Volta Ward
Having a Perfect Brightness of Hope
I want to talk today about a word, an English word, that can sometimes be confusing. Now maybe this isn’t an issue in Samoan. Maybe Samoan has two different words for the two different meanings. I don’t know anything about Samoan but I did learn Spanish when I was a missionary in Argentina. For example in English we have the word for. F-O-R. As an English speaker it didn’t really occur to me that the word “for” had different meanings. But in Spanish, there are two words to use where we use for. There is por and para. This was always confusing to me, and I never really learned very well when to use which one. I looked up for in the English dictionary and there were 20 different definitions for the word. In some of these cases you would use the Spanish word por and in some of these you would use the word para.
I want to talk about the word Hope. Often when we use the word hope it implies a hint of uncertainty. For example, we might say that we hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow. Or we hope that our favorite team wins. You are probably saying today that you hope the stake speakers aren’t too boring!
However, in the gospel, the word hope is sure and unwavering. Hope is a confident expectation of and longing for the promised blessings of righteousness. Prophets have spoken of having a firm hope or having a perfect brightness of hope.
When we have hope, we trust God’s promises. Mormon taught that such hope comes only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ: “What is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.”
As we strive to live the gospel, we grow in our ability to “abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” We increase in hope as we pray and seek God’s forgiveness.1
The prophet Nephi teaches more about hope. In one sermon he asks what do we do once we have gotten into this strait and narrow path. He asks if that is all that is necessary. In response to his hypothetical question he says, “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”2
Hope nourishes our faith. When we have hope we act in those ways that our hope tells us. Our greatest promise is that we shall have eternal life. It is the promise of the scriptures, it is the promise of the prophets, it is the promise of temple covenants and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Eternal life doesn’t just mean that we will live forever through the eternities. All of us will receive the blessing of immortality through the resurrection of our Savior. But to have eternal life is to live through the eternities in the presence of our Heavenly Father. Our hope in Christ convinces us that the promises are true. We know that Heavenly Father has a great eternal plan. We lived before we came to this earth. We live on this earth to learn from a mortal experience and show our faith, and we will live again in the next life. Our hope in this great plan should compel us to examine where we are on the path that leads to eternal life.
Do we ever stop in life to imagine our eventual interview with Jesus Christ? Surely it will happen. At some point you will stand before God to give an accounting . What if that point was right now? How would you feel? Are there things that you wished were different? Then now is the time to make them different. Then how would you feel if you knew you were earnestly striving to change things in your life?
The prophet Ether tells us that God gives us weaknesses in order to humble us. And if we do become humble then God will make those weak things become strengths. Do you suppose this is easy? It is not. Changing and becoming stronger in our weak areas takes strength, courage, and humility as the Lord works with us and we work with Him.
I heard a very angry person say something once that has left an impression on me. They were struggling with certain things in life, and someone pointed out to them that the Lord was trying to teach them patience. The angry person declared, “Well the Lord certainly hasn’t done a very good job of teaching me patience.” I thought to myself, one of the titles we use for the Lord is Master Teacher. I don’t think the greatest teacher of all failed in His teaching. I think we fail as his students. When we take opportunities and challenges in life to grow and learn, we can take comfort in knowing that we are preparing ourselves better for that eventual interview.
To me, having a perfect brightness of hope, allows me to have joy and happiness in my struggles through life because I know that they are shaping me into a better version of myself and preparing me for eternal life.
I was recently reading the talk that Elder Patrick Kearon gave on the day he was announced as the newest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was a commencement address given at BYU – Hawaii. He had been scheduled to give the talk for some time but it so happened that the day before he was to deliver the talk, he was called in to Pres Nelson’s office and extended the call. These are his words.
“As I prepared thoughts to share with you, of course I never imagined that I would be sharing them on the day when I would be named the newest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It is staggering to me to even say that. This call came yesterday. I slept very little last night, as you can well imagine. I realize now, in the most extraordinary way, that never have I prepared remarks for others that so perfectly fit a moment in my own life. God, who is over all, and to whom yesterday’s call is no surprise, directed me to these messages for you. But they are also, in this moment, very much for me.”3
In the same manner, I am grateful for the opportunity to prepare this talk. I have learned far more about hope than I have been able to teach. I even found myself writing things that in some sense chastised me. The Holy Ghost does that to me often! I tend to get very overwhelmed and anxious when confronted with new things or difficult situations. I think this is probably common for many people. But then I look at some of my recent struggles and I must ask myself, “Am I having joy in these struggles because it is shaping me into a better person?” That is not a very easy thing to do.
I am reminded of the story in the New Testament when the Jewish leader Jairus pled for Jesus to heal his 12-year-old daughter, who lay dying at home. Because of the surrounding crowd, Jesus was delayed and soon a servant came to Jairus to tell him that his daughter was dead and to not trouble the Master. When He heard this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Fear not: believe only.”4
I think belief and hope are closely tied together. We believe in the promises of the Savior. We have hope in the promises of the Savior. Both drive our faith to act in ways that will fulfill those promises. This scripture reminds us that belief should not be accompanied by fear. It is the same with the challenges placed before us. We can have hope and not fear the situations that we find ourselves in.
In my life much of the fear I have felt has come from serving in various callings in the Church. It has taken me a long time to overcome some of those feelings and instead embrace the opportunities. I remember several years ago I was serving as a counselor in a Bishopric. It was the fourth different Bishop I had served with, and I had become pretty comfortable with the role of a counselor. I began to have feelings that I might be called to serve as a Bishop myself. Nothing scared me more than the thought of serving as a Bishop. I had all kinds of excuses for why I couldn’t be a very effective Bishop. I told my wife that I would turn down the call. That it wasn’t fair that the Lord would require something so far out of your area of comfort and ability just because you were trying to be righteous.
Well, the Lord had a little more work to do with me. I was soon after confronted with several other things, outside of church, that were beyond my abilities. I learned to become more humble and rely on the Lord to help me through those times. After a while I found myself released from bondage so to speak. I had learned even deeper what the Lord can do with you. I found myself finally saying that I would do what the Lord asked of me because he had been so merciful to me. Not long after that I was called as a Bishop. Those six years were filled with amazing experiences of the Lord making up for my shortcomings and helping me to fulfill those responsibilities. I began again to have joy in my life and hope in the promises of the Savior.
Six months after I was released as a Bishop my current calling came. It was a completely different experience. I still feel that I am inadequate for the calling, but I willingly accepted the call and I have seen the hand of the Lord in helping me to serve him and fulfill my responsibilities. I have greater hope, joy, and faith in my Heavenly Father, and his Son Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, I pray you find hope in the Gospel. I pray that you recognize that as you rise to your potential you can find joy in knowing that our Savior is shaping you. I testify of the reality of our loving Father in Heaven, who hears your every prayer; of His living Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ; and of the infinite atoning gift of the Redeemer of us all.
See Gospel Library, Topics and Questions, Hope. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/hope?lang=eng
2 Nephi 31:19-20
Kearon, Patrick, “Give Me a Light That I May Tread Safely into the Unknown”, Liahona, July 2024. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2024/07/digital-only/give-me-a-light-that-i-may-tread-safely-into-the-unknown?lang=eng#title1
Luke 8:50
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