RETURNING TO FAITHBy Rosemary M. Wixom

Primary General PresidentApril 2015

JOURNEY TO RE-GAIN FAITH

• Focus on truths she did believe•Prayer and Scripture study incredible important• In the face of doubt, “Stop, and look at whole picture”•You have to have your own spiritual experience

SPIRITUAL DARKNESSWHAT IS THE DARK NIGHT OF THE

SOUL?

SPIRITUAL DARKNESSWHAT IS THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL?

•Crisis of faith•Questioning one’s testimony•Feelings of abandonment and absence of the spirit•Thought that God may not exist, and if he does He does not answer prayers!

MOTHER TERESA’S DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

In my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss – of God not wanting me – of God not being God – of

God not really existing … That darkness that surrounds me on all sides –

PERSONAL DARK NIGHTSSpiritual Darkness will Come to All

CAUSES OF THE “DARK NIGHT”

CAUSES OF THE “DARK NIGHT”• Condition of Mortality

• “dark veil of unbelief” (Alma 19:6)• “… I do not know the meaning of all things” (1 Nep 11:17)• Rage against God for perceived injustice, tragedy, or sickness

• Path to Apostasy• Disobedience• Focusing on critical, deceptive, and misleading information• Little by little our light burns out!

• Read Quote 1 (President Uchtdorf)

WHY DO WE HAVE TO HAVE EXPERIENCES THAT TRY OUR FAITH; WHY IS GOD SOMETIMES SO SLOW TO MAKE HIS PRESENCE KNOWN – ESPECIALLY WHEN WE ARE PROMISED TO HAVE HIS SPIRIT WITH US ALWAYS?

OPPOSITION IN ALL THINGS

•Read Quote 2 (Elder Hunter)• “There must be grounds for doubt as well as belief, in order to render the choice [to believe] more truly a choice, and therefore the more deliberate, and laden with personal vulnerability and investment” • (Givens, The God Who Weeps).

GOD WILL HAVE A TRIED PEOPLE

•Read D&C 136:31•Read Quote 3 (Brigham Young)•We are forced to answer the question - “Will ye also go away?”

GOD WANTS TO MAKE US INDEPENDENT IN OUR SPHERE/SPIRITUALLY MATURE

• Brigham Young thought God’s intention was to make us as independent in our sphere is he is in His… it may be for this reason that the heavens close from time to time, to give us room for self-direction. • ….To be an agent unto oneself may very well require that we

operate in the valley of incertitude. … Like the sand in the oyster shell, the torment of uncertainty is at the same time the spur to our spiritual vitality and growth. (Givens, Crucible of Doubt).

ANSWERS ALWAYS COME BUT NOT ON OUR TIME TABLE AND NOT ALWAYS IN THE MANNER

EXPECTED• It is also possible that God’s answers are sometimes too indirect, too

oblique, for us to recognize because we are looking for something more palpable

• Sometimes the problem may be that our expectations are too paltry, not too grandiose. We so strain to hear the voice in the whirlwind that we fail to see light breaking in the east. We are waiting for the message even as our world has been miraculously reconstituted around us. (Givens, Crucible of Doubt)

“I THIRST”

• Mother Teresa came to believe the darkness helped her identify not only with the abandonment that Jesus Christ felt during the crucifixion, but also with the abandonment that the poor faced daily. In this way she hoped to enter, in her words, the “dark holes” of the lives of the people with whom she worked.

WHAT DO WE DO WHEN WE FIND OURSELVES IN THE “DARK AND DREARY WASTE”

• “As she reflected back, she said, ‘My testimony had become like a pile of ashes. It had all burned down. All that remained was Jesus Christ’”• Read Isaiah 61:3

JOURNEY TO RE-GAIN FAITH

• Focus on truths she did believe•Prayer and Scripture study incredible important• In the face of doubt, “Stop, and look at whole picture”•You have to have your own spiritual experience

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THOSE IN DARKNESS SEEKING THE LIGHT

•Sister Wixom taught that ward members did not hesitate to give love and courtesy and support during her crisis of faith. •Read Quote 10

“ WE ARE ALL PILGRIMS SEEKING GOD’S LIGHT AS WE JOURNEY ON THE PATH OF DISCIPLESHIP. WE DO NOT

CONDEMN OTHERS FOR THE AMOUNT OF LIGHT THEY MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE; RATHER, WE NOURISH AND ENCOURAGE ALL LIGHT UNTIL IT

GROWS CLEAR, BRIGHT, AND TRUE.” • President Dieter F. Uchtdorf