Trials and Miracles

"The beautiful thing about the concept of miracles is that even if we don't get exactly what we wanted or exactly what we expected, if we have the faith and the Christ-like mindset of 'Thy will be done,' we won't come away empty-handed. We'll walk away with the satisfaction and peace that we now know the will of God for us."


Naaman and Elisha
The Book of Second Kings in the Old Testament recounts the story of Naaman, an army commander, who was given a challenging trial, indeed. He contracted the highly contagious and deadly disease of leprosy. One of his wife's servants was a Jew. She knew of the prophets. She knew that Elisha was in Samaria, not too far from where they were. She suggested he make the trip to see the prophet to be healed. He accepted.

Arriving at the dwelling of the prophet, his situation was explained, and a command was given:

Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be healed. 

If you know anything about the River Jordan, you know that it is not at all clean. In fact, it is quite muddy and dirty. And so Naaman's reaction to this counsel is quite understandable. He didn't like it. He wanted the prophet to come out and heal him and get it over with. And since that didn't happen, he was ready to turn back home and live with his trial. But his wise servants said the following:

If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 
(2 Kings 5:13-14)

I love the imagery given, that his flesh was like that of a little child's. In truth his flesh was not the only thing that became as a little child's. His heart became so also. Even though he thought the suggestion was silly and overly simple, he followed it and was healed.


My Experience with "Silly" Counsel
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a really skinny guy. Almost painfully so. I always have been. When I was little I was always bothered by a sort of bulge of my ribcage on my left side, which was caused by slight scoliosis. When I got to the MTC, I read the story of Naaman and I thought, Might there be a way that I can get rid of this annoying bulge? Maybe a Naaman-type experience? And so I prayed. The impression I got was too random to have come from my own imagination; I felt that I needed to do two things:

1) I needed to run a mile every day in the allotted gym time and 2) I needed to stop drinking soda. Obviously those two things have very little if anything to do with bone structure, and yet I accepted it as a commandment. If the [Spirit] had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou have done it?...

For the two months I spent in the MTC I ran a mile every day. I absolutely hate running long distances, so this was a challenge, especially being in higher altitude than I was accustomed to. I stopped drinking soda during meals, and instead drank juice and water. At the end of my time in the MTC, I suddenly noticed that the bulge that had bothered me my entire life was gone. I realized that during that time I hadn't checked to see if the bulge remained; it was as if a stupor of thought made me forget to check so that the experience would have more power. I don't know if something about running helped with my posture, and I certainly don't know what not drinking soda had to do with anything, but I know that what happened to me was not an invention of my own making. It was a miracle wrought from a humble prayer of a naive new missionary.


Trials and Miracles
Many of us tend to have this perception of miracles as only being these elaborate supernatural occurrences, these awe-inspiring feats of extraordinary divine intervention: Moses parting the Red Sea, Christ raising Lazarus from the dead, Peter and John healing the lame man at the steps of the temple. Certainly these events were not natural as we would define it. But they were (and are) to God. In our personal lives, it is our faith which allows us to see those little miracles, like the one I had. That I know longer had a little bulge of my ribs may not seem to you very significant, but to me it was huge. That bulge represented all of the anxieties and self-consciousness that I had always had over my weak physical stature, and so to see it gone was a sign to me that the Lord was aware of those anxieties, and was willing to help me overcome them. So it is with these little personal miracles-- these tender mercies. They are personal manifestations of our Heavenly Father's ultimate love and perfect awareness of our situations.

A lot of times, however--as it was with Naaman--we fail to remember two important things in regards to this concept of personal miracles. 1) "By small and simple means are great things brought to pass." Ours is a God of simplicity. If He sees fit to perform a miracle in our lives, He will do it. He will more than likely ask something of us, but it will never be something complicated or impossible. Wash seven times in a dirty river. Run a mile every day. Stop drinking soda. Do we realize just how simple these things that the Lord asks us to do are? Give up just 10% of what you earn. Refrain from certain substances. (Note: Just because they're simple, obviously doesn't make them easy, per se, but certainly doable.) 2) He loves us. Consider this scripture from the apostle Paul:

My [child], despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son [or daughter] whom he receiveth....Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 
(Hebrews 12:5-6,11)

It is a perfect understanding of what it takes to grow into a perfected being that motivates our loving Heavenly Father to give us trials. Some lose family members. Others have to overcome terrible and painful diseases. Still others struggle through intense financial struggles. But just as the same God told the prophet Joseph Smith as he questioned his own trials and those of the early Saints,

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 they good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
(D&C 122:7-8)

(Watch this Mormon Message for more on how trials help us grow)

The miracles which are associated with our humble pleas to overcome these intense struggles become the foundation of our eternal relationship with our Heavenly Father. He knows us perfectly. We barely know Him. But when we pass through our own personal Gethsemane's, and feel the love that comes from the manifestations of our fervent prayers to Him, we come to know Him. We start to develop a deep, personal relationship with He who created us. The beautiful thing about the concept of miracles is that even if we don't get exactly what we wanted or exactly what we expected, if we have the faith and the Christ-like mindset of "Thy will be done," we won't come away empty-handed. We'll walk away with the satisfaction and peace that we now know the will of God for us. And of course, a perfect knowledge that He loves us. 

In closing let me share the words of the prophet Moroni, which he gave in prophetic, visionary "response" to the criticisms of modern-day miracles:

"The reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust. Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth."
(Mormon 9:20-21)