Never a Greater Need for Hope

I've been reading Gerald N. Lund's newest novel, "Look up, My Soul.  THE DIVINE PROMISE OF HOPE".  He opens with the stories of a few pioneer settlers from the Martin Handcart Company. Truly egregious stories with experiences that I, again, cannot comprehend.  I know for certain, given my physical stamina, I would not nearly have had the strength requisite to fulfill the mission the Lord asked of them.  I would most certainly have died.  Many of them did.  Knowing this, I reverence their lives and their perseverance more than I can say.  Who better represents that type of individual that finds the strength to endure in the worst of circumstances?

Elder Lund shares his thoughts on our modern-day troubles:
"Most members of the Church (and I would add, the general public) are not faced with the same kind of challenges, trials, and sacrifices that the pioneers experienced.  We are not facing ice-clogged rivers or blizzards raging around our tents.  We are not asked to subsist on four ounces of flour per day, to press on pulling our handcart without a husband, or to leave a child buried in a shallow grave along the trail.  But we are facing some pretty serious challenges of our own...
"More and more people describe themselves as being dissatisfied, frustrated, discouraged, desperate, stressed out, dejected, melancholy, gloomy, weary, helpless, and hopeless.  They feel disconnected, doubtful, disengaged, disheartened, disillusioned, distressed, and despairing."

Then he quotes George Q Cannon:
"When we are filled with the Spirit of God, we are filled with joy, with peace and with happiness no matter what our circumstances may be; for it is a spirit of cheerfulness and of happiness."

How do these things match up?
How do we replace deep, overwhelming despair with hope, and even joy when we are not necessarily released from our trials?
I think those answers are deeply individual, and that they come by degrees.

I believe we are each given the trials that pierce us most. You may have heard this from various church lessons, but it is often suggested that when all is said and done, if we were to look again upon our trials in life, measure them against everyone else's, and be allowed to choose the ones we deal with in life...it is very likely that we would probably take back our own.  Why is that?  Is it because we had it "easier?"  NO!!!  Not hardly.  But God has given us each unique spiritual gifts that enable us to meet the trials He hands to us. What might come easy to one person could destroy another.  I couldn't do what the pioneers did, but they somehow managed.  I have trails I expect other people would suffer through worse than I.  God has perfect vision, and a perfect awareness of what we and our family members need from life before we are born.  He brought us to earth in His time, and allows us to learn our lessons and fulfill our purpose.  We need to cling to hope.  We need to trust God a little more.  We need to show faith that He knows what He is doing. Troubles, we can't avoid. But discouragement, like F. Scott Fitzgerald says, is "a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthritis is from a stiff joint."  He warns that if permitted to linger, "it will work and it will grow and it will spread.  In fact it can become almost a habit, a way of living and thinking, and there the greatest damage is done.  Then it takes an increasingly severe toll on our spirit, for it erodes the deepest religious commitments we can make -- those of faith, and hope, and charity."

When we let go of discouragement that naturally comes with earthly challenges, we find a whole new world opens up to us and we become stronger and more at peace with ourselves.  I know this from personal experience and I trust that same peace can come to others.