Joseph in Liberty Jail artwork by artist Liz Lemon Swindle. Includes a message of why God allows bad things to happen and how we can turn adversity into a prison-temple experience.
I love this artwork by Liz Lemon Swindle. The pain and humility etched on Joseph’s face speaks volumes. You can almost feel an ache within your own bosom as you look at his forlorn face, imaging what he must have been going through. Perhaps the ache we feel is because we have been there, a time of deepest despair with no end in sight.
Joseph in Liberty Jail by Liz Lemon Swindle, used with permission
Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen?
In the book Messages for a Happier Life, Inspiring Essays from the Church News by William B. Smart, he shares the following that gives some insight as to why people suffer adversities:
“Look,” came the voice from the back row…”If you or I saw someone suffering and didn’t help, we’d be under condemnation, right? Well, when God could help, why doesn’t He?”
A provocative question, one that has troubled man for centuries.
Why does the Lord allow such awesome tragedies as the volcano eruption in Columbia? The genocides in Eastern Europe, Cambodia, Uganda? The famines in Africa? Why do innocent people die in terrorist attacks? Why are good people killed or maimed in auto accidents, or ravaged by agonizing terminal illnesses, or tormented by the tearing apart of marriages and homes?
The answer is, we don’t know. It is not given to man to know the mind of God, and agonizing over the meaning or cause of this disaster or that suffering can be fruitless and destructive.
[Yet we can suppose] that growth and strength can come only by overcoming resistance. Just as the muscles of the arm can become strong only by exercising against resistance, so is striving against adversity essential to the growth of man.
…The words were carefully chosen when the Lord, in closing the gates of Eden, told us, “cursed be the ground for thy sake.” Thorns and thistles followed. So did cruelty and hunger, broken health, lost jobs, thwarted dreams – all, in the long view, for our sake.
We Have a Choice
It seems that we each have a choice when it comes to adversity. We can either accept it, therefore, helping us to learn and grow from it OR we can curse God, ask “Why me?” and use what strength we have fighting against it.
In all of church history, I do not believe there is a better example of growing and becoming stronger through adversity than from Joseph Smith at Liberty jail.
A Prison-Temple Experience
Read Elder Holland’s prophetic, inspiring words on how through Joseph’s example, we too can make adversity into a temple-prison experience:
Most of us, most of the time, speak of the facility at Liberty as a “jail” or a “prison”—and certainly it was that. But
Elder Brigham H. Roberts, in recording the history of the Church, spoke of the facility as a temple, or, more accurately, a “prison-temple…” Certainly it lacked the purity, the beauty, the comfort, and the cleanliness of our true temples, our dedicated temples. The speech and behavior of the guards and criminals who came there was anything but templelike.
…We love and cherish our dedicated temples and the essential, exalting ordinances that are performed there. We thank heaven and the presiding Brethren that more and more of them are being built, giving more and more of us greater access to them. They are truly the holiest, most sacred structures in the kingdom of God, to which we all ought to go as worthily and as often as possible.
But tonight’s message is that when you have to, you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experience with the Lord in any situation you are in. Indeed, let me say that even a little stronger: You can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experience with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life—in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced.
…Every one of us, in one way or another, great or small, dramatic or incidental, is going to spend a little time in Liberty Jail—spiritually speaking. We will face things we do not want to face for reasons that may not have been our fault. Indeed, we may face difficult circumstances for reasons that were absolutely right and proper, reasons that came because we were trying to keep the commandments of the Lord. We may face persecution; we may endure heartache and separation from loved ones; we may be hungry and cold and forlorn. Yes, before our lives are over we may all be given a little taste of what the prophets faced often in their lives. But the lessons of the winter of 1838–39 teach us that every experience can become a redemptive experience if we remain bonded to our Father in Heaven through that difficulty. These difficult lessons teach us that man’s extremity is God’s opportunity, and if we will be humble and faithful, if we will be believing and not curse God for our problems, He can turn the unfair and inhumane and debilitating prisons of our lives into temples—or at least into a circumstance that can bring comfort and revelation, divine companionship and peace.
(Taken from Elder Holland’s address Lessons from Liberty Jail given at a Church Educational System fireside for young adults on September 7, 2008, at Brigham Young University. Click HERE to read the full address)
The Question Is…
Adversity will come for it is part of the divine scheme of things. But the question is, will you turn your adversities into a triumph or a tragedy? Will you take this opportunity to have a temple-prison experience or turn away from God? The choice is yours. What will you do?
For an inspiring story that talks about enduring our trials and having faith in Jesus Christ, check out Parable of the Broken Pinkie and 10 Seconds of Pain by Clicking HERE
Yours Truly,
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To see more of Liz Lemon Swindle‘s artwork click HERE or visit her blog by clicking HERE.
