Joyful Wending

I was going through old emails, weeding the unnecessary ones out, when I came across an email from an old friend. In this email he talked about Helen Keller and shared a story from her life. At one point in her life, Helen traveled to the the Tabernacle belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After speaking and answering questions, she said that she had a favor she would like to ask of the Prophet. In her slow speech she said, "I would like to hear your organ play your famous song - about your pioneers. I would like to remember hearing it here." President Heber J. Grant led her to the organ and placed her hand on the back of it. The beautiful and much beloved hymn "Come, Come Ye Saints" was played as Helen wept (The Place of Knowing, Emma Lou Thayne).

Though Helen could not have heard the words had they been sung, I know them. They currently ring through my mind, my heart, my very soul:

1. Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear;
   But with joy wend your way.
   Though hard to you this journey may appear,
   Grace shall be as your day.
   'Tis better far for us to strive
   Our useless cares from us to drive;
   Do this, and joy your hearts will swell--
   All is well! All is well!
2. Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
   'Tis not so; all is right.
   Why should we think to earn a great reward
   If we now shun the fight?
   Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
   Our God will never us forsake;
   And soon we'll have this tale to tell--
   All is well! All is well!
3. We'll find the place which God for us prepared,
   Far away in the West,
   Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
   There the Saints will be blessed.
   We'll make the air with music ring,
   Shout praises to our God and King;
   Above the rest these words we'll tell--
   All is well! All is well!
4. And should we die before our journey's through,
   Happy day! All is well!
   We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;
   With the just we shall dwell!
   But if our lives are spared again
   To see the Saints their rest obtain,
   Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell--
   All is well! All is well!
5. ("Come, Come Ye Saints", William Clayton)

The lyrics to this song are, simply put, incredible. They ring throughout the ages as a call to arms, a call to hope, a call to come unto Christ.

The first verse in particular reverberated in my mind as I read this story: "Come, come ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear, But with joy wend your way." 

I have been commanded to be joyful; to sing praises unto God for all the wonderful works which He has shown me! Knowing that this life was given to us as a time wherein to be tested, a time to learn and thus grow, a time to change and become all that our Father in Heaven has given us potential to become, I also know that life will be hard! There is simply no way around that. However, I can choose to be joyful regardless of the circumstances I find myself in. 

So I will.

Notice also that it does not say, "But with joy move down that straight path in front of you". The verb is 'wend' which means to go forward but "typically slowly or by an indirect route; to pursue". The path back to our Heavenly Father is full of twists and turns yet as we travel it diligently, hopefully, optimistically and joyfully, we will come to realize that those twists and turns are what allow us to become: become all that our God needs us to. I never learned a thing from running down the road as straight as the ruler. It was when walking, talking, and pondering among the meadows and flowers and forests of the mountains that the greatest learning came.

Robert Frost, in his poem, "Roads", said, "Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Our road is one that no one else has traveled. No one, that is, except Christ. In the next lines of this hymn it says, "Though hard to you this journey may appear, Grace shall be as your day."

Grace shall be as your day.

Grace will be given to me "as my days may demand" ("How Firm a Foundation", Hymn #85). No matter what I am going through I can know of a surety that God will not leave me comfortless. For, as Nephi in The Book of Mormon said, "...my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am!...I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted." 

When we know in Whom we have put our trust, when we know Him personally, when we know that we can trust Him and His plan implicitly, we will still have trials and struggles and pains but we will understand that, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can joyfully wend.