Mortality – with all its pain, suffering, unfairness, and
hardship – holds the potential for enormous greatness, glory, goodness, and
love – or their opposite. It all depends on how we face it, on how we respond
to it.
Life is unfair. It’s arguable there isn’t a truer phrase in
all the English language. Or any other language, for that matter. Life is unfair, and all the efforts of
countless men and women over the ages hasn’t changed that fact. Not that we can’t
or shouldn’t strive to limit the
unfairness, or fight injustice, or be equitable and just in our dealings with
each other. But in the end, life is fundamentally unfair – because it was meant to be.
Life is hard, too. It’s full of pain, depression, self-doubt
– even self-hatred – suffering, hard work, uncertainty, and loss. Great effort
has (rightly so) been expended trying to minimize these things in life as well.
But such efforts too will ultimately fail. Such things are a fundamental part
of life, and are built into life’s very fabric.
Much has been said about suffering and evil and hardship and
its role in life. The questions surrounding the injustice and pain of life
strike such a chord in each of us that they almost inevitably include such
other fundamental questions as ‘is there a God?’ and ‘what is the meaning of
life?’ Such discussions are complex and have been had for millennia. I won’t
even attempt to address them here. I only want to make one point, illustrated
by a simple, powerful story of courage in the face of affliction, injustice,
and pain.
My point is this: the suffering, unfairness, trials, and
hardships of life hold the seeds of greatness, glory, goodness, and love. Without
the hard things in life the great and the glorious could not exist. Without
pain and trials, we would never have the opportunity to be truly noble, good,
and brave. And, depending on how we choose to respond to hard things in life,
we can bring sweetness, goodness, love, glory, and greatness into being.
The goal of God is for his children to be ennobled – for each
of us to be filled with light, even as he is. Hence the essential role of this
mortal stage of our existence, for it provides us the only opportunity to face
down darkness with light. The pain of life we leave behind here in mortality.
It remains with our bodies, to moulder into dust, to exist only as a faded
memory, a reminder, a counter-point. The good we take with us. It becomes part
of us, attaches to our hearts and makes them nobler by association. For good
attracts good and light cleaves unto light. We are creatures of light, and when
we choose to face darkness with light; when we choose to return good for evil;
when we choose to be noble in the teeth of unfairness and pain – then are we enlarged by the very glory
we have called into being, by the light that radiates outward from our souls in
opposition to the darkness we have defied. The goodness and greatness of our
mortal lives stay with us forever and ennoble us.
Without trials or injustice or pain we could not choose nobility
and goodness despite opposition. The passing, temporary darkness of life gives
an even greater, eternal light the opportunity to shine out from our souls. And
this light, should we choose it, we will keep forever. For light cannot, does not perish. The universe is full of – indeed, made of – light, not darkness. The
darkness of life is a contrivance – necessary for us to call the light of
eternal glory into being in opposition to the dark – a torch which, once lit,
will grow only brighter as we voyage through eternity.
But it all depends on how we respond to the trials of life.
Hardship provides the opportunity to
call great glory and light into our lives. But we can just as easily squander
the chance by merely reacting, by responding in kind. This life is our great
chance to choose to be noble in the
face of the ignoble; to be great in the face of the petty; to be good in the face
of evil. We must not waste it!
I want to tell you the story of someone who didn’t waste it.
In 2009, Zachary Sobiech, aged 14, was diagnosed with a form
of bone cancer that occurs in children. He underwent surgeries and
chemotherapy, but in 2012 the cancer was found in several organs of his body,
and the doctors told him that nothing further could be done. The cancer would
spread until it killed him. He had a few months to live. He was about 17 years
old when he heard this.
“Unfair” doesn’t even begin to describe it. How could it be
fair in any way, shape, or form, that a good, loving 17 year-old should already
have only months to live? How could it be fair when so many of us live out long
lives, filled with all sorts of experiences and opportunities, while Zach never
had the chance to experience so much of life? The answer is simple: it isn’t fair. Not fair at all.
The point of life isn’t fairness, though. And that’s where so
many of us go wrong in analyzing this question. And that’s exactly where Zach
went right. Zach taught me that it
isn’t the unfairness or pain of life that matters – it’s how you respond to it
that counts.
Zach responded by loving and living each day with hope and
joy, and by giving as much love and joy to as many other people as he could. He
recorded a farewell song for his family to have something of him to keep,
something to provide them with joy and comfort in lonely, painful moments. And
he shared it with the world – over 3 million people have viewed it on Youtube.
Listening to his song, “Clouds”, I was struck with the
incongruity of a young man, robbed of a future, wracked by a painful disease,
singing sincerely, honestly, sweetly, of going up; of sharing love and joy with
others; of moving on, but hoping to meet again. Completely absent was
bitterness, anger, resentment, hatred, or despair. Zach had chosen to respond
to this soul-crushing news by choosing goodness, happiness, love, giving, and
faith. He chose to fill his heart and life with that which is good, to leave no
space for the dark. As I listened to his song, I couldn’t help but feel that I
was witnessing one of the greatest, most glorious events that has transpired on
Earth. And when, years and years from now, Zach looks back with his family and
friends on this moment in time on Earth when he faced helplessness, sorrow,
despair, and terrible unfairness with hope, faith, and love, he will see it for
what it is: the triumph of light over darkness, of good over evil. And he will
see that he only had the opportunity to choose greatness – to be great – because of unfairness, pain,
and hardship.
Because of the way Zach chose to respond to mortality, great
inspiring goodness and glory were brought into the world. And he will take that
glory with him forever.
I have been inspired by Zach, and I am personally grateful
for his goodness, for his example of light and joy and nobility. It is yet
another evidence to me that God does exist, and that his greatness and glory
live in each one of us. Listening to Zach sing “Clouds”, it is impossible not
to see and feel the glory of God.
Zach died two days ago. He was 18.
God speed, Zach. I’ll never forget your example, and I
promise to try and respond to all that life throws at me the way you did.
