Faith Whether You are Daniel or Abinidi

I have always thought of myself as someone with a good portion of faith. In some areas I have very deep and (to me) very profound reverence and faith. In other areas I know I lack the insight and experience to truly appreciate and have complete faith. But I have never thought my Faith (in a general sense) was off track until recently. I realized my faith though very passionate and strong was in fact a little misled. Through that experience I realized an element of faith as a whole that I never really had internalized before. My realization:

We are asked to have faith in the Lord. We are asked to have faith that He will be there for us, that He will not leave us comfortless and without aid. We are asked to believe in things hoped for but not seen. And I guess I let my hopes construct what I had faith in a little too much. I began to have faith in the Lord doing things my way. When I prayed about my life struggles I found myself saying things like, "Father I am worried about life. I wonder when it will be better. I have Faith that it will get better. " Which is a fine prayer except my "better" was a very loaded word. Better was defined by specific things, things that I didn't realize might be futile to have hope and faith in. If the Lord tells you that you will someday travel the world and then you spend your life having faith that you will sprout wings and fly then you have a long wait and a lot of disappointment ahead of you! :) We have been promised that we will be okay, that everything will be all right, that we can have joy and profound peace now and in eternity - not that we will have things our way.

I often see two differing types of stories in the scriptures. Some are like Daniel in the lions den. He had faith. He is thrown in a den of lions BUT they don't eat him because God saves the day! The king retrieves Daniel from the den, the unjust law is revoked and everyone but the bad guys turns out happy. Then there are those stories like Abinidi . He was a man of tremendous faith but things didn't go too smooth for him. He might have envisioned helping to convert many of the people and building up the church in righteous service for years to come, but that was not what happened. When he was delivered to the "den of lions' he was burned to death. He died. Was everything all right in the end? Of course!!!! Is Abinidi happy? Of course! Was his dream to teach the Gospel and make a difference granted? Yes, hello Alma!!! And I am sure he has taught countless people of the Gospel on the other side.

Tragedy happens, things can appear to go completely wrong to us and still go even more wrong. Daniel did not feel real excited to be hanging out with hungry lions but things turned out perfect anyways. Abinidi, was unlucky and it didn't get much better. But in both stories everything was okay and ultimately both great men accomplish what they longed for the most. Outcomes are promised to us, not necessarily events.

The most dramatic example is of Jesus. The Saviour didn't really have the idealistic life. However he lived the most profound life of any person who has ever lived or will live. He came to this world to be our Saviour, that is what he yerned for the most and that was what He was granted. He was in no measure excited to suffer in Gethsemane but He did it because it was God's will and because it was what would ultimately would bring Him unbelievable joy - fulfilling his purpose, redemption.

We have covenanted with our Heavenly Father and Saviour to try our best to do our part and and have the faith that they will do theirs, which is to bring us exaltation and eternal joy. Often in life tragedy is the rout we are asked to take to accomplish such outcomes as it is often a rout we never knew existed.

I realized in this realization that I needed the sort of faith that believes not just in happy routs but the sort of faith of Abinidi. I needed the faith in which I am willing to walk into a lions den for the Lord even when I know God could still let the lions devour me. This dose not mean I should live in fear. No, it means we live empowered; afraid of nothing. We can go forward knowing that lions may eat us but that they will never destroy us, that with God there is nothing to fear. That our lives, no matter how un-idealistic, they are profound and without doubt accomplish what we most desire. We are not living wasted lives, we are living our deepest desires into life, we are serving our Lord, we are obtaining joy. I realized I must live not in denail of tragedy but with the faith to never fear it. That is a grand thing, realistic and grand.

Pioneers crossed the plains with much difficulty but they all reached their Promised Land and the rest in the Lord they so longed for whether they made it to Utah or not. We will always hope that Lions never get us but most importantly we will have faith that God is over all, we are His.