Weep but Rejoice

“The world is steadily getting worse.”

The phrase passes numerous lips as we brush off and put aside everything that’s hard in the last days, and while the battle of this life is intensifying on both sides, I do think that we are faced with an unprecedented amount of in-your-face encounters with the world’s evil, especially as it is made more accessible though social media. The news is everywhere, and it’s usually depressing.

I think about this a lot. It’s easy to feel pent up, tight and anxious, when you suddenly step out of your safe and steady life to see how awful people can be. People are terrible and capable of horrible things, and I often want to shrivel and hide from it. 

But recently, I was required to do a deep study of the book of Moses for institute. The teacher, a great little old man and his wife with a zeal for truth, printed us individual copies of the Pearl of Great Price with wide margins, which we were implored to fill with as many notes as we could (100% would recommend, and Moses is a severely under appreciated resource). I’ve really enjoyed this and have had many insights as I wildly scribble random notes all over the place to make it look well-read. This time, as I read about Noah, I realized something I never noticed before. I mean, I knew that God’s work and glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39), and that the flood was just another tool for this, but I never really paid attention to Enoch’s reactions and his personal conversation with God as he viewed this event.

In Moses, Enoch asks God what will happen to Zion (the people who chose to follow God) and is given a vision of many things including the flood. And God weeps. Enoch is in shock to see the most powerful being in the universe in tears and even asks how in the world someone who knows the entire universe from end to end can cry over a handful of his children in a few moments of wickedness. God responds, "Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands."

Enoch's eyes are opened to two awing principles in this scene. I imagine he knew God loved him, but he sees now that God would still love him to the point of weeping even if he were not living like Zion (the first great truth). Secondly, Enoch learns to love his brethren. God could just have expressed his love, but he urges Enoch to see that the people suffering are his brethren and worthy of being cried over and loved, even though they are lost in so many ways.

But now Enoch is just really sad. God is weeping, he’s weeping, and the children of earth are being awful. Enoch has to face something everyone who has seen a love one make a bad choice has to face. The ones we love, our brethren, will do things that bring them sorrow. If this can make even God weep, it can definitely bear down a little human who has just learned to love these people. Enoch seems to feel a sudden despair. The world looks hopeless.

And what does God tell him next?

Be glad. That's right.

What the heck is this? How can you be glad in the face of darkness like that? Enoch’s brethren whom he is learning to love are dying both spiritually and physically, and God, after weeping, tells him to rejoice.

Why?

Because of Jesus Christ. Yep. All the awful choices, all the horrible things, will be made up because someone chose of their own free will to take it upon themselves. God explained that the people of the flood who suffer will end up in prison for a time, but will be visited by Christ and uplifted, which the New Testament later confirms. 

After reading this, I was scrolling facebook thinking about some of the trials people have around me and how I cannot reach them. Some of their struggles sound unbearable. Others have gone so far from the strength of faith that their choices are painful. I’ve been praying for greater charity, but sometimes it’s a painful thing because, rather than reacting with anger to opposition, I find only sorrow. For me, anger is the easier, lazier way out. Compassion and the sorrow that comes with it are sometimes too much to bear. I just want to shout at the heavens with questions of why and pleas for the evil the world to just stop. I weep, and I know God weeps. WE weep for love.

And then, I remember what Enoch was taught, and I rejoice. I rejoice because no matter the darkness of the world, Christ has overthrown it completely. He saves, he enables, he allows us repetance. The plan works! God's promises are fulfilled! Through Christ, sorrows will be made up. I  have had dark moments that feel like the world will topple over me, but I have seen that God is merciful and offers us paths to Joy. He promises us joy.

So, when the dark of the world is too much to bear, I like to remember that I don’t have to bear it, someone else already has. Peace will exist on this earth. I can love, act, and move forward in that faith and in the enabling power of Christ, knowing that sorrow is only for the moment.

I weep, but rejoice.