I’m currently training for a marathon. Along the marathon route, spectators often hold signs to motivate the runners. One popular sign, often seen near the end of the race, says, “Pain is temporary; race results are online forever.”
Obviously that message is tongue-in-cheek. Who’s going to look at my race results in 20 years or even in a month? But it is based on a true principle. When you are in the middle of a difficult challenge, it can feel like it’s lasting forever. You can easily lose perspective and fail to recognize that this pain is temporary, that it will end, and that better things are ahead which will last much, much longer.
Isaiah poetically shared this principle with the children of Israel, as he described a future day of happiness:
For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
Isaiah 54:7-8, 3 Nephi 22:7-8
Jesus quoted this passage to the Nephites and Lamanites gathered at the temple in Bountiful. Shortly before, they had experienced catastrophic storms and earthquakes, followed by three days of darkness, which must have seemed interminable. The narrator, who tried to report these events objectively and accurately, alluded to this perceptual challenge: “The storm…did last for about the space of three hours; and it was said by some that the time was greater; nevertheless, all these great and terrible things were done in about the space of three hours” (3 Nephi 8:19).
It’s hard when you’re in the middle of it, but remembering that the pain is temporary, that the duration of the suffering is comparatively only “a small moment,” can give us hope and confidence to carry on and not give up.
The apostle Paul wrote, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
Today, I will place my discomforts and frustrations in perspective. I will remember that challenges which seem immense and persistent are in fact manageable and temporary when viewed from an eternal perspective.
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