Hiding from God Under our Pavilions

President Henry B. Eyring

I have been preparing to give a lesson to the high priests tomorrow. The assigned October 2012 General Conference talk is one from President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency. He titled it "Where Is the Pavilion?" It was the anguished question Joseph Smith once asked while he was incarcerated in the dungeon cellar of Liberty Jail in the cold damp Missouri winter of 1839. He believed God had abandoned him.

There are times in our lives when we, like Joseph Smith, feel betrayed and abandoned by God. President Eyring suggests God never abandons us. Rather, it is we who separate ourselves from His loving watch care and desires to bless us by what President Eyring defined as "a pavilion of motivations." It's an interesting choice of words. What is it about our motivations that separate us from God? He expanded with the thought, "Our own desires, rather than a feeling of 'Thy will be done,' create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God."

"God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time," observed President Eyring.

This matter of submitting our will to the will of our Heavenly Father is tricky stuff, to be sure. It seems God is determined to help us understand that we, as little children, must submit our will to him "as a child doth submit to his father," since it comes up so often in Holy Writ. In another passage, we are admonished, "Cast off your sins, and [do] not procrastinate the day of your repentance; . . . humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering; having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest." (Mosiah 3:19; Alma 13:27-29).

Being submissive and meek makes us keenly aware of our blessings. I felt to say based upon my own life experiences with President Eyring, "I was blessed to know that whatever success I had in my career and family life was a gift from God."

This week marked a "dubious" milestone for Patsy and me. Our eldest grand-daughter Tessi gave birth to an infant daughter. They named her Quincy Aida Wood. That makes five generations of our family now living on planet Earth! What a breathtaking thought! This little girl threatened an early arrival a couple of months ago, but as we united our faith and prayers as a family on her behalf her delivery was delayed until she could be born full-term at a healthy 8 lbs. 1 oz. with a full head of black hair! I don't think we ever recover from the miracle that is birth, no matter how many times we witness it. And our gratitude finds a way to expand exponentially.

Sometimes we lose sight for a season of our blessings. President Eyring suggested that happens when "[our] desires for professional success might have created a pavilion that would make it hard for [us] to find God and harder for [us] to listen to and follow His invitations." He reflected, "My personal ambitions might have clouded my view of reality and made it hard for me to receive revelation."

As you reflect on your own life, how often can you find a time when "my desire to know and do His will gave me a soul-stretching opportunity?" I thought of one in recent years. My world had turned upside down almost overnight when a long-sought fulfillment was snatched away at the finish line. I found myself adrift in the aftermath of the worldwide financial meltdown, having to search for employment late in life.

I reached out for help from the Employment Resource Center sponsored by the Church. To make a long story shorter, I was invited to accept a calling with Patsy as a senior missionary couple to serve as the Chair of the Professional Placement Program. I found it so ironic. I wasn't considering myself retired and certainly not eligible to be called a "senior" missionary. I still had years of work ahead of me. However, I learned a valuable lesson about service. It could not have come at a worse time in our lives. I needed to focus on my own employment needs. How was I to be able to give precious time I didn't feel I had to serve others in their search? As I helped others network into new opportunities, I found few were helping me. "Where was I to find answers to my own problem?" we wondered frequently. I learned that service to others of any kind is rarely convenient.

As the months in that assignment unfolded we found marvelous fulfillment not only in helping others, but it seemed our own prayers were being answered. Marvelous lasting relationships with those we served were forged out of the fires of our shared adversity. I was fond of reminding those who showed up week after week, "Look around, you're in good company. Don't let your temporary unemployment situation define you."

And so it was. My heart was drawn out continually as I watched the suffering of those we served. My own appreciation for my blessings was heightened. I found joy again. From the joy came new hope for the future. None of it happened overnight. In fact, it has taken years since it all happened to fully appreciate just how blessed we have been. And isn't that true for all of us? We are rarely able to discern the blessings while we are in the crucible of our suffering. Only looking back do we fully appreciate that we were not consumed in the fires of adversity, only singed a little.

I also learned perhaps the most valuable lesson of a lifetime. "We can't insist on our timetable when the Lord has His own." While we often have an agenda for goals being reached on the timetable we set for ourselves, God is often interested in a completely different timetable with eternal objectives. We are in such a rush to get things done here and now, and He is willing to wait upon the harvest a bit longer. Said President Eyring, "We remove the pavilion when we feel and pray, 'Thy will be done' and 'in Thine own time.' His time should be soon enough for us since we know that He wants only what is best."

It seems God is willing let us simmer on the back burner as long as it takes for us to submit. He is willing to be invited to move us to the front burner when we are ready to accept His judgment for what is best for us. "Submitting fully to heaven's will. . ., is essential to removing the spiritual pavilions we sometimes put over our heads. But it does not guarantee immediate answers to our prayers." And I found that to be the case also. When you're building for eternity, it takes time for the cement to cure a bit in the weather.

Who could doubt the time it took for Abraham and Sarah? God had purposes in mind that had to be fulfilled first before the promised blessings were realized in their lives. "Those purposes included not only building Abraham and Sarah's faith but also teaching them eternal truths that they shared with others on their long, circuitous route to the land prepared for them. The Lord's delays often seem long; some last a lifetime. But they are always calculated to bless. They need never be times of loneliness or sorrow or impatience. Although His time is not always our time, we can be sure that the Lord keeps His promises." I wondered how many childless couples there are today, and how many single women, who would give anything for the promised blessing of posterity. Sarah-like faith is to be prized as we wait upon Him. And that requires patience.

Paul reminds us, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:26-29).

Abraham-like, we are often required to remove our "pavilions of motivations" by waiting patiently upon the Lord for His promises to be fulfilled. The harvest will come, even unto the fifth generation. Of that, I am sure.

Utah Ranked Best for Business

To the surprise of no one who lives here, Utah has once again been named "best" in something meaningful.  This week Forbes named Utah as "Best for Business and Careers."  That is no small achievement for five successive years of consecutive growth at a rate of 3.5%, faster than any state other than North Dakota.  We either ignored or never received the memo that this is the "worst recession since the Great Depression."  We've just been truckin' along despite it all.

At our weekly networking meeting, I remind the folks who come that if you're unemployed this is the best place in America to be unemployed.  The rate here is 7.8% in the latest data.  It's cold comfort, I know, if you're still unemployed, but Forbes is not wrong in their assessment.  The entrepreneurial spirit here is thriving and communicable.  Catch it!  I just spoke with an older couple today at a small business technology expo who decided to start their own social media marketing business because they figured they could do better on their own!

The article confirms the number one issue on voters' minds in this upcoming election is the economy and jobs.  We've seen what bloated government stimulus spending has failed to accomplish, paired with overbearing regulatory "reform" that has done little if nothing to reform but instead retard economic growth. 

Utah is leading the way in the parade of states, doing what it needs to do to attract new business and jobs to the state.  Utah lowered its corporate tax rate from 7% to 5% in 2008. The rate is now one of the lowest in the country. The regulatory climate is also pro-business, with the Pacific Research Institute rating Utah second-best in the regulatory component of its U.S. Economic Freedom Index.

Forbes quotes the Governor:  "We want to make sure we don't have any nonsensical regulations that inhibit the private sector from expanding and having a profitable bottom line," says Governor Gary Hebert.  That's my kind of candidate!  If the federal government can't get it right, you may rest assured the government in the State of Utah is in good hands and we will get it right.

The article cites several notable companies that are expanding into Utah, with more arriving every day.  Included in the Forbes list are Goldman Sachs, Adobe that bought Utah startup Omniture for $1.8 billion last year, Oracle and eBay.

The ranking looks at six analytics to come up with the winner:  costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life.

There is little doubt Utah must be doing something right, and we are.  This is a place where businesses can be born, grow and thrive.  Increasingly, other states struggling to survive in this economy would do well to take a page from Utah's book of firsts in recent years.

To those who are still unemployed, take heart and keep on trying. 

Remember, "The number of times that I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I fail and keep trying."

The job market here in Utah is better, unemployment rates are lower, and companies are hiring.  We are committed at the Employment Resource Center and the Monday morning Professional Placement Program to continue matching employment candidates with the employers who are offering jobs.  The numbers who used to attend our meeting a year ago averaged 170 to 180.  This year in recent months those numbers have dropped consistently and now average 90 to 100.  I tell folks each week that our program is the only place on earth where we can succeed when nobody shows up for a meeting!

I am always heartened by success stories from our candidates who find work.  I get e-mails each week documenting their successful searches for jobs.  I take no credit personally for what is happening.  Our staff provides the authenticity for their experience, since all are themselves job seekers who volunteer their time and talents to assist and teach others.  Each is a living example of someone who is living the law of consecration in reaching out to lift up the hands that hang down and to strengthen the feeble knees, when they themselves are in need.  It's a miracle for me to be able to observe how it works!  And we need more volunteer couples.  Talk to your bishops.

Here's another recent example from someone in my LinkedIn network:


Dear Elder Goates,


My wife found a job listing the other day for a Service Advisor at *** GMC in Ogden. This was not a job I had ever considered but we emailed my resume to the Service Manager and then I immediately drove up to introduce myself to him.

We had a short interview in which I used my "Me in 30." The Service Manager explained to me that he had two other potential candidates who had previous car dealership. It turned out that one candidate had lost his driver's license and the other had some prior criminal background. There is something to be said about living the gospel. I knew that I could pass a drug test and that there was nothing questionable in my past.

I followed up with the Service Manager on Wednesday and he explained that they were waiting for the background check to come back for them.

I got a call today from the Service Manager to inform me that the other guy could not pass the background check and he asked if I could start tomorrow. I explained that we had a truck coming from Las Vegas in the morning with all of our belongings.

He agreed to let me start first thing Monday. I drove up to Ogden today and signed their job offer and then took my drug test.

Elder Goates, thank you so much for your encouragement and the encouragement I have receieved from the LDS Job Placement program. This has been a great blessing in my life.

We are in the process of moving into a house this week and I have been praying and asking what to do and how are we going to be able to afford this house. The answer I kept getting was that everything was going to be okay and that we would be blessed. This job came just at the right time.

I wish I could get up on Monday and share with the group but I know you will understand.

Please share this with the group. There were times I got very discouraged and it was very hard. I kept trying and didn't give up. I volunteered to help others, and attended the temple. I know that I am very blessed for this.

I know that this is an inspired program but you have to have faith and keep trying.

Thank you again,

Service Advisor
*** GMC

* * *

Here's another:

Brother Goates, Brother *** here, one of your father's missionaries if you remember. Good news I found a job, worked at this company eight years ago, not a perfect job, so I am still looking, but two things, good I did not burn any bridges and networking works. I do have a brother in the ward that needs help with a resume. I would like to send him down and work with the brother with the balding head. Sorry, I have forgotten his name. If you could let me know I will pass it along to him. Thanks for all of your help, it really did help.


Brother ***

* * *

And another:

I found a job and started working 9/28/10. I would like to thank you for offering a wonderful program that really does help those of us looking for employment. I particularly found the 2 day workshop that helped with resumes and mock interviews to be very beneficial. It is also nice that you include those of us that are not LDS to participate.


Thank you, ***

* * *

As you can tell, there is ample evidence the employment situation in Utah is improving.  People are finding work.  Employers are hiring.  Not everyone is hanging their head in hopelessness.  I encourage all who are looking for employment to come and partake freely of the offering at the Employment Resource Center at Welfare Square and particularly professionals who may be tempted to think they can do it all by themselves because they've always been self-sustaining in the past.  This is a different economic world, and you need new tools to assist you in your search.  We have our finger on the pulse of what's happening.  Help is available.  Half the people who were placed along the Wasatch Front in 2009 were not members of the Church.  Those who do the work we suggest find the jobs, while the rest of the job seekers are still relying upon sending resumes into cyberspace for job postings that are quickly filled up with hundreds of competitors' resumes.

The two-day professional career workshop is indispensible to job seekers.  We teach it alternatively each week at night and during the day to accommodate job seekers who are unemployed and those who are underemployed.  The Spirit of the Holy Ghost attends each workshop.  It is a revelatory experience designed to pinpoint strengths, skills and weaknesses, and to hone and refine the ways in which the job candidates present themselves to prospective employers.  As the examples above illustrate, it works!

I am happy to assist with pointing anyone to all the available resources, if you e-mail me directly at "d goates at yahoo dot com" (you know what it really is and how to spell it, right?).

Four Simple Ideas for the Unemployed

It seems a worthy topic for a Labor Day weekend, when the national unemployment numbers took another upward tick last week. 

In our voluntary assignment at the Employment Resource Center, we see again and again the principles of pure religion playing out in welfare service in 2010. 

The earliest foundations of the Welfare Plan of the Church were laid in 1935 in the midst of the Great Depression.  Harold B. Lee, a young stake president (age 32 when he was called) in the Pioneer Stake, is often credited with the earliest experiments to help his unemployed adult male population.  But there was never any doubt in his mind where the inspiration came from to create the Welfare Plan.

In his journal, under date of April 20, 1935, Harold B. Lee records: 

"I was called into the office of the First Presidency, where with President Heber J. Grant and President David O. McKay (President Clark then being in the East, but they had had some communications with him so that all members of the Presidency were in agreement) I discussed the relief situation in the Church and various methods of handling the same. President Grant said he wanted to take a 'leaf out of Pioneer Stake's book' in caring for the people of the Church. He expressed dissatisfaction with the then existent program of social service investigations. He said that there was nothing more important for the Church to do than to take care of its needy people and that so far as he was concerned, every thing else must be sacrificed [so that] proper relief [could be] extended to our people. I was astounded to learn that for years there had been before them, as a result of their thinking and planning and as a result of the inspiration of Almighty God, the genius of the very plan that was waiting and in preparation for a time when, in their judgment, the faith of the Latter-day Saints was such that they were willing to follow the counsel of the men who lead and preside in this Church. My humble place in this program at that time was described."

Many years later, when he himself was President of the Church in 1972, Harold B. Lee described what happened to him after that meeting by quoting further from his journal to the assembled General Priesthood meeting:

"I left the First Presidency's Office about noontime with an assignment to work out a program of relief for the entire Church based upon my experience with the relief problem in the Pioneer Stake, where perhaps the greatest problem of unemployment in the entire Church was to be found.
"Almost in a daze with the magnitude of this assignment over powering me, I drove my car up to the head of City Creek Canyon into what was then called Rotary Park, where I could meditate and determine upon a course that would realize the objective that had been set for me by the Presidency. After I had driven my car as far as I could, I got out and walked up through the trees. seeking a secluded spot, where I knelt in prayer and sought the guidance of an all-wise God in this mighty undertaking. I told the Lord to guide me to conclusions dictated by his will, and that, for the safety and blessing of his people, I must have his direction. "As I kneeled down, my petition was: 'What kind of an organization should be set up in order to accomplish what the Presidency has assigned?'
"Having sought my Heavenly Father, I sat down to pore over this matter, wondering about an organization to be perfected to carry on this work. There came to me on that glorious spring afternoon one of the most heavenly realizations of the power of the priesthood of God, that God had already revealed the greatest organization that could ever be given to mankind and that all that was needed now was that that organization be set to work. It was as though some thing were saying to me: 'There is no new organization necessary to take care of the needs of this people. All that is necessary is to put the priesthood of God to work. There is nothing else that you need as a substitute, and if you use it the temporal welfare of the Latter-day Saints will be safeguarded.'"

 If you are not reminded of those simple beginnings, you may be oblivious to the fulfillment going on around you today.  The priesthood of God is fully engaged.  The leadership of the Church has given the direction in our day about what we should be doing.  As never before, we are living in a volunteer Church.  We are serving one another, loving one another as we never have to answer the extremities in which we find ourselves financially and economically.  There are no government programs needed today, just as there were none needed in the 1930s when the Welfare Plan was launched.

Some of the "founding fathers" who were on the scene attest to its divine origins through the First Presidency of the Church at the time, Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark and David O. McKay:

"With the inspiration of this movement attested to by such witnesses as coming from divine sources, any Latter-day Saint who believes in the principle of continuous revelation cannot fail to heed the call of the prophets 'to set up a system where the evils of the dole will be abolished and where independence, thrift, industry, and self-respect can again be established among our people.'" (Heber J. Grant, October, 1936; "Church Security" by Harold B. Lee, as quoted in The Church Welfare Plan, by Henry D. Taylor, 37).

"I never heard President Grant say that he had seen the Master, that he had seen the Father, or that he had heard a voice about the welfare plan. But that does not mean that he did not have a revelation. . .
"But there is still another way in which revelation comes, and that way is through the ministrations of the Holy Ghost. . . Now I say unto you, that that kind of revelation, revelation of the Holy Ghost, did come to President Grant. Not only in this case, but in others. And through that revelation, inspiration if you wish to call it, from the Holy Ghost, President Grant launched this great welfare plan."  (J. Reuben Clark, Jr., in an address to the Central Utah Welfare Regional Meeting at Brigham Young University, August 3, 1951).

"That Church Security Plan has not come up as a mushroom over night. It is the result of inspiration, and that inspiration has come from the Lord. . . Those who have selfishness in their hearts would like to see it fail, but it is not going to fail."  (David O. McKay at a meeting of the Salt Lake Region, February, 1937).

"I believe I have heard almost all the objections which have been raised against it, and also the labored arguments in justification for not living it. As I have listened to these objections and arguments, I have been painfully aware of the dull spirit in which they have been urged. . .  I believe I have made a rather complete study and I now testify to you that I do know beyond any doubt, by the same power that Peter knew that Jesus is the Christ, that the Church Welfare Plan in its inception was and now is inspired of the Lord; and that the great principles implemented by it are eternal truths, which the saints of God must abide if they are to purify and perfect themselves as the Lord has commanded." (Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, October 1945, 156).

The Lord's will had been made known and he had raised up the man to help solve the oppressive problems of the Saints. That Harold B. Lee was a magnificent innovator and a spiritually directed master organizer is abundantly attested by Church history, and those gifts were especially well-illustrated by his part in the development of the Church Welfare Plan.  But it was the leadership of the First Presidency, and their unflagging support that was key to its ultimate launch and subsequent development. 

Today, we are eyewitnesses of the law of consecration in action, as originally envisioned.

In 2010, there are still some misguided ideas about how things work in the Church's Welfare Plan.  Whether you are unemployed yourself or you know someone who is, here are four simple ideas to assist you:

1.  The Employment Resource Center teaches self-reliance in the job search. 

I am still surprised when people call me or e-mail me because they've heard I'm the guy with jobs at the Church.  They want me to hook them up with a job, tell them where to go to find it, and introduce them to all the people I know who are hiring.  I wish it were that easy and sometimes I wish it were true that I know all those people, but it isn't quite that simple.  Instead, the Church has prepared a marvelous resource called the Profession Career Workshop, a two-day revelatory experience designed to reveal the job seeker's skills and strengths to themselves.  Introspection, self-examination, and personal revelation are the key elements of the workshop.  Remember, no law the Lord has given is temporal, not even the job search:  "Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created. Behold, I gave unto him that he should be an agent unto himself; and I gave unto him commandment, but no temporal commandment gave I unto him, for my commandments are spiritual; they are not natural nor temporal, neither carnal nor sensual."  (D&C 29:34-35).  For non-professionals without college degrees, the Career Workshop is likewise outlined in the same way with similar principles but different applications.  The job seeker is shown tools to develop power statements, resumes, and cutting-edge suggestions about how to find a job in today's unadvertised job market.  It is powerful and it works, but it is powerful because it reignites the job seeker in his own individual search, not because it hands them a job without effort on their part.

2.  Network or don't work. 

The Church provides the forum for a weekly association with other job seekers.  When I first attended, it resembled what seemed to me to be an AA meeting, everyone standing momentarily and giving something called "Me in 30 Seconds," and I was first amused, then engaged by it, then fully immersed in helping others around me connect with resources I knew with whom I was connecting them.  There is something very counter-intuitive about networking with people out of work to find work.  But a room full of out-of-work people who are seeking employment and having interviews on a regular basis is a very fertile field, it turns out, because they know people with whom they have networked and interviewed who know people who know others who know people who are hiring.  It may be counter-intuitive, but it works, and we provide that opportunity weekly on Monday morings at 8:00 a.m. at the LDS Business College for unemployed professionals who are serious about their job search.  Ours is only one of many networking meetings across the Wasatch Front from Logan to St. George on every day of the week in other centers.  There are 322 Employment Resource Centers worldwide doing the same things.  Find a meeting near you at the local Employment Resource Center, and learn for yourselves the power of networking into your next job.

3.  Support each other in your ward. 

Find out what services or products are being sold by others in your own wards.  Buy from those people you know in your wards and stakes.  If you are remodeling your home or building out your basement, look for people you can employ in your own neighborhood, rather than getting bids from strangers.  If your car needs repairs, turn to a mechanic in the ward.  Support each other, and sustain those who are either underemployed or unemployed.  It's always astounding to me how we come together each week on Sunday in a three-hour block of religious meetings, but few of us know the occupations of our ward members.  We know them only on a superficial level of Brother or Sister so-and-so.  Do you know what everyone does for a living in your ward?  Have you asked them for their help?  Or are you still suffering under the worn-out stigma that unemployment is a condition akin to adultery and unemployed people must have some kind of sickness or illness that is taboo and should to be avoided like one who has leprosy?  It was King Benjamin who offered valuable insight:  Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just — But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God. For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? (Mosiah 4:17-19).

4.  Bear one another's burdens. 

A week ago in our ward, Patsy and I presented a fifth-Sunday combined priesthood and Relief Society lesson about our mission and what we are doing to assist others find work.  I asked for a show of hands at the end in response to the question, "How many of you have family members who have lost their employment in the last two years?"  Nearly every hand in the audience went up.  This week several told me they have encouraged others in their family to contact me and learn more.  That's good.  It's exactly how it happened for me last year.  I told our ward members to go to http://www.ldsjobs.org/ and pass that website along to everyone they know who is looking for work, whether a member of the Church or not.  We are in an economic debacle right now that is NOT the fault of those who have been affected by its ravages.  Companies in survival mode have been laying off people routinely.  I have met many who are in their late 50s or early 60s who are out of work for the first time in their lives.  Company layoff decisions are not always fair.  In fact, they are rarely fair, since there is no such thing as "fair" in this life.  Several senior executives I have met have years of experience, but they represented high-priced salaries on the balance sheet that had to be jetisoned so their companies could survive.  Their jobs were eliminated to cut costs, in some cases only months within full vesting in their retirement pensions, and to say it was their "fault" for losing their jobs is grossly inaccurate.  As I have said before, sometimes there are no good answers to the "Why?" questions.  Some things just happen.  Instead of judging another's circumstances harshly in today's economy, we need to seek ways to bear one another's burdens.  Often all that is needed is a kind word, a friendly smile, and an accepting heart filled with encouragement and love unfeigned. 

President Thomas S. Monson suggested the antidote for our own suffering, when he said recently: 

The Apostle Paul admonished, “By love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13).  Recall with me the familiar words of King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon: “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”  (Mosiah 2:17).
The Savior taught His disciples, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”  (Luke 9:24).
I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish — and in effect save their lives.  (President Thomas S. Monson, “What Have I Done for Someone Today?,” Ensign, November 2009, 84–87).

We are living in a day, perhaps as never before, when the law of consecration is very much in evidence, at least in the circles in which I travel.  I saw a young man the other day at our networking meeting who was engaging several of the participants with names and contact information of people he knew they should be talking to.  Two of our employers, recent graduates of the program, were there as recruiters for the companies they represent now. 

The ripples in the pond of helping and sustaining one another in consecrated service are widening. 

We are still seeing new people at our meetings who have never been there before.  Each week we greet about twenty-five or thirty new participants who have heard about what we do through word of mouth principally, sometimes from bishops, ward employment specialists, or friends who have come and then told them about it.  In each case, it takes extraordinary faith and courage to show up bright and early on Monday morning dressed in a shirt and tie or Sunday bandbox best for the women.  They are conducting their job search with faith and diligence, following the prescribed path the leaders of the Church have felt inspired to set forward for our day and time.  There is one pragmatic and proven reason:  It works!

We often see people who are not of our faith who come nevertheless because they have been assured they will find what they are looking for, and without cost to them.  About half the people who found employment through applying the program to their job search were not members of our Church last year.  While the unemployment numbers are still high nationwide, we are blessed here in Utah, as I have said before.  Our unemployment numbers are lower than the national average, and there are ample opportunities for those who are willing to put in the work to find the work they are seeking.

There are many in our program who voluntarily assist the job seeker, folks who themselves are looking for work.  The authenticity of the program is in clear evidence to those who come.  These are seasoned professionals who know whereof they speak because they are in the thick of it shoulder to shoulder with those they serve.

I've always loved what President Lorenzo Snow said:  “When you find yourselves a little gloomy, look around you and find somebody that is in a worse plight than yourself; go to him and find out what the trouble is, then try to remove it with the wisdom which the Lord bestows upon you; and the first thing you know, your gloom is gone, you feel light, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, and everything seems illuminated.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1899, 2–3).

Please take note:  These simple suggestions from prophets are in stark contrast to the TRILLIONS of dollars being squandered in Washington D.C. today.  The problem with having prophets among us is they are too simplistic, too humble, too true.

Only a conniving politician would attempt to give a convoluted and contorted explanation as the justification for the plethora of spending bills we are told are absolutely essential to our economic survival.  BIGGER AND BIGGER GOVERNMENT BORROWING TRILLIONS IS NOT THE ANSWER.

But a living prophet, like his predecessors, has the antidote.  He says, "Go find somebody to serve."

It's just way too simple.  I am a witness, however, that simple is good. . .  and it works.

Utah Digging Out of Recession

The Associated Press August 24, 2010, 8:14AM ET

SALT LAKE CITY

Utah is adding jobs faster than it is losing them for the first time in several years, state economists said Monday.

Utah's unemployment rate remained steady at 7.2 percent in July amid signs the state is digging itself out of the recession.

Utah added 17,200 jobs over the past year, with the state work force expanding by 1.5 percent to 1.19 million jobs, according to the state Department of Workforce Services.

The recovery, however, is slow. And the unemployed are filing more than 2,000 jobless claims a week, double the historic average, said Mark Knold, chief economist of the Department of Workforce Services.

Those claims were as high as 5,000 a week at the start of 2009.

Signs of job growth are encouraging, although the survey data is subject to revision and could backslide, Knold said.

Utah is still playing catch-up. About 75,000 jobs have been removed from the state economy over the past three years, he said.

Three of Utah's economic sectors are still showing net job losses -- manufacturing, construction and government.

Knold said the construction sector could stabilize by year's end. Utah has lost a third of its construction jobs since July 2007, and it could take another 10 years before the state returns to the previous high mark in that industry, he said.

During the recession, Utah manufacturers scaled back employment by 4,100 positions to 20,000 -- the worst-hit industry in the state, Knold said.

Other employment sectors made modest gains over the past year.

The department said nearly 98,000 people in Utah were considered unemployed in July.

Utah's July unemployment rate was well below the national figure of 9.5 percent.

* * *

Now that school has begun and the fall season is upon us, we have a better handle on what the unemployment situation is.  I'm using the number of attendees at our Monday morning networking meeting as the gauge here.  Last January the room where we meet was filled to overflowing.  We were seeing around 175 -180 participants every Monday monring.  I have joked that we would only hold that meeting for as long as it took to get the numbers down to the size where we could meet in a phone booth.

The drop since January has been gratifying.  We've got the only job in the Church I know of where you succeed if no one shows up for the meeting. . .  For the last several months we have seen the number of participants decline to 70 or 80 each week.

Even when David Checketts was our featured speaker a couple of weeks ago and I expected to see some "ringers" who weren't really unemployed show up to hear him speak, the number only ticked up slightly to 95.  A year ago, David spoke to a standing-room-only audience in excess of 200.  His stake in New Canaan, Connecticut, had 120 heads of household out of work last year.  This year he reported that number is down to 10.  Despite what the gloomy national statistics are telling us, improvement is discernable and real but still slower than necessary.

Growth is slow because of government intervention.  Get government out of the way and the economy will take off.  Free markets hate uncertainty, and no one has injected more uncertainty into the equation more than the President of the United States and his majority leadership in both Houses of Congress.  Force feeding a fast diet of economic fat fueled by debt, sugar-filled programs, regulatory bills filled with new agencies designed to bypass Congressional oversight and debate, coupled with expanded entitlement spending has been disastrous.

Despite all that, there is significant evidence I can point to that Utah is leading the way out of this recession.  Because Utah's constitution mandates balancing the budget each year, businesses here are hiring, growing and defying the odds.  The growth is slow but discernable and sustainable despite the malaise in evidence in other parts of the country.

There, I delivered some good news.  And there's more. . .

It was reported earlier in the week that 14 Utah businesses are in this year's list of the Inc. 500's fastest growing companies, further evidence Utah is rising above the recession doldrums.  Funding Universe leads the way in Utah at number 34.  And what's the business model for Funding Universe you ask?  Matching angel investors with budding entrepreneurs and their startup businesses. 

Now if we can just reverse the disturbing effects of socialism, entitlements, bailouts and handouts, we'll progress even faster.

David Brooks wrote a thoughtful piece in the New York Times this morning comparing Germany's approach to the financial crisis with America's.  Under conservative leadership in Germany, notably German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany elected to spend significantly less on stimulus borrowing as a percentage of GNP, and their unemployment numbers are back down to pre-crisis levels.  Germany's economy is expanding right now at a blistering pace.  However, America's bloated experiment with massive debt and unbridled spending has frozen economic recovery by contrast.  Germany rejected the thinking of America's "best minds" on economics and has proven their case.  She has shown the example to America -- if you're the government, you can't borrow and spend your way out of a recession.  Hip, Hip, Hooray for capitalism, Ms. Merkel!!

Let's hope Americans have seen enough data to reverse course in November and follow the example of Germany.  I never thought those words would come out of my cyber pen, but there you go. . . America should take an economic lesson from Germany.   

Unthinkable. . . until now. 

"My Job Campaign" by Steve Asay

A few weeks ago we pulled out a small group of job seeking candidates at our weekly networking meeting for a focus group, seeking to improve our offering in the Professional Placement Program.  The feedback and insight we received from the participants was valuable, pointing us to creating a "roadmap" a candidate could follow in seeking their new employment opportunites. 

Many commented how great the Monday morning meeting was, and they appreciated the motivation and inspiration provided, but they felt they needed more guidance for what to do Tuesday through Friday.

What follows comes from the ever-creative and awesome mind of Steve Asay.  He has generously shared his thinking after reducing it to paper on Monday.

Steve has challenged all the candidates looking for new employment to give their families a wonderful Christmas gift -- secure employment before December 14, 2010.

He introduced an outline (see below) that if followed will produce the new job in four months: 

Month 1 – Week 1

 Identify tools needed for Campaign
o Telephone
o Computer
o Office/Place to Work
o Network of Contacts
o Resume
o Portfolio
o Website
o Blog
o Twitter
o Other

 Determine Values
o Type of positions willing to accept
o Salary range
o Benefits required
o Geography
o Time
o Travel
o Deal Breakers
o Other

 Initiate update of Resume and Portfolio

 Start 100 Cards networking list

 Create initial profile on ldsjobs.org

 Meet with your Ward leadership

Month 1 – Week 2

 Set Campaign objectives – BIG IDEA

 Begin Discovery Experiences
o Wise Wanderings Map
o StrengthsFinder 2.0

 Develop a list of 50 or more target companies for review

 Complete Career Workshop 1

 Determine who and invite Accountability Team to help

 Complete updated resume

 Continue Portfolio collection

 Complete profile on ldsjobs.org

 Form a Peer Team with other job candidates

 Perform Service Hours

Month 1 – Week 3

 Meet with member of Monday Professional Program Team
o Review Campaign objectives
o Demonstrate use of Power Statements
o Review resume
o Review ldsjobs.org profile
o Review portfolio
o Review Accountability Team

 Begin calls to 100 Cards

 Begin filtering 50 target companies through Wanderings and Strengths

 Test resume on CareerBuilder, Monster, etc

 Begin Informational Interviews

 Meet with Peer Team

 Report to Accountability Team

 Perform Service Hours

Month 1 – Week 4

 Continue calls to 100 Cards

 Update resume based on internet test

 Update ldsjobs.org profile based on internet test

 Network into target companies

 Add new target companies to maintain list at 25 minimum

 Continue Informational Interviews

 Complete video interview with Professional Program Team

 Accept and attend all job interviews from test

 Meet with Peer Team

 Report to Accountability Team

 Perform Service Hours

Month 2 – Weekly Activities

 Report to Accountability Team

 Meet with Peer Team

 Continue calls to 100 Cards

 Tract into at least 5 new companies each week

 Perform Service Hours

 Complete at least 10 interviews per week
o Job Interviews
o Informational Interviews

Month 2 – Monthly Activities

 Report progress to Ward leadership

 Meet with Professional Program Team for update and refinement of Campaign

 Complete Career Workshop 2

 Update objectives

 Build Action Plans for targeted companies
o Review Action Plans with Professional Program Team
o Implement Action Plans for targeted companies

 Complete a Second Interview practice with Professional Program Team

Month 3 – Weekly Activities

 Report to Accountability Team

 Meet with Peer Team

 Continue calls to 100 Cards

 Tract into at least 5 new companies each week

 Perform Service Hours

 Complete at least 10 interviews per week
o Job Interviews
o Informational Interviews

Month 3 – Monthly Activities

 Report progress to Ward leadership

 Meet with Professional Program Team for update and refinement of Campaign

 Refine resume

 Refine portfolio

 Update objectives

 Add new targeted companies

 Update Action Plans for targeted companies
o Review Action Plans with Professional Program Team
o Implement Action Plans for targeted companies

Month 4 – Weekly Activities

 Report to Accountability Team

 Meet with Peer Team

 Continue calls to 100 Cards

 Tract into at least 5 new companies each week

 Perform Service Hours

 Complete at least 15 interviews per week
o Job Interviews
o Informational Interviews

Month 4 – Monthly Activities

 Report progress to Ward leadership

 Meet with Professional Program Team for update and refinement of Campaign

 Refine resume

 Refine portfolio

 Update objectives

 Add new targeted companies

 Update Action Plans for targeted companies
o Review Action Plans with Professional Program Team
o Implement Action Plans for targeted companies

Job (man or metaphor?) revisited. . .

Once every four years (sometimes more often when we talk about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail, see D&C 121, 122, 123), the story of Job is bashed about in Gospel Doctrine class.  For us it happened again today.

I'm not sure why it is, perhaps it's just a Mormon thing, but whenever Job's name comes up the great debate begins again -- was Job a real guy?  Did God and Satan really have a conversation about him?  Or was the book of Job a metaphor?  I'm not certain it matters to anyone, but I believe we'll see Job again in the spirit world someday.  There, I just settled it.

The book is a real problem for a lot of people on many different levels.  Books have been written, symposia have been held, articles have been authored, and each attempts to resolve this "great and holy mystery" without success.  The debate was enjoined and renewed again today.

There are a host of "problems" associated with the book as it stands in today's Bible.  I summarize in the attempt to be brief (a challenge).

The book begins and ends with bookend conversations (Job 1-2; 42:7-17), then there's a story in the middle (Job 3:1-42:6).  In the beginning, God and Satan have a conversation, God brags about how loyal Job is to Him. Satan says that Job is only loyal because he has been rewarded with worldly possessions for his obedience.  Satan asserts God has bought Job's love with a price, and Job is so conditioned by his righteousness he believes blessings are his automatic reward for his faithfulness. Take those all away, Satan contends, and Job would curse God.

It's a little disturbing to most that such a barter would be going on between God and Satan over the soul of a man, but nevertheless God challenges Satan to do whatever he wants to Job.  God says Job will still be loyal.  The worst happens thereafter -- Job's fortune disappears in a New York minute, and his children are all killed in a freak accident.  But Job doesn't cave, he remains true and faithful.

Okay, Satan says, let's inflict a little physcial suffering into the mix, then Job will curse God.  So God gives Satan permission to really hurt Job.  His body is afflicted with painful boils from head to foot.  Still Job blesses God.

So God makes his point with the Devil, restores Job's possessions, his fortunes (twice what he had before) and even gives him a new family.

What are we to learn by this story?  Job was true and faithful, and therefore all righteous people who are loyal to God will prosper.  Job was prosperous as the story began, and after a temporary setback, Job regained the prosperity he deserved -- he was entitled to it because he was true and faithful and God is bound when we do what He says.  (D&C 82:10).

This is a theology based upon a covenant.  The revelation in D&C 82 involves the law of consecration.  The promise is all for all -- you give me all you possess, God says, and you will receive all that I have.  The Old Testmament is filled with the covenant.  The House of Israel is blessed when they are righteous, and they are cursed and punished when they reject righteousness.

The story inside the Job story, however, seems contradictory.  This theology seems to break down.  In his conversations with his friends (all have names, suggesting they are real people), no one shows any awareness of Satan's existence in what is going on.  Rather, the assumption they make is that it is God who is inflicting all this pain upon Job.  Because God is all-knowing, they reason, God must have a pretty darn good reason for doing all these bad things to Job.

Job suffers.  He even curses the day he is born.  There were other prophets, notably Jeremiah, Jonah, Nephi, Paul, Moses, Isaiah who come immediately to mind who did as much.  All were filled with not only self-doubt but worse -- they couldn't imagine themselves up to the challenges God put them up to.  Job complains bitterly because he can't see any good reason why God should torment him.  He's been a good son.  He claims he is innocent.  He wants to know why he is being thus tormented and afflicted.  He complains that the heavens seem sealed above his head.  God is either not there or He is not listening.  Job finds no comfort, nor does he get the help he needs.

Job's righteous friends are apparently very familiar with the theology that in obedience we can claim God's blessings, so their only conclusion based upon that theology leads them to conclude Job must not really be what he appears to be.  He must have done something bad to bring down God's wrath upon himself and his family.  They suggest if he would just repent, then God would restore him to his previous condition.

It's not unlike the people who observed the boy who was blind in Christ's time.  "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"  (John 9:2).  This assumption -- that if something goes awry in our lives that it must be our fault because we are sinners is well-entrenched.  In our present calling at the Employment Resource Center we see it repeated again and again.  Unemployment still seems to carry a stigma that those who lose their employment are somehow at fault.  I know, it's stupid, but try to tell that to some of the people I meet who are still suffering under the stigma of well-meaning ward members whose comments tend to reinforce the false premise.  Even some priesthood leaders, I have been told, have suggested as much to their ward members who tell me of their interviews.

At the end of the story God finally appears to Job in a whirlwind and says, "I created everything.  Job, what can you do compared to that?  What do you know compared to what I know?"  God does not answer any of Job's questions and does not take sides in the debate about His covenant -- what it takes to acquire His blessings.  Instead, He seems almost to insult and taunt Job for being little more than "a creature."  Job responds, Moses-like, that he had not understood.  Having seen God, he now despises himself and repents.

On some level Job can be viewed as an "every man" figure metaphorically.  I know many Jobs in today's world searching for jobs, and for the most part I believe they are righteous, faithful people, whether of our faith or not.  I meet many who are not members of the Mormon Church.  In fact, we see about as many job placements among members as we do among non-members.  I believe most have suffered their fate of unemployment through no fault of their own.  The similarity between losing a job (little "j") and Job (big "J") is not lost on me.  To suggest they have lost their jobs through unworthiness is simply a bridge too far for me.

We see Job discussing his plight with his friends in the story, but that could be nothing more than the self-talk I have witnessed with many of our candidates in the Professional Placement Program.  Almost to a person, the first question on their lips is "Why?"  They are simply trying to make sense of their suffering, when sometimes there is no sense at all to it.  Sometimes, most often in fact, we don't get the answer to the "Why?" question until we are on the other side of the crucible looking back.  Or maybe it will be on the other side of the veil before we know.

I believe the message I see in Job's story is that there is no correlation between what people get and what they deserve.  The moral of Job's life story is sometimes there is no answer.  Sometimes there is no reason behind our suffering.  We can suffer for sins, we can observe consequences for sins, but sometimes there is no answer -- stuff happens. 

A few months ago, we had a wonderful speaker at our Monday morning networking meeting at the LDS Business College, U.S. Olympian Mike Schlappi, a paraplegic who was shot accidently by his best friend and was paralyzed from the chest down.  He wrote a book called Shot Happens.  Here's how he describes the book:

"I got shot. What's your problem?  Does that sound sardonic or terse or dismissive? I don't mean it that way. I did get shot and it is my problem. A .38 caliber bullet fired at point-blank range, slammed into my chest, clipped my lung, narrowly missed my heart, and lodged in my spine; paralyzing me from the chest down and I had to deal with it. I still have to deal with it every day. That is my problem. Now, what is your problem? What do you have to deal with today or every day? Do you have something lodged in you maybe not in your spine, but perhaps in your heart or mind that causes you pain and makes you feel paralyzed one way or another? What position are you taking relative to your problem? In other words, what is your attitude relative to your situation? You see, in my book (and this is my book), attitude is a position not a mood; and it is the position we take toward our circumstances that turns bad days into good days. Are you tired of people in wheelchairs talking about attitude? Well, don't put this book down, because what it says about attitude will rock your world. Okay, maybe it won't rock your world, but it will change your world -- at least it will change the way you look at things. . . and that will rock your world."

Mike's book illustrates beautifully that righteous people do suffer and that there may be no reason behind their suffering.  Shot happens.  That reality provides no ammunition, leaves no excuse for the belief that suffering is evidence that God is punishing someone.  When the Grand Designer set moral agency into the equation as the necessary mainspring to make the plan of salvation possible, to introduce sin and consequences, He had to walk away from micromanagement.  So do parents. 

That notion cannot sustain the belief that God tries individuals to test their faith or to improve them. The book legitimizes the right we all have to ask the toughest of life's questions.  What the book also proves to me is that often there are just no good answers. 

I believe Job was a real man facing real life difficulties, but perhaps the best part of the book of Job for me is that it compels me to think about life's imponderables at least every four years.

Before Job was afflicted, he believed as his friends did:  God really does reward the righteous and punishes the wicked during their mortal lives.  But it seems to me since Job did not really deserve his suffering, he had to revise his assumptions and his faith as it was stretched a bit beyond his comfort zone.  He modified his original belief that God was dispensing His rewards and punishments justly.  Some of what happened to him just did not seem fair.  But no matter how he felt about whether or not he was being treated fairly he never lost faith in the Grand Designer behind it all.  I'm using "Grand Designer," because that was the way President Thomas S. Monson characterized our Father in Heaven in his Easter Sunday message at General Conference last April.  I just taught that lesson in our high priests group this morning, so it's fresh on my mind.

Because he never lost faith in God, Job believed He was still the cause of what happened to him, even when the going was pretty tough and the reasons behind his suffering seemed unknowable, even unthinkable.  Job said, "Who knoweth not. . . that the hand of the Lord has wrought this?" (Job 12:9).  He saw God, not Satan, as the cause behind his suffering.  Job cried to his friends, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me!" (Job 19:21).

In The Book of Mormon, God promises the Nephites and by extension the Latter-day Saints today that He blesses His people when they are righteous and punishes them when they are not.  Much is made in Sunday School lessons about the Nephite cycles of prosperity, then pride, then hardship, then repentance, then restoration.  (Perhaps the most famous statement of this expectation of being blessed for our righteousness comes from Mary Fielding Smith as told by her son, Joseph F. Smith. She explained to young Joseph F., "If I did not pay my tithing, I should expect the Lord to withhold His blessings from me.  I pay my tithing not only because it is a law of God, but because I expect a blessing by doing so.  By keeping this and other laws, I expect to prosper and to be able to provide for my family."  "Tithing Blessings," Friend, March 1981, 36.  It's such a familiar story it has become iconic).

So why do faithful saints who pay their tithing not recieve the promised blessings of financial independence?  Why are not all addictions relieved immediately upon a humble pleading?  Why are not the effects of illness erased when faith is present?  Why do infants die, when some old folks suffer for years in a diminished state with little or no quality of life?  Why does unemployment continue to plague us as a country despite trillions of dollars in stimulus legislation?  Why do Republicans reject everything Democrats do and vice versa?

Because shot happens.

We have a plethora of scriptures that teach a harsh doctrine.  For example, Doctrine and Covenants 59:21 says God's wrath is kindled against "those who confess not his hand in all things."  Doctrine and Covenants 87:6-8 teaches God chastens people by famine, plague, earthquakes, and storms.  (Compare D&C 43:25-26).  The Millennial Star's regular column, "Signs of the Times," pointed to various natural disasters in the news — volcanoes, floods, tornados, and famine — as being God's judgments upon humans. (In Manchester Mormons: The Journal of William Clayton, 1840-1842, ed. James B. Allen and Thomas G. Alexander [Santa Barbara: Peregrine Smith, 1974], 5-6.  Also see Orson Hyde, in "A Timely Warning to the People of England," attributing England's hardships to "the withering touch of the Almighty").

We have a well-developed theology associated with this cause and effect cycle, don't we?  In more recent years, quoting President Joseph F. Smith, President Boyd K. Packer once told Latter-day Saint scholars that those who are wise and careful "see in every hour and in every moment of the existence of the Church. . . the overruling, almighty hand of Him who sent His Only Begotten Son to the world."

So what do we believe about these questions?  Do the diseased, the unemployed, the woeful sinners, the dying, the divorced, the faithful poor suffer at God's hands, if He is truly in everything?  Does He mete out instant rewards and punishments?  Does every righteous person get a life of ease and comfort?  Does every other person who falls short have to struggle against all odds? 
 
When we are healthy and prospering, loving God and being loyal to Him is simple.  When our children shine forth as righteous examples and make our buttons burst with "righteous pride" (though there really is no such thing), we think God has blessed us because we deserve it.  Or do we?  How do we explain others who are suffering, who so far as we can discern are every bit as righteous as we are?  Does God put them in that position because for whatever reason we don't know God thinks they deserve their circumstances?  Worse, what if we're righteous and we're still suffering?  I think what I really believe is that what matters is how we answer those questions for ourselves.  

It is natural to wonder, as Job did, "What have I done to deserve this? Why has God done this to me?"  It's the first thought that ran through my head when our infant daughter, Adrienne, died quietly in the night. My first thought was this was not a random event.  It had to be the purposeful design of the Grand Designer for a lesson I was to learn.  But what?  He made me totally uncomfortable with my life.  I had to re-examine, reassess, and it was painful beyond belief.  It shook me to the roots.  I was knocked off kilter for months thereafter.  I couldn't accept that "shot happens" -- I had to find a reason, to attribute my suffering as part of God's plan even though I didn't understand it.  I had to continue exercising my faith without knowing the answer.

I said it was natural and I highlighted my experience, but there are a host of others we could cite.  If God truly gives us the situations we deserve (after all, He put us here on earth as part of the covenant, right?) and then those situations cause us to suffer, then our rational mind tells us we must have done something to deserve it.  What were we thinking?  That we were righteous?  Are you kidding me?  Our self-talk continues, "You're an idiot to think you were righteous.  Your personal disasters are your own fault.  I'm suffering, therefore I am guilty.  God has caused me to be infertile because I was on birth-control pills to put my husband through school.  God didn't heal me because I didn't have enough faith.  I didn't get that job I wanted through nine rounds of interviews because I'm just not humble enough, and I didn't seek the Spirit earnestly enough."  I call that "stinkin' thinkin'" and it's destructive.  In this frame of mind, like Job, we suffer not only the pain of the circumstance, but also the burden of unwelcome and undeserved guilt associated with it.

Taken to its extremities, we may also associate the suffering of our loved ones as somehow being attached to us.  "My daughter is dying of cancer, therefore God is punishing me for something."  Then you must believe, if that's what you really believe, that you are more important somehow in God's eyes than your daughter if you are the one being singled out.  I'm going to punish you, Dave, to teach you a lesson by taking your youngest daughter away from you.  I know, it's obvious how stupid that reasoning is, but I can tell you from personal experience it happens, as irrational as it is.

I'm beating around the bush, so let me just say it straight out.  This kind of thinking is false doctrine.  I loved what President Packer said in a General Conference address about handicaps.  We witness those who are physically handicapped in some way, and those handicaps are easier to spot, but having kicked around the planet for a few years now I can tell you what I have come to believe -- we are ALL handicapped in some way.  We do the best we can to manage handicaps in the job search (you're too old, you're too inexperienced, you're too overqualified), and we learn to focus instead on the things we're really, really good at.

President Packer said we are wrong to believe suffering is necessarily a direct result of sin. "There is little room for feelings of guilt in connection with handicaps. Some handicaps may result from carelessness or abuse, and some through addiction of parents. But most of them do not. Afflictions come to the innocent. . .  The idea that all suffering is somehow the direct result of sin has been taught since ancient times. It is false doctrine." (“The Moving of the Water,” Ensign, May 1991, 7).

Sometimes we eventually are able to put a positive spin on our suffering, thinking God has caused difficulty in our lives for some larger and grander purpose. We or someone else we love dearly will ultimately benefit from our suffering if only we can endure it well.  Oops, I thought it was the Savior who made the infinite vicarious sacrifice, not us.  If we are righteous, "all things shall work together for [our] good." (D&C 90:24).  Here's how this line of reasoning goes:  "God gave our family this sick child to bring us together." Or, "God called my father home to the spirit world so he could to do missionary work on the other side of the veil." Or, "God gave my teenager AIDS so He could teach other teenagers that immoral behaviors can have tragic consequences." Or, "God needs my child back with Him more than I need her here on earth." You may find comfort in some of those explanations, but do we really think God has caused a tragedy, if He hasn't told us He has, or that we presume to know His motives when they remain unrevealed?

I'm sorry, but I don't believe in a God who routinely causes catastrophes, displacements and disruptions for His children's benefit or punishment.  It makes Him unknowable to me.  This natural world is filled with lots of suffering occurring naturally.  Ask yourself as a parent if you would do that to one of your children, to knowingly cause them pain and suffering to serve some higher purpose you will not or cannot explain to them for their own good.  Would you do that?  Neither does God.

Richard Holzapfel, when he taught our Gospel Doctrine class was fond of reminding us, "Discipleship either makes us better or bitter."  It's a choice to decide what we will do with what happens to us. 

How often are we reminded of the old expression that we must have "the patience of Job?"  Well, the story of Job tells something different.  He was anguished, angry and bitter.  "I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul." (Job 7:11; 10:1).  He shouts at God, "Let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, before I [die]." (Job 10:20-21).  "God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark." (Job 16:11-12).

People who have lost their retirement investment portfolios in this latest economic disaster and are bitter might think, "God could have preserved my investments so I could have retired early and served Him in the mission field, but He didn't choose to.  If He hates me that much, then I hate Him too." Or, "God let my husband walk right out the door and abandon me and my children.  What's the divine purpose in Him doing that to us?"  Or, "God could have healed my boy with cancer, but He didn't.  What good is righteousness, how is that binding Him to answer my prayers, when He just turns His back on us?"  Or, "I've been loyal to God just like Job, but look at what He has done to me."  P.S. He can take it, He's heard it all before.

I've heard all those words come out of the mouths of people I know and love, even out of my own mouth.  The story of Job, fact or metaphor notwithstanding, is as fresh as today.  My God is not responsible for everything that happens.  Why isn't it okay for us to say, "I don't know why it happened?"  My favorite answer to gospel doctrine questions I only thought I knew the answer to when I was younger is increasingly, "I don't know and you can quote me on that."

I don't know why a large semi-truck hit and killed a faithful mother in our stake.  I don't know why on a snowy morning a young faithful father was instantly killed while his daughter in the front seat next to him was spared.  I don't know why a young teenager was thrown from a four-wheeler and drowned in a ditch.  I don't know why people are losing their jobs, and I don't know where or when they will find the replacement income they have lost.  Might as well add, I don't know when the Second Coming is coming. . .

I don't know anything about what the Obama administration has been attempting to do in these last eighteen months, and I certainly can't discern their motives, whether they are pure, evil, or just wrong-headed.  I just don't know.

I do know this:  Natural law is at work and causes accidents and disasters. When drought limits harvests, people starve. When cars crash, people get hurt or die. Some proportion of the population will be infertile, and some proportion will get cancer. Some outliers in the bell curve will have homosexual tendencies and others on the other end with overdeveloped heterosexual tendencies make them abusers and murderers.  Some X and Y chromosomes don't get aligned properly at birth.  Despite the efforts of faithful parents, some children will abuse their moral agency and make horrible and destructive choices.

Rather than making God accountable for everything bad that happens to us, I turn again to President Packer.  It sounds harsh that God has no regard for human feelings, but here it is:  "The very purpose for which the world was created, and man[kind] introduced to live upon it, requires that the laws of nature operate in cold disregard for human feelings. We must work out our salvation without expecting the laws of nature to be exempted for us." (Ibid.).

God does help, He does hear our prayers, He often intervenes in the affairs of men and nations when faith is sufficient, He does reward faithfulness, He does allow the consequences of willful sin to play out.  He does provide inspiration to go this way, not that way, He does offer comfort and assurance.  God can help us be the wisest, most loving parents it is possible to be. God can direct us to new employment, He can give us courage to press on into the darkness ahead, and He can help us respond to our difficulties with a mature and disciple-like faith that Father really does know best, even when the heavens overhead seem as brass and our prayers seem to bounce off without response.  He can fill us with the gifts of His spirit, and we can embrace the best gifts He offers us.  We can trust Him.  He is trustworthy.

Even when "shot happens."