The Doctrine of Gratitude

This has been an interesting week.  I flew back to Texas on Monday, arriving back at the house I live in around 1 am Tuesday morning (yup, another long day of travel) in order to be at the class I TA on Tuesday at 12:30.  Everything went well at the beginning of this week and it was nice to have some time to research and study things that I enjoy and that are useful for my dissertation.  On Wednesday I started seeing reports of an impending ice storm which began to roll into Fort Worth Thursday afternoon.  Since then, I've been in the house with my roommates because the roads are paved with two inches of ice.  Everyone is just wishing and hoping for the ice to begin to melt so that people can leave their homes again (note:  ice is not like snow).

Liberty Jail

One of the effects of the ice storm was that Church was canceled today.  While there are many Sundays where the prospect of not needing to get up at 7:00 am for an 8:30 sacrament meeting is nice to consider, I was really looking forward to attending Church this particular Sunday.  In addition to being scheduled to give a lesson to the 14-15 year olds on preparing for the Second Coming, I was also scheduled to speak--something I haven't had the chance to do in a year and a half.  Bizarre as it may sound, I really enjoy speaking in Sacrament meeting, so missing out on this opportunity was rather disappointing for me.  But I thought I'd write about what I was going to speak on today:  namely, the doctrine of gratitude.

When I was assigned this topic, for some reason my mind started thinking in Spanish and I began seeing connections between a number of words that I hadn't ever associated with each other.  Four words in Spanish stood out:  gratitud (gratitude), gracias (thank you), gracia (grace), and gratis (gratis, or free, without price).  To me, these words had a profound message about the ultimate importance of the doctrine of gratitude, which I saw as a principle by which we remembered to offer thanks to God for the free gift of the grace of His Son.  While some get upset about the encroachment of Christmas upon Thanksgiving (and certainly the commercialism of Christmas ought to be trimmed back), perhaps we ought to see the connection of these two wonderful holidays more clearly.  Our ultimate gratitude ought to be reserved for the ultimate gift of Christ's divine redeeming and enabling love and grace.

As I pondered over the doctrine of gratitude, I immediately went back to August 7, 1831 and the revelation given to the Saints gathering in Independence, Missouri.  On that occasion, the Saints were told "Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things" (D&C 59:7), and then later in that section, "And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things and obey not his commandments" (D&C 59:21).  Just six days earlier, the Lord had spoken to His Saints about this new land and given this somewhat ominous instruction:  “Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.  For after much tribulation come the blessings.  Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.  Remember this, what I tell you before, that you may lay it to heart, and receive that which is to follow" (D&C 58:3-5).  The message was clear:  Missouri was not going to be an experience for the Saints.  The building up of Zion was going to try them to the core.  But yet, they were to give thanks in all things, including and perhaps especially in their trials.

Almost the entire history of the Saints in Missouri during the 1830s is tragic and troubling.  It is filled with expulsions, tarring and feathering, arrests, and unfortunate reprisals by some of the unwise Saints.  There are literally dozens of stories we could point to in order to illustrate how true the Lord's warning had been.  But none means more to me or affects me more deeply during the winter than the story of Liberty Jail.  

Joseph described the jail as a "hell surrounded with demons...where we are compelled to hear nothing but blasphemous oaths, and witness a scene of blasphemy, and drunkenness and hypocrisy, and debaucheries of every description" (History of the Church 3:290).  In a letter to Emma, Joseph spoke of it as a "lonesome, dark, dirty prison."  Then, using words known only to those in the midst of great hardship he wrote, "With emotions known only to God do I write this letter, the contemplations of the mind under these circumstances defy the pen, or tongue or Angels to describe or paint to the human [mind] who never experienced what we experience" (Joseph Smith to Emma Smith, April 4, 1839, Beinecke Library, Yale University).  A place so dark and lonely that not even angels could describe?  How does one express any form of gratitude for a place and an experience like that?  How does one find any form of redeeming value in such an experience?  

In agony, these emotions caused Joseph to cry out "O God, where art thou? and where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?  How long shall thy hand be stayed?" (D&C 121:1-2) But in spite of such heartfelt and agonizing questions, somehow Joseph did find redemption in this dark, cold, and lonesome jail.  The answer did not come immediately.  Indeed, in the letter from which sections 121-123 of the Doctrine and Covenants are taken, these questions appeared on page 3.  Not until page 8 did Joseph write, "When the heart is sufficiently contrite then the voice of inspiration steals along and whispers "My son peace be unto thy soul.  Thine adversity and thy afflictions shall be but a small moment and then if thou endure it well God shall exalt thee on high" (Joseph Smith to the Church, March 20, 1839; D&C 121:7-8).  Not until page 22 was he assured, "Know thou my son that all these things give thee experience and shall be for thy good.  The Son of Man hath descended below them all; art thou greater than he?" (Joseph Smith to the Church, March 20, 1839; D&C 122:7-8).  Notice that these answers came toward the end of March, which Joseph had been in Liberty Jail for nearly four full months.  And he would remain in the jail for yet another month before his escape/release to join the Saints in Illinois.  

But somewhere in the midst of those five horrible months of confinement, Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Lord, was tempered, taught, and sanctified.  Writing to a friend on March 15, 1839, Joseph described the change.  He wrote, "No tongue can tell what inexpressible joy it gives a man to see the face of one who has been a friend after having been enclosed in the walls of a prison....It seems to me that my heart will always been more tender after this than ever it was before....For my part I think I never could have felt as I now do if I had not suffered the wrongs that I have suffered.  All things shall work together for good to them that love God" (Joseph Smith to Presendia Huntington Buell, March 15, 1839).  In a lonely jail, Joseph had learned to treasure more deeply the loyalty of his friends.  He had learned that he needed to be more tender, more compassionate, and more loving than he had ever been before.  And above all, He had learned to trust in the blessings of God--blessings that he was still awaiting patiently.

Strange as it may seem, the liberty jails of our lives--and I hesitate to describe most of our trials as such, for I have never in all my life experienced anything that comes even close to Liberty--are exactly the places where we are taught and tutored and sanctified.  "With emotions known only to God?"  Yes, there are and will be times in our lives when only God can know the depths of our pain and our struggles.  But it is enough that He knows them!  There will be times when we, like Joseph, will fall to our knees and cry out in agony, "O God where art thou?...How long shall thy hand be stayed?"  But it is enough to know that sooner or later we too will hear the reassuring words that our adversity and our afflictions shall be but a small moment.  

I don't know who all reads this blog, but I am certain that someone among those who is reading this entry today is currently experiencing a trial the depths of which carries "emotions known only to God." Someone is likely struggling with their finances, wondering where the money to pay that next bill is coming from.  Someone is likely struggling with their health, wondering if they will ever feel healthy again.  Someone is likely feeling lonely and depressed this holiday season and wondering if a friend or loved one will ever be sent to fill the hole in their heart.  Someone is likely fighting doubts, praying that their faith will hold out and once again cause them to fully believe.  

Whatever your personal liberty jail may be, the Lord's message to each one of us is "Therefore, hold on thy way...fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever" (D&C 122:9).  Hard as it may be to conceive, there is a purpose in your trials for which you will one day be immensely grateful.  If for nothing else, these trials will drive you to your knees and ultimately to greater faith in the rescuing and redeeming Son of God, whose grace is ever sufficient.  We can and must learn to give thanks in all things, including our very own liberty jails.

Brett