Whenever my daughter faces something unpleasant (a constant in the world of someone who is two years old), she howls, “I need to GO!”
Go where? Preferably, Grandma’s house, where things tend to be pleasant, and adults tend to be more indulgent. We’re working on it. In the meantime, that means I’m working on overcoming my own avoidant tendencies.
A recent insight transformed how I approach my challenges. And of all places, this gospel lesson came from learning about North American bison.
The Surprising Way Bison Respond to Storms
Did you know that bison face storms when they sense them coming? A speaker in our ward recently mentioned this phenomenon during a sacrament meeting talk.
Two major herd animals have roamed the wilderness of North America for centuries—wild cattle and bison—and they have completely different strategies for weathering prairie storms. When cattle sense a storm, they run away from it, hoping to escape. When bison sense a storm, they walk toward it, plodding toward the warmth on the other side.
The result: Bison spend less time in the storm since it passes over them, while cattle end up traveling with the storm, their attempts to flee only lengthening the misery.
Scientists have puzzled over this phenomenon; why do two similar species in the same natural environment show such disparate responses? While much of this behavior is unexplained, the spiritual metaphor is hard to miss: Try to outrun adversity, and you prolong the struggle. Face it with faith, and you evolve the strength to weather life’s inevitable storms.
Unlike cattle, which are less physically sturdy, bison have evolved robust muscular frames and thick skin. They still aren’t stormproof. The storms remain unpleasant. But pressing through them has strengthened bison for generations. They know they’re built to face it.
How Covenants Equip Us to Face Life’s Storms
We’ve seen a lot of bison-like bravery in studying the Old Testament so far this year. Women and men who sensed storm clouds rumbling on the horizon and walked faithfully forward.
Joseph faced betrayal, Moses accepted prophecy, Joshua led conquests, Ruth chose loyalty, and David gathered stones. Each conquered. Each strode into the tempest and through toward promise. Likely, none of them would have chosen such daunting roles and impossible battles. But what they did choose was to move forward.
Account after account reiterates this scriptural truth. Covenant women and men cannot, will not, outrun mortality’s storms. Instead, the Lord covenants to equip us to face them. The more storms we face at His side, the more resilient our spirits become.
“Tribulation [is our common experience,] … an essential part of the divine plan for helping us grow,” President Dallin H. Oaks has taught. “God’s assurance [is] that, in the long view of eternity, opposition will not be allowed to overcome us. With His help and our faithfulness and endurance, we will prevail. Like the mortal life of which they are a part, all tribulations are temporary” (emphasis added).
Disease, pain, addiction, sorrow, abuse, bad habits, new habits, loneliness, forgiveness, conflict, death, grief—this life’s storms are different for each of us, but, across the board, they’re rock-hard real.
We can’t outrun our own storms. But they aren’t anything we haven’t been prepared to face, either.
The Lord told us there would be storms, promised to anchor us through them, and even showed us that He can tame them.
As He reassures us, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee” (Isaiah 43:2).
So let the rain come. Let the wind howl. Let the ground shake. Let the devil throw his most theatrical, rampaging tantrum. None of it can hold a candle to the face-forward faith of covenant people, tethered to the Light calmly waiting on the other side.
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▶ Expecting the IRS but meeting the missionaries: A convert’s surprising path to the gospel
