It seems that many people are walking away from their faith in God and Jesus Christ because of such concerns. I love and care about them and share many of their concerns.
I do not know what anyone else should do about navigating difficult questions, but I can share something I have learned that helps me.
Soon after I got my first driver’s license when I was 16 years old, I was driving my parents’ car and a good friend was riding with me. I wasn’t an experienced driver, and there was a long, continuous curve in the road where I was having trouble navigating the bend. The car kept edging toward the outside of the curve, and it felt like we were going to fly off the side of the road. It felt terrible, and I was really embarrassed in front of my friend. I became very frustrated and finally pulled to a stop on the side of the road.
My friend didn’t judge me. He said he knew what the problem was and how I could solve it.
He said I was just looking in the wrong place. He said I was focusing on the outside line, and this was causing the car to drift toward the outside of the curve, where centrifugal force would naturally send the car flying off the side of the road. He said all I needed to do was to slow down before entering the curve, focus on the inside line on the shorter side of the curve, and then gradually accelerate into the curve while I “hugged” the inside line. This is apparently something that many people seem to know how to do instinctively, but I had to be taught how to do it.
That experience has become for me a useful analogy for when life throws us winding curves along the road of life.
In the analogy, the outside line of the curve represents whatever issue or concern we have for which we do not currently have an answer. The inside line of the curve represents Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and their pure love for us. If we drive full speed into the curve, like I did, focusing on the outside line of troubling questions, our ride will feel gut-wrenching, and it will seem almost impossible to stay on the road. We will want to pull off the road, and no one would blame us for not wanting to ever experience such a gut-wrenching ride again.
But if we instead slow down as we approach such a curve and we focus intently on the inside line, which is the Lord and his love, we can gradually accelerate into the curve, stay on the road, and navigate it without serious difficulty. We just need to look in the right place and hug the inside line.
We exercise faith in God and Christ when we hug the inside line. Although we are still aware of the outside line and the questions for which we don’t have an answer, we are able to remain on the road—or get back on the road—by focusing on the inside line where we find the Savior, who knows all things, who loves us with a perfect love and who knows exactly what we need and when we need it. He will teach us how to live in the midst of uncertainty. He will teach us compassion toward fellow travelers whose caring, troubled hearts find it unbearable to navigate curves of life that seem unfair, unkind, unjust and unrelenting. He can show us how to make things better by lifting and loving each other as we continue to wait together upon the Lord for greater wisdom and understanding.
Hugging the inside line makes all the difference for me. I hope it makes a difference for you, too.
—o0o—
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