I’ve been watching Ward Radio for a long time now, around two years, I think. They used to call themselves, Midnight Mormons, but after the president of our church asked us to stop referring to ourselves as Mormons, the channel rebranded itself as Ward Radio.

A fairly recent change to the channel was the introduction of The Women of Ward Radio, featuring some really wonderful women talking about our faith and often debunking the false information being spread about women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A recent episode was suggested by the wife of host Cardon Ellis, Brittany Ellis, called, “God is Real: Overcome Your “Faith Fatigue” By Recognizing Miracles!” It carries a message I needed to hear and I wanted to share it with you.

The cast for this episode includes the aforementioned Brittan Ellis. Brittany is one of my favorites of the show for a lot of reasons. One of the big reasons is she is really a no-nonsense kind of person that I think the male members of the cast, especially her husband, need. There is also Charlotte Barns. Over many episodes, I’ve been getting to know her and her insightful views into women’s issues in the Church. Finally, there is Megan. I’m sorry that I don’t know Megan’s last name. The description of the video doesn’t identify the cast, but Megan is just a wonderful person that has the high and holy calling of teaching Sunbeams. I always love seeing her on an episode.

One of the stories explored in this episode is that of the journey of the Ellises dealing their little daughter having a rare cancer and the miracles that happened that comforted them and held them up. It’s another reason I think so highly of the Ellises. I can’t imagine it. I don’t want to imagine it. We who are parents all pass through the valley and shadow of suffering when we see our children suffer, and the not-so-good news is that it doesn’t end when they’re grown. Then, maybe it is good news, because it has to do with the Good News of the gospel and the mortal opportunity to grow in faith and strength through the hard experiences.

If you watch the video, and I hope you will, Brittany teaches a lesson about having such strong faith that God will bring about a quick resolution and then watch that possibilty fade into the reality of the long haul. It’s enough to challenge even the strongest faith. Her faith persevered and she gained from that a firmer faith in the reality of God and his love for us.

Charlotte shared about a friend who was going through cancer and related some of the miracles she saw during that time. Talking about her kids, she says that we can’t be “helicoptering” our children. Children need to have faith experiences too. I wholeheartedly believe in that, and I know I’ve been more concerned about them in their trials than I was as a boy in my own trials.

Megan shared about her willingness to provide a kidney for her aunt who was experiencing kidney disease. I never realized how rigorous the testing is to make sure that a donor is a match for the patient. She did a year of test after test to make certain. One miracle happened. Her aunt’s kidney disease abated and the transplant wasn’t needed. As we have learned, there’s always a trial waiting to come in to take the place of another. Megan’s final test in the process revealed a health issue for her that she didn’t expect. She has always been unusually healthy and it really affected her.

What impressed me about Megan’s sharing is that she is right in the thick of it. It’s a lot easier to share a former struggle that to talk about something you’re experiencing in the here and now. My philosophy is that the best situation for sor solving problems is as close to the here and now as you can. I also believe that sharing a struggle is a major part of dealing with it. In my mother’s generation, you would never share it if unless you had no other choice. I feel that Megan shows amazing courage to put it right out there, along with the effects of the struggle on her faith.

Megan used the term, “faith fatigue.” I like that a lot more than “faith crisis.” I can’t remember ever having a faith crisis, but I’ll gladly admit to finding faith to be tiring. Sometimes, you just want something to be resolved right now, immediately, with just a single prayer, no worrying, no crying, just a quick resolution.
My family has been going through a trial for the last few years and every step of the way, we pleaded with God to intervene and make it go away. We wanted him to return it all to the way it should be. At those times, you tell him, “I’ve been doing everything I’m supposed to do. I’ve been told that it brings blessings. Why am I not getting the blessings?”

It seems like it would be easy to just choose to not have faith anymore, but I think that faith isn’t a power that originates with us. It is a gift, and sometimes I think I couldn’t stop believing even if I tried. I certainly could just declare myself to not believe and put on a really good show of it, but I can’t see myself not having faith in the promises of God. He’s fulfilled so many of them.

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