Sacred Struggle - Hidden Miracles
For Discussion:
Book: Sacred Struggle: Seeking Christ on the Path of Most Resistance, by Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye
Essay: “Dark Miracles” by Valerie Hudson Cassler - Melissa Inouye on Follow Him podcast
Dark Miracles - maybe a better title is Hidden Miracles? - “Adversity is one of the most important reasons we wanted to come to mortality.”
“I was not the woman I was before” - Cassler
Resistance to change causes us the most pain.
Melissa: Everything is getting harder but more simpler.
We prioritize differently when things are hard
Painful but still can have hope knowing that the feeling of the spirit will come again
If struggling with mental illness - if the spirit is thwarted by good feelings it is hard to get to the good
Francine Bennion’s quote in Cassler’s paper: As Francine Bennion once wrote, “We suffer because, like Christ in the desert, we apparently did not say we would come only if God would change all our stones to bread in time of hunger. We were willing to know hunger. Like Christ in the desert, we did not ask God to let us try falling or being bruised only on condition that he catch us before we touch ground and save us from real hurt. We were willing to know hurt.” (Bennion, 1988)
Melissa: page 68 - cleaning up the messes for others
Wounds travels downhill, healing travels uphill
Melissa; pg. 100 - patriarchy - clarity about the reality “can’t dismantle everything” lots of clarity and the reality and the goodness that still happens
Clean up some of the hurt as we progress through life
The poem quoted by Valerie at the end:
I believe in the sun even when it is not shining,
I believe in love even when not feeling it,
I believe in God even when He is silent. (quoted in Swensen, 2007:14)
Faith is choosing to believe
Rebuking Satan during these hard times is a necessity
We can’t contribute everything to Satan - we have agency to choose
The True Jesus Church (described in Melissa’s book)
Authorized priesthood keys and authority contribute to further truth
Truth expands us
Our growth is infinite
Alma: Trust in God, thou shalt be supported in their trials, troubles, and inflictions
Elder Maxwell: trials are from God, troubles from a fallen world, inflictions are consequences
Why are some healed and others are not?
Are we supposed to be learning every time from struggles? Sacrifice? Patience?
How faith and sacrifice work together
It’s a process to get to the point “I will be the woman I was not before”
Radical acceptance of the hard reality
Pain + Resistance = suffering
The resistance is non-acceptance and makes everything harder
Quotes from Melissa Inouye on the Follow Him Podcast:
Part 2, starting at point 19:36
I just have this conundrum as a cancer patient, which is sometimes you just have to accept the hard things of the world. You have to accept the indignities of disease, and the things that are painful. They're just part of the world.
At point 20:35 she says
“I sometimes wonder if it’s unreasonable to ask God to always deliver us.” And she goes on to talk about acceptance. Great thoughts.
Notes:
The Uses of Adversity by Carlfred Broderick
“Come Follow Up” - with Melissa Inouye - 3 Nephi 8 - 11
Melissa Inouye — possibly a book to be published next year