Yearning for the Living God

This paper I just recently wrote for a personal mentor, I've been reading Yearning for the Living God by F. Enzio Busche, and this was my follow up paper for reading it. I love that book and recommend it to everyone! :) Its amazing. The beginning quote was from the book, and is one of my favorite quotes. 

“This world we live in is not the real thing. The actual world—which is closer to us than we sometimes realize—is full of truth and capable of bringing us to a higher level than we can understand. Indeed, it is more beautiful and majestic than a human can imagine. My spiritual insight has let me see that we as human beings live far below our potential from day to day. One day we will be confronted with our true potential; and we will see what we have missed because we have not embraced the ultimate help offered to us from our Creator. Life is not worth living if we walk around in it without really knowing that every choice we make defines our lives in the eternities.”

 

As part of our earthly portion of our lives, we face trials. We all at some point in this life experience pain and suffering, and eventually come to a breaking point. This point defines who we are, and the character we have. This is part of the earthly experience, and completely unavoidable. The amount of pain varies by circumstance, experience, maturity, and character.

            In some circumstances, trials seem unbearable. Sometimes it feels like punishment rather than a blessing. And many go as far as to ask why God has allowed the suffering or even further, why God has punished them.

            What these sufferers don’t see is their true potential. It is part of our Heavenly Fathers plan that the veil clouds our memory of who we were in the pre-earth life, and part of who we were was the knowledge we had of who we could become—Our true potential. The only way we can see our true potential in this life is looking at this earthly life with an eternal perspective, like Enzio Busche did here. The potential was visible because he was looking at life with his spiritual understanding and eternal perspective.

            What exactly is an eternal perspective? How does it ease our burdens? 

            Having an eternal perspective really clarifies and sharpens our lives. It defines what we do and the reasons behind our actions. Without it, we are wandering aimlessly throughout our lives and become lost.

            An eternal perspective is like a pair of glasses. When we choose to put them on, we can see clearer in all directions. Details are vivid, distances are greater, and everything we see is viewed with charity, the pure love of Christ. Enzio Busche describes what an eternal perspective looks like:

            “The long hours and weeks in the hospital were, at first, unbelievably tedious, and the physical and emotional pain alone seemed to be unbearable. But as time went by, I learned to turn my thoughts away from myself. One day, as I was looking at my bed, I saw more than the white linen bedspread in front of me. I saw the individual thread, and I saw the field where it originated. I saw the sun, the rain, the wind it was exposed to. I saw the soil from which it took its nurture. I saw the people that came for the harvest. I felt their sweat and diligence. I felt their goodness. I felt their love. I saw that if every act of labor were done with love and care, this world would heal. There would be light, even divine light, in the heart and soul of every man and woman enabling us to grab one another’s hand and dance like innocent children, filled with the exuberance of never-ending joy.”

            This eternal perspective gives to us a higher perspective on life. We see the simple things and they become so detailed that they become eternally great in our eyes. We can see so far as to see the end of our trials and see how small they are compared to the glorious scheme of things. The simple things matter more, and the things that used to matter most lose their luster. An eternal perspective is merely this: to look at everything with our spiritual eyes, even through the very eyes of our Father in Heaven.

            Viewing our lives in this way extends our understanding in all directions. When we choose to view everything in an eternal perspective, like Enzio Busche said, we “…see what we have missed because we have not embraced the ultimate help offered to us from our Creator.”

            We see that the Savior offers us the atonement, and if we embrace His help, we surrender our load to Him, what used to be the burden of sin becomes something much lighter, the burden of responsibility. The load is no longer verging on the brink of destruction, but gives us strength as we learn to carry what is ours to carry, and to give what is ours to give to the Savior. We learn through the relief and soreness that we can only carry so much, and later learn that we don’t have to carry all that we had previously done. And when we take on that light load of responsibility, we can carry it farther than we ever could imagine.

            Once we learn to view our lives through an eternal perspective, we learn what Joseph Smith learned in the depths of Liberty Jail:

 

“And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.” (D&C 122:7) 

 

“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.” (D&C 121:7-8)

 

            During this earthly portion of our lives, we must view the trials we face and the afflictions we endure with an eternal perspective if we are to triumph and learn from them. It will bring us greater happiness and we will see our true potential through the spiritual eyes of our Father in Heaven. And we will live life, and know that “every choice we make defines our lives in the eternities.”