My church held a worldwide fast regarding the Coronavirus and COVID-19 on Sunday March 29th. Our prophet Russel M Nelson invited everyone to fast saying, “let us unite our faith to plead for physical, spiritual, and other healing throughout the entire world. ” My husband and I participated in the fast.
As I was fasting I realized I had my doubts. What could a worldwide fast do to heal the effects of the virus? Did some people really expect the disease and its consequences to go away just by faith? Did anyone expect this to be like one of those stories where someone's cancer mysteriously disappeared after they were given a priesthood blessing?
But then I felt guilty. Didn’t I have enough faith? Didn’t I believe that God could do all things? Was I acting like the people in the Old Testament who, because of the easiness of the way, refused to act in faith? Maybe the effects of the virus really would go away if I just believed. Did my doubts make me the weak link in a chain of faith?
My questions persisted after my husband and I closed our fast. Around 3:00 I sat down at the dining room table and told Brandon, “I’m having a mini crisis of faith.” He sat down, and patiently listened to my concerns.
By this point I wasn’t even thinking in terms of the virus. I was thinking about my personality and my nature.
I’ve always been realistic and skeptical. Looking at things realistically is an integral part of my personality and always has been. But was being realistic preventing me from being a good disciple? Was there something wrong with my personality? Was there something fundamentally wrong with me and my ability to exercise faith?
We started talking over my feelings. Brandon is used to having these types of conversations with me. He knows that I just need a chance to talk and turn a subject over a few times. I need to examine it from several angles and he’s good at helping me do that.
He offered some suggestions and insight. Something Brandon said sounded familiar. It reminded me of a favorite chapter in the book Good to Great by Jim Collins.
This was the second time in a week that I’d thought about this particular chapter in Good to Great. Earlier in the week I’d been on a walk with two friends. One friend had said something that reminded me of the same chapter. I realized there was probably something in the book that I needed to read.
I hurried into the living room and pulled the book off of the shelf. The book is about 11 companies that were able to achieve 15 years of amazing returns- and how they did it compared to similar companies that didn’t make the transition to greatness. This isn’t just one of my favorite business books, it’s one of my favorite books. I read the book almost a decade ago and found it to be inspiring on so many more levels than just business. There were many things that tied into my home life and the gospel. So it’s not that strange that I thought of a business book when I had a religious question.
I turned to Chapter 4 titled Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith.) From reading the chapter title I knew I was on the right track. The end of the chapter had the story I was looking for.
This was the section about what the Good to Great research team called the Stockdale Paradox. Admiral Jim Stockdale was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. He was eventually released after 8 years of isolation and torture. Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great was able to talk with Admiral Stockdale and discuss his experiences. He initially felt this was just a personal exchange. But he later realized that what he learned from Admiral Stockdale applied to his business research.
In his conversation with Admiral Stockdale they talked about two different yet equally important mindsets that prisoners of war had to have. On the one hand Stockdale said that he “never lost faith in the end of the story.” But he also explained that the optimists were the people who died in the prisoner of war camps. They were the ones who always had a vague hope that they would be “home by Christmas”, but would be extremely disappointed when that wasn’t the case. (The whole section from pages 83-87 is worth reading.)
Admiral Stockdale explained, “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end- which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be.”
The book repeats the phrase and names it the Stockdale Paradox. It reads:
Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties
AND at the same time
Confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
I found myself crying as I read these passages out loud to Brandon. Here was the answer to my question. There wasn’t anything wrong with having a realistic personality that acknowledged the brutal facts. In fact it was probably healthy and necessary.
The fact that I looked at things realistically didn’t make me faithless either. Even while realizing that there wouldn’t be an easy or quick solution I could exercise faith in a higher power by fasting. I could believe that there was something to be learned from living through a global pandemic. I could hope that fasting would somehow influence positive change for the physical, spiritual, and economic problems that were occurring.
I’m not perfect at balancing both sides of the paradox, but I’m trying. I’m trying to be faithful. I’m trying to remember that God is in control. And I’m trying to look for the good in all of this. But I’m also being unabashedly realistic. I’m confronting the brutal fact that this pandemic and its effects aren’t going away any time soon.
I realized something important while confronting these brutal facts. I can’t control them. I’m not even very good at managing my response to them. However, I do have faith that God can help me through this.
I think I need to rewrite the paradox for this particular situation - and probably many others. It should read:
Confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be
AND at the same time allow God into your life to help you
retain faith that through him you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties.
Actually when it’s written like that it doesn’t look like a paradox at all. I think it looks like the central message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I turned to Chapter 4 titled Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith.) From reading the chapter title I knew I was on the right track. The end of the chapter had the story I was looking for.
This was the section about what the Good to Great research team called the Stockdale Paradox. Admiral Jim Stockdale was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. He was eventually released after 8 years of isolation and torture. Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great was able to talk with Admiral Stockdale and discuss his experiences. He initially felt this was just a personal exchange. But he later realized that what he learned from Admiral Stockdale applied to his business research.
In his conversation with Admiral Stockdale they talked about two different yet equally important mindsets that prisoners of war had to have. On the one hand Stockdale said that he “never lost faith in the end of the story.” But he also explained that the optimists were the people who died in the prisoner of war camps. They were the ones who always had a vague hope that they would be “home by Christmas”, but would be extremely disappointed when that wasn’t the case. (The whole section from pages 83-87 is worth reading.)
Admiral Stockdale explained, “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end- which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be.”
The book repeats the phrase and names it the Stockdale Paradox. It reads:
Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties
AND at the same time
Confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
I found myself crying as I read these passages out loud to Brandon. Here was the answer to my question. There wasn’t anything wrong with having a realistic personality that acknowledged the brutal facts. In fact it was probably healthy and necessary.
The fact that I looked at things realistically didn’t make me faithless either. Even while realizing that there wouldn’t be an easy or quick solution I could exercise faith in a higher power by fasting. I could believe that there was something to be learned from living through a global pandemic. I could hope that fasting would somehow influence positive change for the physical, spiritual, and economic problems that were occurring.
I’m not perfect at balancing both sides of the paradox, but I’m trying. I’m trying to be faithful. I’m trying to remember that God is in control. And I’m trying to look for the good in all of this. But I’m also being unabashedly realistic. I’m confronting the brutal fact that this pandemic and its effects aren’t going away any time soon.
I realized something important while confronting these brutal facts. I can’t control them. I’m not even very good at managing my response to them. However, I do have faith that God can help me through this.
I think I need to rewrite the paradox for this particular situation - and probably many others. It should read:
Confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be
AND at the same time allow God into your life to help you
retain faith that through him you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties.
Actually when it’s written like that it doesn’t look like a paradox at all. I think it looks like the central message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I'm coming to realize that the act of fasting probably won't solve all the worlds problems. But fasting helps strengthen faith in God. And faith is something we all need right now.
This is beautiful. And I have been struggling with a similar balancing act of faith and practicality. Thank you for including the example. It put the perfect words on how I am feeling.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Sounds a bit like me. It was helpful 😊
ReplyDelete