Bearing Up Our Burdens

While many of us understand the intellectual reason for suffering, its important for us to remember the
compassionate response too.

If God loves us, why do we suffer? Most of us have had to face this question, and modern revelation
provides sound, intellectual answers. But when were struggling through our own trials, sometimes the
intellectual answer isnt enough to carry our faith. In his article Empathy and the Atonement,
[https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/empathy-and-atonement] Tyler Johnson explores not only why we
suffer but how God responds to our suffering and how we, in turn, should respond to the suffering of
others.

Christs perfect answer to the worlds suffering is to offer to weep with us through each of our trials,
Johnson reflects. Many of us question or have questioned the purpose of both our personal trials and
the vast, seemingly universal suffering, but it is through these heartaches that Christ teaches us what it
means to have perfect empathy as he makes our sorrows his own. Because this relief is rarely physical
and often takes time to recognize, God allows us with our own learned empathy to be the most
frequent and immediate response to the suffering of others.

At baptism, we covenant to emulate Christ as we bear one anothers burdens, and in doing so, our
suffering and empathy take on a new role. Empathy is the most powerful way in which God invites us
to partner with him in assuaging the worlds manifest sadness, Johnson states. By bearing one
anothers burdens, we become more like the Savior and learn to make Gods willing empathy our own.

Read Tyler Johnsons article Empathy and the Atonement

[https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/empathy-and-atonement] here.

Source: BYU Studies Quarterly [https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/empathy-and-atonement]

Shelby Gardner, Ridgefield, WA

Find More Insights

Read more about Christs Atonement in Jeffery R. Hollands talk Behold Thy Mother
[https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/behold-thy-mother?lang=eng]