Endure to the End

The more I read about Oliver Cowdery, the more I realize that my challenges are nothing in comparison. Obviously, we receive tests of our faith in accordance with and on the level we need to secure what we need to know for ourselves about ourselves. Of Abraham's commandment to sacrifice Isaac, Truman Madsen stated, "Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham." James Allen in his famous book As a Man Thinketh, states, "Our challenges do not make our character, but rather reveal our character."

As we endure and prove our mettle, our character grows. If we merely get through it and hope that we never have to face another challenge, we set ourselves up for the time when the challenge will just be more than God should ask of us and we cave, blaming God for our circumstances. Deep within we know that it was not God's plan that we should fail, but our own weakness that allowed us to be in the place where we find ourselves. Pride and fear keep us from gaining our place with Him, if we do not repent and apply ourselves to the task of rebuilding our faith.

In Section 23, Oliver is told, "Behold, thou art blessed and art under no condemnation. But beware of pride, lest thou should enter into temptation." The Lord obviously knew the weakness of the man and gave him the key to enduring to the end. In the end, however, it was pride that Oliver allowed to keep him from his greatest potential.

In Section 25, Emma Smith is told, "...[T]he office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., thy husband, in his afflictions, with consoling words, in the spirit of meekness." Later in that section she is told that she should lay aside the things of this world and seek for a better. Then she is reminded that she should rejoice and cleave unto the covenants into which she has entered. As did Oliver, she suffered untold persecution and tragedy. What she suffered and what her attitude was that kept her from joining with the saints in the trek west, we don't fully know. Much has been written that excuses her and much has been written and spoken that condemns her. What we do know is that she did not keep her covenants and allowed her pride to keep her children from receiving the blessings of being raised in the Gospel. Only now are their descendants beginning to return to the restored Gospel.

What can we learn from these examples? Obviously, we can determine a couple of principles. First, endure to the end includes every trial of our faith. Perhaps, like Oliver and Emma, the trial of our faith seems more than we can endure and we leave the faith. Often, however, it means we lose the fire that we once had to love and serve the Lord and we simply go through the motions. We ignore the promptings of the Spirit to visit the widow and the fatherless in their afflictions and find something else to do. I don't know if the condemnation of one is any worse than the other. We must work through these trials of our faith, no matter what the genesis of the trial might be, whether it comes from inside ourselves in the form of discouragement or pride, inside the Church in the form of perceived unfairness or offense from a leader or co-worker or from its detractors who somehow manage to strike a chord with one of their accusations. It may take some time, but if we remain as faithful as we can, pray without ceasing, and try to hear and obey the voice of the Lord, that trial will, after a time, become a distant memory. Our faith will grow and our blessings will increase.

The other lesson, in my experience, is that the Lord's servants are called to positions of responsibility and some of those have prominence to one degree or another. We must keep in mind that the position has the prominence, not us. Whether our calling puts us in front of a class, a congregation, a stake or the entire Church, we are not prominent, the office is. We do not punish the Church or punish God with our absence, our breach of covenants, or our loafing. The Church and God will thrive without our presence, but without the devout fire within us we do not thrive. They can get by without us, but we cannot succeed to any comparable or significant degree without them. I believe both Oliver and Emma learned this lesson. Oliver returned to the Church in humility. Emma never did, perhaps because of the circumstances in which she placed herself. Her posterity have paid the price, but mercifully, they are starting to return and the ordinance work is being done for those who have passed on since that difficult time. We can learn from them, if we will.