I’ve always loved the symbolism of Easter eggs – the promise
of new life, a new beginning, an innocent chick.
In Sunday School on Easter, the question was raised, “What
does the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection mean personally to you?”
I pondered this for awhile, and since I’d been listening to Nichole
Nordeman’s song “Every Season” on repeat that morning, one line kept coming
back to me: make all things new.
That’s one part for me – making dead things become new. I don’t believe we have to wait for the Resurrection
to have dead things made new. I believe Christ
has the power to fix families, fix faith, fix testimonies, fix trust, fix relationships,
fix confidence, fix jobs, fix abilities, fix hearts, fix disability, fix
disease.
And if things can’t be fixed, or if we need to have the path
that contains broken things, then I believe He can heal those heartaches. Those things may not be forgotten, we may
never live without triggers of how broken things once felt – but I fully
believe in the healing that comes from the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the kind
that brings peace and assurance that all things will be made right or
compensated for. There’s no greater gift
than to have this kind of peace and assurance.
And if our dead things aren’t made new, if our brokenness isn’t
healed for reasons we don’t understand yet. . . then I firmly believe in the
power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ to give us the strength to carry the
burdens that are placed on our shoulders.
We never have to walk or carry our burdens alone. Let Him take his share of the yoke. There have been times for me when I felt He
was taking the whole yoke on
himself. The message of Easter for me is
a daily message, a daily gift – not a
once-a-year commemoration. I live with
the effects of Easter on a daily basis.
I’m grateful for this knowledge. No
one can take this from me. I am also
grateful for the peace I have within that comes from this testimony.
This is a gift that I cannot give to others, and so many
times I have wished to give it away, even if it meant less for me. But this isn’t possible. What is
possible though, what I can do is be
open to show the way. For there IS a way open to everyone.
One of my favorite talks contains the
following:
“One of the most popular and attractive philosophies of men
is to live life your own way, do your own thing, be yourself, don’t let others
tell you what to do. But the Lord said, “I am the way.” He said, “Follow me.”
He said, “What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I
am.”
Don’t think you can’t. We might think we can’t really follow
Him because the standard of His life is so astonishingly high as to seem
unreachable. We might think it is too hard, too high, too much, beyond our
capacity, at least for now. Don’t ever believe that. While the standard of the
Lord is the highest, don’t ever think it is only reachable by a select few who
are most able.
In this singular instance life’s experience misleads us. In
life we learn that the highest achievements in any human endeavor are always
the most difficult and, therefore, achievable only by a select few who are most
able. The higher the standard, the fewer can reach it.
But that is not the
case here because, unlike every other experience in this life, this is not
a human endeavor. It is, rather, the work of God. It is God’s work and it is
His “glory … to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” There
is nothing else like it. Not anywhere. Not ever.
No institution, plan, program, or system ever conceived by
men has access to the redeeming and transforming power of the Atonement of
Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Therefore, while the Lord’s
invitation to follow Him is the highest of all, it is also achievable by
everyone, not because we are able, but because He is, and because He can make
us able too. “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind
[everyone, living and dead] may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances
of the Gospel.”
The Lord’s way is not hard. Life is hard, not the gospel.
“There is an opposition in all things,” everywhere, for everyone. Life is hard
for all of us, but life is also simple. We have only two choices. We can either
follow the Lord and be endowed with His power and have peace, light, strength,
knowledge, confidence, love, and joy, or we can go some other way, any other
way, whatever other way, and go it alone—without His support, without His
power, without guidance, in darkness, turmoil, doubt, grief, and despair. And I
ask, which way is easier?
He said, “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; … and
ye shall find rest unto your souls….For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light.” Life is hard, but life is
simple. Get on the path and never, ever give up. You never give up. You just
keep on going. You don’t quit, and you will make it.
There is only one way to happiness and fulfillment. Jesus
Christ is the Way. Every other way, any other way, whatever other way is
foolishness.” -- given by Lawrence E.
Corbridge, October 2008
SO much truth packed in SO few paragraphs. I know this path of which Elder Corbridge
speaks and I know how to show the way. I
won’t force this down anyone’s throat, but I will always be available to share.
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