Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Spoken Word By Lloyd Newell 01272008

The Sunnier Side of Doubt

In the middle of a cold winter it’s difficult to believe that summer’s warmth will ever come. Likewise, when we’re in the midst of heartache, when our difficulties seem to outweigh our joys, it’s easy to lose hope for today and wonder about tomorrow.

It’s natural to doubt, to wonder about that which we cannot see or prove to be true. But as the well-known English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, urged:

Nothing worthy proving can be proven,

Nor yet disproven: wherefore thou be wise,

Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt.1

It takes a leap of faith to cleave to the sunnier side of doubt. We live in a day when some disparage belief; a day when doubt and cynicism are sometimes valued above conviction. But when we choose to hope despite our doubts, when we decide to trust in spite of questions, we begin to feel power in the present and faith in the future. The sunnier side of doubt leads us to see the world through a lens of trust and confidence. It helps us to discover a higher power and higher purpose in life.

Everlasting things like love, truth, and faith are real and good—not because they are visible or tangible, but because they speak to our hearts and they can be depended on to stand the test of time. They have been tried in the furnace of skepticism and doubt and have come out strong.

So while summer’s warmth seems distant during the winters of our lives, we can hope and trust that it will surely come, things will work out, and life will go on—everlastingly.

I will not doubt, I will not fear;

God’s love and strength are always near.

His promised gift helps me to find

An inner strength and peace of mind.2
1 “The Ancient Sage,” in Poems of Tennyson, ed. Henry Van Dyke and D. Laurance Chambers (1903), 263.
2 “When Faith Endures,” Hymns, no. 128.

Program #4090

No comments:

About Me

我是在1996年12月29日受洗加入耶穌基督後期聖徒教會. 我在此留下我對這復興的福音的見證,我知道約瑟斯密確實是神的先知; 藉由約瑟斯密,神復興了耶穌基督的教會即耶穌基督後期聖徒教會; 摩爾門經是耶穌基督的另一部約書,與聖經共同見證耶穌是基督.而我們今日仍有一位活著的先知,多馬孟蓀會長 I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on December 29, 1996. I know that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is indeed Another Testament of Jesus Christ. We have a living prophet today, even President Thomas S. Monson.