The weight of eternal life

“That Which Was Lost,” by Yongsung Kim, https://havenlight.com/

Henry B. Eyring said, “He is making you strong enough to carry the weight of eternal life.” 

I have never heard eternal life as being “weight.”  We so often talk of eternal life as being some sort of relief from this mortal life.  That we would lose some of the “weight” we have been carrying here on earth.

We often speak of the death of loved ones as a blessing to no longer be plagued with the pains of this earth. 

Eternal life is life with God, as God lives.  

How could God be our Father and be free from reponsibiity, weight, and empathetic pain?  

In the book of Jeremiah and in Moses (in the Pearl of Great Price in Latter-day Saint scripture), it tells of God weeping.  If we care about or love others, that always comes with pain. 
God loves us and cares about us, so He has pain when we experience pain.  That likely means that in eternal life with and like God, we will experience pain as well. 

However, if we are becoming “strong enough to carry the weight of eternal life,” perhaps we experience that pain in a different way. Perhaps our capacity to experience pain is greater and allows us to experience more and to do and be more for others. 

When others hurt us or life hurls difficulties, we often feel like those things never should have happened.  

Maybe.

But how does it feel to think something never should have happened to you?

It implies that you are damaged in some way. 

You are not. You are hurt, but not damaged.

God’s plan allows for opposition.  For free agency.  And those things bring pain and hurt into the world and to each of us. But, His plan also has a Savior who heals.  And we are not only healed, but we are stronger, better, and more capable than ever before. 

Eternal life might be a “weight.”  But it is a beautiful weight that carries with it compassion, empathy, and deep love.  

And eternal life is not alone.  We are with God. 

When I come to God, His healing has the power to not only make me as good as before I was hurt, but BETTER than before I was hurt or sinned.  

We don’t have to wait to experience Christ and God.  We are building our eternal life now.  God and Christ come to us and walk with us now and show us the way.