Jesus Wept

I was reminded of this verse in Relief Society today. It has been reflected on in many different ways and at many different times by others. The meaning that has been most powerful to me though, especially at the end of my mission (which was the most difficult era for me) is how it displays Christ's compassion. If you haven't read it recently, check out John 11. This is where Lazareth dies BECAUSE Christ tarries despite his family's pleas to come and heal him. We know now that Christ tarried in order for Lazareth to be considered truly dead by Jewish law (they believed it took 3 days for the spirit to leave the body) and thus prove His divinity by raising Lazareth from the dead, but they didn't know that. For them they waited anxiously, wondering why the Lord could possibly "tarry" while such a trial was at hand. I am sure the moments were agonizing, as their eyes searched the road for any indication that their Savior would come to them in this their time of greatest need. Yet He did not come, and seemingly, all was lost. I find it interesting, because when Christ did arrive, Mary and Martha both expressed Faith in Him AND His plan. One testifies that had Christ been there "my brother had not died" but that she KNEW that her brother would rise again in the Resurrection, that in the end it would be OK. She had the testimony of the Plan of Salvation LONG before Christ had officially conquered death. But the Resurrection must have felt a long ways away. Comfort felt far away. Hope felt far away. At that moment Christ knew that in a matter of SECONDS the very cause of sorrow for Mary/Martha would become an incredible joy as Lazareth came forth from the grave. Despite this knowledge, despite that to Him and His eternal perspective their pain may have seemed silly or short sighted, He did not say "It is going to be OK, be patient and get with the program, I'm about to wake your brother up" or "use your faith to cheer up and realize this isn't permanent" or "no matter how much I tell you guys about my power you still have cause for sadness?". What he did do was weep. He wept not for Lazareth or his death, he wept for THEIR pain, THEIR sorrow, THEIR discomfort. He knew they didn't know what lay ahead, He knew that they felt like Lazareth was gone until the second coming, He knew that they felt that this pain was unbearable and would last perhaps until their own deaths, He knew that they FELT pain DESPITE their Faith. So He wept. He wept with them.

I cannot even tell you the comfort it gives me to know that Christ can comfort me when I fail to see the big picture despite His ability to see it. He weeps with us, He really does, even if we are moments away from the greatest miracles of our lives. He weeps because He knows we felt alone because He "tarried" to better prove His divinity to us. He weeps because He knows how it feels. Most of all, He weeps because He loves us.

Broken Arms and Run-Down Houses

I think most of us have broken a bone at some point. Luckily for me I have only broken one once; my right arm. After watching some X-Games, at 10 years old I decided to become a professional BMX biker. Naturally, there was no reason to start small, so I grabbed my garage sale mountain bike, a small boulder, and a old piece of plywood to begin my training, because of course, there are few more stable ramps than homemade plywood/boulder ones. Wanting to maximize my height as I jumped, I set my ramp up at the bottom of a hill in my neighborhood. Soon I was speeding like an arrow toward that ramp, and given the crookedness of the top, I began to question the safety of actually going off of it. Panicked, I slammed on my brakes-my front brakes, at just about the time I started off the highly unstable jump. Then, the next thing I remembered was getting up, and looking down to see my horribly bent right wrist.
A kind neighbor helped me home and when I got inside my older brother asked what was wrong, because I was crying. I showed him my wrist and he immediately knew I broke it and went to call our mother. Not wanting to have to go to the doctor I said "it may not be broken, what if its not? Maybe we should just wait and see for awhile, it'll most likely be better tomorrow". Adamant my brother sat me down, called my Mom, and soon I was headed off to my Dad's office. After a few X-rays he was ready to set the bone. I however, was not. I didn't want anyone near my arm, let alone to set it. At first he offered a numbing shot, but as I have an intolerance to sharp things near my person, I declined. Respecting my agency he began to set the bone-it took about 3 seconds for me to yelp like a cat getting its tail ran over. Of course he got the needle out, numbed the arm, and was able to easily set it that time. Soon I was in my new cast and I went from feeling miserable to feeling like a war-hero. I looked at what I deemed as pure torture and had survived it and now had a cool cast to prove it. I couldn't wait for others to sign my cast.

Now before we get to how this relates to the gospel, I have one more story for ya'll to mull over. Well more of a scenario. Let's say we moved into a new home, and it needed a little TLC-picture "Flip this House". The electricity may not work, or the faucets may leak, or the painting job may be an ugly puke green. When we move into a home do we often say "well, it came that way, guess it'll have to stay that way"? Not usually. We may not get around to it, or have the money for it right away, but few would just decide it was impossible to fix those things.
Now for how these both relate to the gospel-
Broken arms: How often have one of us said to ourselves when we have a pain or an injury that we'll just wait and it will most likely get better? People may try to get us to go get checked yet we worry about insurance, time, what the doctor will say, convenience, or even worry nothing is wrong and we'll look weak by going in. As fatal and painful as putting off going to the doctor can be to our bodies, I am here to tell you that our spirits are no different. We all experience mistakes, trials, and hurt in life; in essence we all break our wrists. But just as a bone will never heal right without the touch of a master our souls will never be healed without being set in place by the Master's hands. Under Christ we are all "insured", for "salvation is free". (2 Nephi 2:4) All we need is a copay of faith and humility-a broken heart and a contrite spirit (Enos 1:4-8, 3 Nephi 9:20). He will never mock us for what we believe is wrong or call us weak for coming to Him. No matter how painful the process may be or how long the healing process may take it is worth it, and no matter how badly broken we are, we are always fixable-it is never too late. And in His mercy the Lord sends us His spirit (the numbing shot) to comfort us through the experience. Literally, we are never left alone, and once He is finished our spiritual casts can become a hope to others; our experiences and testimony of our healing can inspire others to go to Christ, and each signature we get just adds to our and Christ's joy as we bring others unto Him.
Run Down Houses-None of us come into this world perfect, and though we often expect ourselves to be, we never seem to believe we ever will be so. We look at so many other "houses" and see all that we aren't, and yet believe our own faults can never be made whole. We begin to say to ourselves "well that is just how I am" and think we are doomed to live in a "house with a leaky faucet forever". That just isn't the case. The Savior has commanded us to be "perfect even as [He] is perfect" (3 Nephi 12:48). We truly are expected to be perfect one day, and rather than discourage us that should make us very excited, for "the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7). It is possible to make the needed "repairs" in us, in fact, we have everything in our favor to do so. The most exciting thing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that it brings with it the good news that we are never stuck with how we came into this world but rather have every possibility of becoming everything we came here to become. All it takes is faith in and obedience to Christ and His Gospel. If we never thought the repairman could fix the faucet, would we ever call? And if we did would we follow the instructions he gave us to fix the problem? Similarly, only when we have faith that Christ can perfect us will we call upon Him, and follow His instructions He gives to us. I testify that when we do so we can become whole, complete, and perfected in Him.

Additional Scriptures:
Matthew 9:22
Mark 9:23-24

Perfectly Comforted and Comfortably Perfect

We have all had people come into our lives at the seemingly perfect time, whether it was to comfort, guide, stop us, push us forward, teach us, and even correct us. For lack of a better phrase I suppose we would call them our "angels" sent here to help us along our way. I had one of these in my life during my stay at college a few years back, and this person would always tell me something that I never understood, "remember I am not the one who is comforting you". Well, I am happy to say, that two or so years later I get it, due to an account in the Book of Mormon.

Alma and Amulek were two missionaries who taught the people of Ammonihah. The people of Ammonihah did not recieve them well, in fact, their scriptures were burned, as were those of their faith, and they were forced to watch. Then they were imprisoned. On top of all this, because of Amulek's decision to serve with Alma, his family and friends rejected him (Alma 15:16). He also forsook his fortune. In essence, he had lost nearly everything one can have in life; position, friends, money, and most of all, family. Personally, I don't know if I could make it through all of that. But at that critical time in Amulek's life there is a verse that I love, it says:

"Now as I said, Alma having seen all these things, therefore he took Amulek and came over to the land of Zarahemla, and took him to his own house, and did administer unto him in his tribulations, and strengthened him in the Lord." (Alma 15:18)
I love the phrase, "strengthened IN the Lord". Alma didn't neccessarily comfort/strengthen Amulek, the Lord did through Alma. When we are asked to "comfort those that stand in need of comfort" (Mosiah 18:9) we should be doing this through Christ, for He is the one that can perfectly comfort us. Otherwise, we will only provide a certain level of comfort and for only so long. But, if we allow ourselves to be a tool in the Lord's hand to "bind up the broken hearted" (Isaiah 61:1), then we, through Him, can provide perfect comfort, for He has already suffered all that he may "succor" (run to) us in our time of need. (Alma 7:11-12)