Agony Into Glory

In his April 2018 General Conference talk, Elder Dale G. Renlund quoted the following statement from C. S. Lewis:

[Mortals] say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. … The Blessed will say, "We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven."

 I have already seen this effect on a smaller scale. I have had painful experiences and have since forgotten the pain of them, but remembered the lessons I learned from them.

I once stepped on a hornets' nest and gotten bitten what must have been dozens of times. Shortly thereafter, I got a Priesthood Blessing, and now I don't remember having ever even felt pain, but I gained a testimony of the power of the Priesthood.

The Midnight Miracle, which I've blogged about, was a horrendously emotionally painful experience, but while I no longer feel the anguish I once felt about it, I still have the faith I gained from it. I now know that God has a foolproof plan (or a lot of really good backup plans), and I always will.

And when someone stole my bike seat, I'm sure that biking home without a seat was somewhat arduous, but as I thought about that situation and the probable situation of the person who took my seat, I developed a certain amount of sympathy for that person and for other people in desperate situations.

Those three experiences, despite being arguably negative, helped me grow in testimony, faith, and compassion. If I keep those positive traits and forget the negativity (as time has already helped me do), then those experiences will be exclusively positive.

That concept of keeping the good and forgetting the bad might be what prompted C. S. Lewis to say that even our agonies will be turned into glory. Once we've forgotten all the bad parts, glory will be all that's left. Every experience is a learning experience, especially the painful ones, and though the pain fades, the lessons don't have to. Every experience can become a glorious experience, which I suppose means that life itself is glorious, despite its eventually-to-be-forgotten flaws. And once all its faults are behind us, it could be that mortal life starts to seem very much like heaven.