Where is the pavilion
Where Is the Pavilion?
in the depths of his anguish in Liberty
jail the Prophet Joseph Smith cried out
Oh God
where art thou and where is the pavilion
that covereth thy hiding place many of
us in moments of personal anguish feel
that God is far from us the pavilion
that seems to intercept divine aid does
not cover God but occasionally covers us
God is never hidden yet sometimes we are
covered by a pavilion of motivations
that draw us away from God and make him
seem distant and inaccessible our own
desires rather than a feeling of I will
be done create the feeling of a pavilion
blocking God God is not unable to see us
or communicate with us but we may be
unwilling to listen or submit to his
will and his time our feeling is of
separation from God will diminish as we
become more childlike before him that is
not easy in a world where the opinions
of others human beings can have such an
effect on our motives but it will help
us recognize this truth God is close to
us and aware of us and never hides from
his faithful children my three-year-old
granddaughter illustrated the power of
innocence and humility to connect us
with God she went with her family to the
open house of the Brigham City Temple in
Utah in one of the rooms of that
beautiful building she looked around and
asked mommy where is Jesus
her mother explained that she would not
see Jesus in the temple but she would be
able to feel his influence in her heart
there lies a carefully considered her
mother's response and then seemed
satisfied and said oh Jesus is gone
helping someone she concluded no
pavillion obscured
Eliza's understanding or obstructed her
view of reality God is close to her and
she feels close to him she knew that the
temple is the house of the Lord but also
understood that the resurrected and
glorified Jesus Christ has a body and
can only be in one place at a time if he
was not at his house she recognized that
he must be in another place and for him
for what she knows of a Savior she knew
that he would be somewhere doing good
for his father's children it was clear
that she had hoped to see Jesus not for
a confirming miracle of his existence
but simply because she loved him the
spirit could reveal to her childlike
mind and heart the comfort all of us
need and want Jesus Christ lives knows
us watches over us and cares for us in
moments of pain loneliness or confusion
we do not need to see Jesus Christ to
know that he is aware of our
circumstances and that his mission is to
bus I know from my own life that Eliza's
experience can be our own belong after
we leave childhood in the early years of
my career I worked hard to secure a
tenured professorship at Stanford
University I thought I had made a good
life for myself and for my family we
live close to my wife's parents and very
comfortable surroundings by the world
standards I had achieved
success but I was given by the church
the chance to leave California and go to
Rick's College in Rexburg Idaho my
lifetime professional objectives might
have been a pavilion dividing me from a
loving father who knew better than I did
what my future could hold but I was
blessed to know that whatever success I
had in my career and family life to that
point was a gift from God and so like a
child I know that prayer to ask what I
should do I was able to hear a quiet
voice in my mind that said it's my
school there was no pavilion shielding
me from God in faith and humility I
submitted my will to his and felt his
care and closeness my years at Rick's
college during which I tried to seek
God's will and do it kept the pavilion
from covering me or obscure God's active
role in my life as I sought to do his
work I felt close to him and felt
assurance that he knew of my affairs and
cared deeply for my happiness but as
they had at Stanford worldly motiva gate
motivations began to present themselves
to me one was an attractive job offer
extended just as I was finishing my
fifth year as president of Rick's
college I consider the offered prayed
about it and even discussed it with the
First Presidency they responded with
warmth and a little humor but certainly
not with any direction president Spencer
W Kimball listened to me described the
offer I had received from a large
corporation and said well wow that
sounds like a wonderful opportunity and
if we ever needed you we'd know where to
find you
they would have known where to find me
but my desires for professional success
might have created a pavilion that would
make it hard for me to find God and
harder for me to listen to and follow
his invitations my wife sensing I had a
strong impression but she felt that we
were not to leave Rick's College I said
that's good enough for me
but she insisted wisely that I must get
my own revelation and so I prayed again
this time I did receive direction in the
form of a voice in my mind that said
I'll let you stay at Rick's College a
little longer my personal ambitions
might have clouded my view of reality
and made it hard for me to receive
revelation 30 days after I was blessed
with the inspired decision to turn down
the job offer and stay at Rick's College
the Teton dam burst nearby God knew that
dam would burst and that hundreds of
people would need help
he let me seek counsel and gain his
permission to stay at Rick's College he
knew all the reasons that my service
might still be valuable at the college
and a Rexburg so I was there to ask
Heavenly Father frequently in prayer
they would have me do those things that
would help the people whose property and
lives had been damaged I spent hours
working with other people to clear mud
and water from homes my desire to know
and do his will
gave me a soul stretching opportunity
that in his incident illustrates another
way we can create a barrier to knowing
God's will or feeling his love for us we
can't insist on our timetable when the
Lord has his own I thought I had spent
enough time in my service and Rexburg
and it was in a hurry to move on
sometimes our insistent on an insistence
on acting according to our own timetable
can obscure his will for us in Liberty
jail the Prophet Joseph asks for to
punish those who persecuted the members
of the church in Missouri his prayer was
for sure and swift retribution but the
Lord responded that in not many years
hence he would deal with those enemies
of the church
in the 24th verse of the 120 1st section
of the Doctrine and Covenants he says
behold mine eyes see and know all of
their works and I haven't reserved a
swift judgment in the season thereof for
them all for there is a time appointed
for every man according as his work
shall be we remove the pavilion when we
feel and pray thy will be done and in
vine own time his time should be enough
for us since we know that he wants only
what is best one of my daughters-in-law
has spent many years feeling that God
had placed the pavilion over her she was
a young mother of three who longed for
more children after two miscarriages her
prayers of pleading grew anguished as
more barren years passed she felt
tempted to anger when her youngest went
off to school the emptiness of her house
seemed to mock her focus on motherhood
so did the unplanned and even unwanted
pregnancies of acquaintances she felt as
committed and consecrated as Mary who
declared Behold the handmaid of the Lord
but although she spoke these words in
her heart she could hear nothing in
reply hoping to lift her spirits her
husband invited her to join him on a
business trip to California while he
attended meetings she walked along the
beautiful
dee Beach her heart ready to burst
she prayed aloud for the first time she
asked not for another child but for a
divine errand
Heavenly Father she cried I will give
you all of my time please show me how to
fill it she expressed her willingness to
take her family wherever they might be
required to go that prayer produced an
unexpected feeling of peace it did not
satisfy her Minds craving for certainty
but for the first time in years it
calmed her heart the prayer removed the
pavilion and opened the windows of
heaven within two weeks she learned that
she was expecting a child the new baby
was just one year old when a mission
call came to my son and my
daughter-in-law having promised to go
and do anything anywhere
she put her fear aside and took her
children overseas in the mission field
she had another child on a missionary
transfer day
submitting fully to heaven's will as
this young mother did is essential to
removing the spiritual pavilions we
sometimes put over our heads but it does
not guarantee immediate answers to our
prayers Abraham's heart seems to have
been right
long before Sarah Sarah conceived Isaac
and before they received their promised
land heaven had other purposes to
fulfill first those purposes included
not only building Abraham and Sarah's
faith but also teaching them eternal
truths that they shared with others on
their long securities route to the land
prepared for them the Lord's delays
often seem long some lasts a lifetime
but many are always calculated to bless
they need never be times of loneliness
or sorrow or impatience although his
time is not always our time we can be
sure that the Lord keeps his promises
for any of you who now feel that he is
hard to reach I testified that the day
will come that we will all see him face
to face just as there is nothing now to
obscure his view of us there will be
nothing to obscure our view of him we
will all stand before him in person like
my granddaughter we want to see Jesus
Christ now but are certain reunion with
him at the judgment bar will be more
pleasing if we first do the things but
make as familiar to us as we are to him
as we serve and we become like kin and
we feel closer to him as we approach
that day when nothing will hide our view
the movement toward God can be ongoing
called Chi me blessed of my father
inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world the
Savior teaches and then he tells us how
quote for I wasn't hungry and he gave me
meat I was thirsty and you gave me drink
I was a stranger and he took me him
naked
any clothing I was sick and he visited
me I was in prison and he came unto me
then shove-it righteous answer him Lord
when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee
or thirsty and gave thee drink when saw
we thee a stranger and took thee in or
naked and clothed thee or when saw we
thee sick or in prison and came under
the and the King shall answer and say
unto them verily I say unto you inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least
of these my brother he attended to me as
what as we do what he would have us do
for his father's children the Lord
considers it kindness to him and we feel
close of him as we feel his love and his
approval in time we will become like him
and we'll think of the Judgment Day with
happy anticipation the pavilion that
seems to be hiding you from God may be
fear of man rather than this desire to
serve others the saviours only
motivation was to help people many of
you as I have have felt fear and
approaching someone you have offended or
who has hurt you and yet I have seen the
Lord melt hearts time after time
including my own and so I challenge you
to go for the Lord to someone despite
any fear you may have to extend love and
forgiveness
I promise you that as you do you will
feel the love of a savior for that
person and his love for you and it will
not seem to come from a great distance
for you that challenge may be in a
family and maybe in a community or it
may be across a nation
but if you call for the Lord to bless
others he will see and rewarding if you
do this often enough and long enough you
will feel the change in your very nature
through the atonement of Jesus Christ
not only will you feel closer to him
you will feel more and more that you
were becoming like him then when you do
see him as we all will it will be for
you as it was for Moroni when he said
now I bit under you all affair well I
said go to rest in the paradise of God
until my spirit and body shall again
reunite and I am brought forth
triumphant through the air to meet you
before the pleasing bar of the great
Jehovah the eternal judge of both quick
and dead amen
if we serve with faith humility and a
desire to do God's will I testify to the
judgement of the great Jehovah will be
pleasing we will see our loving father
and his son as they see us now with
perfect clarity and with perfect love in
the sacred name of Jesus Christ
![Coheed and Cambria: The Pavilion (A Long Way Back) [Official Video]](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_r5sK1CvsY8/mqdefault.jpg)
