow our
Heavenly Father’s plan before we came to mortality. Elder Bednar said, “Sometimes
we mistakenly may believe that happiness is the absence of a load. But bearing
a load is a necessary and essential part of the plan of happiness.”
Did he just say we can’t
ultimately be happy without bearing a load? That probably seems
counter-intuitive to most of us. Captain Moroni could teach us about being
cheerful during hard times. He was the head of the Nephite army for 17 years of
war with the Lamanites. It was during this time of war that it was recorded, “…behold
there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi..." (Alma 50:23).
Despite the constant war, the Nephites were happy because of their
righteousness and obedience to God. And not just a little happy, but like
"they're making a new Star Wars movie" happy. In fact, this was the
happiest they had been as a people since Lehi and his family walked off the
boat.
A spirit of gratitude seems to be
essential to finding happiness in the midst of trials and burdens. Section 78
of the Doctrine and Covenants instructs us that, “And he who receiveth all
things with thankfulness shall be made glorious” (D&C 78:19). Not just some
things, or most things, or the things we like, but all things.
Sister Bonnie D. Parkin taught in
the April 2007 general conference, “The kind of gratitude that receives even
tribulations with thanksgiving requires a broken heart and a contrite spirit,
humility to accept that which we cannot change, willingness to turn everything
over to the Lord—even when we do not understand, thankfulness for hidden
opportunities yet to be revealed. Then comes a sense of peace.”
Third, Elder Bednar spoke of the importance of the Atonement in our
lives in relation to being able to bear our burdens. He said the Atonement “enables
us to do good and become better in ways that stretch far beyond our mortal
capacities.”
In a 2001 BYU devotional, he
said, “I suspect that you and I are much more familiar with the nature of the redeeming
power of the Atonement than we are with the enabling power of the Atonement. It
is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for us… But we also
need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the
power of the Holy Ghost, to live in us—… to empower us... Most of us clearly
understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that
we know and understand that the Atonement is also for … good men and women who
are … striving to become better and serve more faithfully.”
Nephi recounted his experience of
being tied up by his angry brothers and left “in the wilderness to be devoured
by wild beasts.” (1 Ne. 7:16). He prayed to be delivered according to his
faith, “…yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I
am bound.” (vs. 17)
In that situation, I can
guarantee my prayer would not have been so charitable and probably would’ve had
a few requests to smite my evil brothers because they so clearly deserve it.
Notice Nephi didn’t ask for the Lord to magically make the ropes fall off. He
asked for enough strength to free himself, something he could not do without
the added ability through God’s help. In essence he was saying, “I will do
everything I can to get free, please make up the difference.”
The Book of Mormon offers another
example of how the Lord’s enabling power helped the people accomplish more than
they could on their own.
Alma the Elder and his people
were being oppressed by Amulon, a former priest of King Noah. Amulon and the
Lamanites put such heavy burdens on Alma’s people that they “[cried] mightily
to God” (Mos 24:10) to the point Amulon instructed the guards to kill anyone
found praying to God. They continued to “pour out their hearts” in prayer, and
the Lord promised to “deliver them out of bondage” saying, “I will … ease the
burdens which are put upon your shoulders” (Mos 24: 13-14).
The Lord made it clear that while
Alma and his people were still in bondage, they would still have to carry the
burdens so they could stand as witnesses and “know of a surety that I, the Lord
God, do visit my people in their afflictions” (Mos 24:14). In other words, the
burdens they had to bear were intended to bring the people closer to the Lord
and strengthen their testimonies. He wants us to know that we don’t have to go
through hard times alone.
President George Q. Cannon
taught, “No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the
affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He
cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. … We have made Him our
friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the
fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed
nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the
better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His
commandments. ["Freedom of the Saints," in Collected Discourses,
comp. and ed. Brian H. Stuy, 5 vols. (Burbank, California: B.H.S. Publishing,
198792), 2:185]
Sometimes the Lord removes our
burdens, but most often He helps us become strong enough to carry them. The key
is to “…submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord" (Mos
24:15). That seems like a difficult thing to do as we are struggling with our
burdens.
Joseph Smith also set an example
of cheerful and patient submission while he was confined in the Liberty Jail. In
Doctrine & Covenants 123:17, the last verse written while he was still in
jail, he wrote, “Therefore, dearly beloved … let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we
stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for
his arm to be revealed.” (italics added)
Sometimes when we are so focused on our own burdens, it can
be hard to hear the gentle invitation from the Lord, “Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
“For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).
That means Christ is offering to
help us carry our load. Think about that for a minute. No matter what we’re
carrying, Christ is extending the invitation to bring it to Him and He’ll help
us carry it. As Elder Maxwell taught, “We can confidently cast our cares upon
the Lord because, through the agonizing events of Gethsemane and Calvary,
atoning Jesus is already familiar with our sins, sicknesses, and sorrows. He
can carry them now because He has successfully carried them before” (Neal A.
Maxwell Gen Conf Oct 1987).
I feel sometimes we have a
tendency to think the Atonement can help us after
we’ve done all the work. Nephi did say that it is “by grace that we are saved,
after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23), right? It’s like we’re trying to move a heavy
piano up a flight of stairs on our own, thinking that if we can just get it to
the top of the stairs, then Christ
can help us roll it into nicely into place. We need to remember that His
invitation was to those “that labor and are heavy laden” and not to those who
are already finished. As I understand it, Nephi’s statement means that the
strengthening and enabling power of the Atonement will save me over and above
everything I can do. I will never get the piano to the top of the stairs on my
own, so it’s a matter of accepting the Lord’s invitation to help and then not
complaining about how heavy the piano is while He is doing most of the work.
Elder Bednar went on to say, “We
are not and never need be alone… There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound,
no anguish of soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever
confront in mortality that the Savior did not experience first. In a moment of
weakness we may cry out, “No one knows what it is like. No one understands.”
But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne
our individual burdens. And because of His infinite and eternal sacrifice (see
Alma 34:14), He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy. He
can reach out, touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could
ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon our own
power. Indeed, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.”
