The Fellowship of His sufferings

This entry is dedicated to those in Zach's family who are suffering right now from their many physical afflictions, and to anyone else who is suffering on the inside.

I started a book called A Disciple's Life written by Bruce C. Hafen. It is the biography of a Neal A. Maxwell, a former member of the quorum of the 12 disciples. It talks about his battle with what would eventually become terminal cancer (leukemia). There are some beautiful things expressed about what this experience teaches him. Elder Maxwell had written and spoken often enough about this "special suffering". Twenty years before in a book he wrote called All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience he says that afflictions come to us because an omniscient Lord deliberately chooses to school us.The very act of choosing to be a disciple... can bring to us a certain special suffering..."
Hafen includes a quote by Anne Marrow Lindbergh which reads, "I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and a willingness to remain vulnerable." It is not simply in suffering that we become Christlike, it is what we choose to do and learn with our trials that refines the soul. Elder Maxwell lets his suffering give him a "feel" for what other people taste in their sorrow and deepens his understanding of the atonement of Christ. "The more I learn and experience," he said, "the more unselfish, stunning, and encompassing His Atonement becomes! When we take Jesus' yoke upon us, this admits us eventually to what Paul called 'the fellowship of [Christ's] sufferings." (Philippians 3:10) Then if we are meek enough, our suffering "will sink into the very marrow of the soul." May we all strive to have this attitude in times of trial.