Enjoy the Ride

I know a young couple, April and August, (not their real names, but chosen for natural anonymity and their alliterative value) who are immensely happy together. April is an attractive woman, slim, with a simple, modest style that somehow conveys her love of life, her husband, her children, and the gospel. August is almost a quadriplegic. He was paralyzed from the waist down in his late teens in a tragic accident. Until that time, he had been a tall, athletic, handsome, bright young man.

 After the accident, August was still very intelligent and handsome, but in a wheelchair. He completed law school with honors in that wheelchair! He was very independent. He went on a celebratory cruise after he graduated, but suffered another accident on the cruise that left him more badly paralyzed.

 Now August needed a motorized wheelchair to move around. He could move his arms, but his hands were (and still are) almost useless. But he didn’t even slow down. He found a law firm that hired him based on his record in law school and his unstoppable attitude.

 April met him and fell in love with him. She ignored his infirmities. She saw a man she could love for eternity. They were sealed in the temple of the Lord, even though others tried to convince April that it was a mistake. A well-meaning soul said to her that she should not worry -- August would be whole again in the next life. April replied that she loves August just the way he is and is not looking to eternity to make his body whole.

 My wife and I were privileged to attend their sealing and their wedding reception. At the reception, one of August’s relatives was making a video for April. He asked various members of the wedding party to give April a short piece of advice. When he approached me, I said: “I would’ve told you to marry someone with smile lines in his face, but you’ve already done that.”

 It was, and is, true. Despite August’s trials in this life, despite the tests he has been called upon to bear, he has a big, sunny smile that can light up a room. Every time he sees April, that smile appears.

 Oh, incidentally, while he was still practicing law, they adopted their first child.

 After some time working as a respected lawyer, August decided he wanted to be a teacher, and he wanted to teach law! So he found a prestigious law school that accepted him, and he embarked on a new career. They moved their family, bought a house, and August began teaching law. His students respect and love him, and he has received awards from the school and his students, who named him their favorite teacher.

 August has suffered some serious health problems related to his condition, but always he recovered and was able to go back to work.

 Oh, incidentally, they adopted their second child this year.

 The children adore their father. No wonder. No one knows how many years August has left on this earth – but one thing I can promise, April and August and their children will enjoy every minute of it.

 There is a quote from James Fineous McBride that inspires me and describes April and August’s passage through this life:

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming..."Wow! What a ride!"

The scale of April and August’s mortal testing seems higher than many, but their response to them is higher still on the Lord’s scale.

Each of us has our own tests and trials in this life – some temporal and physical, some spiritual – but always exactly what the Lord knows that we need. I’m sure that sometimes April and August struggle to understand why, (although I have never heard them say so) but they never slow in their devotion to their children, each other, and the Lord. George Santayana said:

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

The “interval” is mortality. We, as members of the true church, understand that mortal life is a school. A short but absolutely crucial period in eternity where we leave the pre-existence and the presence of God, come to earth, receive a body, and be tried and tested in ways we can only experience in mortal flesh. Christ himself had to suffer the atonement while in mortality. He had to feel the unfathomable burden of all our sins, trials, pains, disappointments, and ills while he was as yet not glorified. He could not have understood us and our individual needs without this mortal suffering. Christ eventually glorified himself and the Father because of the “interval.”

Elaine Cannon, in her book, Adversity, said the following: 

Life is school. Of all the trials and tests in life, the critical, overriding challenge is to not "flunk school." Every test, when met by applying gospel principles to the situation, counts toward "graduation."

A person who understands that life is schooling is more likely to benefit from adversity than one who expects only happiness in life-not understanding that life, by the design of our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, can prepare us for a level of even higher learning and understanding.

It was the custom of the Church in times before electronic media to hold General Conference overflow meetings in various places for those who could not get into the tabernacle. A general authority presided and he and others spoke. Below is an excerpt from one of those meetings in April of 1906. Elder Jonathan Golden Kimball (as recorded in the Conference Report, April 1906) in the Second Overflow Meeting said the following:

 I remember hearing about a saying of President Young to a brother who was terribly tried. The case came before the High Council, and the council had decided against the man. … Brother Brigham, on the occasion referred to, said to the brother in sarcasm, "Now apostatize and go to hell." And the brother ejaculated, "I won't do it; this is just as much my church as it is yours, and I am going to stay with it."

 Even though he had felt the sting of Church discipline, the good brother understood the need for repentance and reconciliation with the Church and the Lord. He rallied from his trials and put himself on the path to exaltation. We all have a purpose in this mortal life, We cannot escape the trials and tests we are given, but we can press on in the face of them, learning from them, growing from them, and as Elaine Cannon said: “preparing ourselves for a level of even higher learning and understanding.” George Bernard Shaw said: 

This is the true joy in life: the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy…

Recognize your purpose here as a mighty one. You are indeed a “force of nature.” Live the gospel. Prepare yourself for entry into the rest of the Lord. Trials and tests are the schooling we need to do so. Make yourself happy. Avoid self-pity and get on with the life your Father-in-Heaven and the Savior want for you.