Sunday Talk

Last Sunday, our bishop caught me in the hall and asked me to prepare a talk for today about overcoming challenges. This is what I came up with. Enjoy!

When I was in the first grade, my teacher, Mrs. Nelson, brought an incubator into class. Inside, she placed six chicken eggs, telling us children that in a few weeks, we would be able to watch the chicks hatch. Every morning, we crowded around the incubator, jostling elbows and treading toes in our excitement. We stared at the silent eggs under the heat lamps and speculated on arrival dates, gender, and - most importantly - the names of the chicks, while willing time to fly faster. Finally, in the middle of learning that four plus four did, in fact, equal eight, a startled shriek of "It's hatching! It's hatching!" interrupted the lesson. Chairs squealed as twenty four children pushed away from their desks and mobbed the incubator. A ragged hole marred the smooth surface of the egg, a small beak barely visible.
"It's done," a classmate said. "Let's get it out."
Amid a chorus of assent, small helpful hands reached for the egg, but Mrs. Nelson quickly intervened.
"The chick must do it by himself," she said. Then, anticipating the next question, added, "If the chicken can overcome this first challenge, then he will be strong enough to survive."
"What if it CAN'T?!"
Mrs. Nelson shrugged with previously unseen callousness. "Then he will die."
Gasps of horror filled the room as we contemplated the death of our baby chick, perhaps in a fiery explosion of feathers and eggshell. Eventually, Mrs. Nelson convinced us that it would be best for us to only observe and hope VERY hard that the chick could break out of its shell. After twenty minutes of whispered encouragement, the chick flopped out, wet and exhausted, but very much alive.
The class erupted in cheers, each of us inordinately proud of the baby chick's first triumph and secure in the knowledge that the chick would be fine.
After returning to our seats, Mrs. Nelson again impressed upon us the importance of allowing the chicks to hatch unaided.
"Remember, strength comes from adversity," she said, before turning back to simple addition.
Goliath was a large man. Being a champion of the Philistines, he cowed King Saul and his Israelite army, towering over normal men by three and a half feet. With is head-to-toe armor, super-sized spear, and personal shield carrier, he presented enough of a challenge to keep the Israelites hiding behind rocks, trees, scrub-brush, and whatever other cover they could find.
In First Samuel 17:8-9, Goliath shouted to the Israelites, "Choose you a man for you, and let him come down unto me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve use."
Instead of emboldening King Saul and his army, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
How does one bring down the biggest challenge in the immediate area, knowing that it must be a one-on-one fight and that if you lose, you will lose your life and your family and friends will lose their freedom?
As it turns out, all you need is a sling, a couple of smooth stones, and a boy to wield it - a boy named David who knew without a shadow of a doubt that Heavenly Father not only supported him, but would lend him the strength to overcome the mighty Goliath.
In First Samuel 17: 45 & 47, "Then said David to [Goliath] the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou has defied . . . And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with the sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands."
And then David accomplished with only a sling, one stone, and a powerful faith in God what no man in the Israelite Army with their shields and swords could overcome; He slew Goliath and won victory for King Saul.
Could David have defeated Goliath without the Lord's help? Unlikely. David was neither naive nor foolhardy enough to believe he could overcome this monstrous challenge on his own. He had faith that the Lord would not abandon him - that God would strengthen his arm and guide the stone to its target.
It may seem to some that the Lord allowed the Israelites to win the hard way. Why not have God take care of Goliath and the Philistine army himself? After all, it would be easy enough for the skies to darken, rain to fall, and a bolt of lightening to zero in on all of Goliath's metal accessories and light him up like the Fourth of July. God could then shout down from the heavens something along the lines of how all the Philistines need to leave right now and that, by the way, David would be Mr. Popular from now on.
However, just as God cannot make our choices for us, he cannot remove our challenges from us. Our challenges, whether they be physical or emotional, large or small, are placed in our way to help us grow. This does not necessarily mean that if you do not overcome the challenge, win the race, or pass the test that your growth stops. We learn from our challenges - both the ones we overcome and the ones to which we succumb. Confidence and skills increase with success while humility and wisdom increase with failure. It is important to know that the Lord will stand by us and support us despite the final outcome.
Challenges are wildly diverse and specific to each individual and situation. They may be as complex as an illness, poverty, a failed or unhappy marriage, wayward children, war, natural disasters, or persecution. They may be as simple as getting to work on time, speaking kindly to siblings, doing homework, avoiding inappropriate media, walking the dog, a broken fingernail, or giving a talk on Sunday. Through it all, the Lord is available and willing to lend his support. Our challenges, big or small, win or lose, are only as much as we can handle. As it says in Mosiah 4:2 ". . . it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength . . ." The Lord will never give us a challenge that we cannot endure and overcome with his help.
During the winter of 1777, outnumbered, under-supplied, and discouraged, General George Washington led his ragged Revolutionary army to Valley Forge. There, camped in the cold snow, enduring hunger and illness, they waited for the tide of war to either turn to their advantage, or completely destroy their revolutionary ideals. If the revolution proved to be successful, they would be hailed as heroes. If it failed, every Revolutionary would be hung as traitors to the crown. With this huge responsibility on his shoulders, General Washington knew that only Heavenly Father could help them wind independence from an unjust king.
Following is an account related to Reverend Snowden by a Mr. Potts: He [Mr. Potts] said, ". . . I never believed that America c'd proceed against Great Britain whose fleets and armies covered the land and ocean, but something very extraordinary converted me to the Good Faith!" "What was that?" I [Rev. Snowden] inquired. "Do you see that woods, and that plain. It was about a quarter of a mile off from the place we were riding, as it happened. There," said he [Mr. Potts], "laid the army of Washington. It was a most distressing time of ye war, and all were for giving up the Ship but that great and good man. In that woods pointing to a close in view, I heard a plaintive sound as, of a man at prayer. I tied my horse to a sapling and went quietly into the woods and to my astonishment I saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at Prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid, as it was ye Crisis, and the cause of the country, of humanity and of the world.
"Such a prayer I never heard from the lips of man. I left him alone praying.
"I went home and told my wife. I saw a sight and heard today what I never saw or heard before, and just related to her what I had seen and heard and observed. We never thought a man c'd be a soldier and a Christian, but if there is one in the world, it is Washington. She was also astonished. We thought it was the cause of God, and America could prevail." (from www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/prayer-at-valley-forge.html)
The Lord answered General Washington's prayer. The following spring brought the arrival of Baron von Steuben to train the troops and new allies from France, both of which helped the newly formed United States of America win freedom.
I would like to read the verses to hymn number 120, Lean on My Ample Arm:
1. Lean on my ample arm, O thou depressed!
And I will bid the storm Cease in thy breast.
Whate’er thy lot may be On life’s complaining sea,
If thou wilt come to me, Thou shalt have rest.
If thou wilt come to me, Thou shalt have rest.
2. Lift up thy tearful eyes, Sad heart, to me;
I am the sacrifice Offered for thee.
In me thy pain shall cease, In me is thy release,
In me thou shalt have peace Eternally.
In me thou shalt have peace Eternally.
Text: Theodore E. Curtis, 1872–1957
Music: Evan Stephens, 1854–1930
Our Heavenly Father is there, ready and willing to aid us with any and all challenges that we may come across. Though we may not personally experience challenges that will affect the fate of an entire nation, such as those faced by David and George Washington, we need to know that the Lord will love and support us so that, like the baby chick, we can break out of our shell - piece by piece - and emerge strong, faithful, and able to overcome new challenges. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.