In this life, each of us is on a journey—and when we try to do it alone, we inevitably fall. Our spirits get bruised and battered—something that happens even to the strongest. The good news we should all remember is that Jesus Christ voluntarily accepted an assignment from the Father to save us. To save you. Your soul. Christ knows your name and loves you and willingly promised to do His very best to bring you back into the presence of the Father.

His ability to do so depends on your ability to trust Him.

As I consider the need to trust the Lord with all my heart, regardless of what is happening in my life, I am reminded of an experience related by Elder James E. Talmage. Elder Talmage was writing his seminal masterpiece, Jesus the Christ, in a room in the Salt Lake Temple where he was free from distractions and had unrestricted access to the Spirit to assist him in creating that work.

Elder Talmage had opened a window partway to enjoy some fresh air, and as he worked, a wild bee flew into the room. The bee seemed to realize that it was a prisoner, and despite its repeated efforts, it couldn’t get back out the window. Elder Talmage, knowing the bee would die if it didn’t get out, opened the window wider and tried to drive the bee out of the room.

Instead of taking advantage of the offered chance to escape, the bee became angry and stung Elder Talmage on the hand—the hand, he wrote, “that would have guided it to freedom.” The bee then flew up and landed on a light fixture near the ceiling, out of Elder Talmage’s reach. There it remained.

Elder Talmage wrote:

 

Three days later I returned to the room and found the dried, lifeless body of the bee on the writing table. It had paid for its stubbornness with its life. To the bee’s short-sightedness and selfish misunderstanding I was a foe, a persistent prosecutor, a mortal enemy bent on its destruction; while in truth I was its friend, striving to redeem it, in spite of itself, from the prison-house. Are we so much wiser than the bee? We are prone to contend, sometimes with vehemence and anger, against the adversity which after all may be the manifestation of superior wisdom and loving care, directed against our temporary comfort for our permanent blessing. Disappointment, sorrow, and affliction may be the expression of an all-wise Father’s kindness. Consider the lesson of the unwise bee! (James E. Talmage, “The Parable of the Unwise Bee,” Ensign, February 2017)

 

We are all fellow travelers through mortality, and the veil of forgetfulness has been drawn so we will learn the critical lessons of mortality by our own faith and determination. As such, we have finite understanding. And sometimes our trust in the Lord wavers. Sometimes it vanishes altogether, and we become like that bee, fighting against—and even stinging—the one who wants nothing more than to purchase our eternal freedom.

I have learned firsthand through a lifetime of experience that I can trust the Lord. In every condition. At every time. No matter what is happening around me.

The genesis of my trust in Him comes directly from His mission among men. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf wrote, “Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. He is the promised Messiah. He lived a perfect life and atoned for our sins. He will ever be at our side. He will fight our battles. He is our hope; He is our salvation; He is the way” (Dieter F. Uchdorf, “Following the Savior’s Path,” Friend, April 2012, 2).

Read that statement again. Carefully. Jesus Christ atoned for our sins. He is our hope. He is our salvation. Nowhere in that divinely inspired statement does an Apostle of the Lord say that the Savior atoned for only some of us. That He is the hope for only certain ones. That He is the salvation for only a select group, but not all.

No. Jesus Christ is all those things for all of us. And that includes you.

It includes you, no matter what. Regardless of any mistakes you have made. Regardless of any dark places of the soul you have visited—or maybe even stayed in. Or might still be in.

You are never too late, never too far away. And you are known and loved by Him. C. S. Lewis wrote: “Christ has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only [person] in the world” (C. S. Lewis, Perelandra [New York: Scribner, 1943]).

Does that sound like you are in any way excluded from the Savior’s great atoning sacrifice?

Absolutely not.

You never would be. Never could be.

And that is why He deserves complete trust. Always.