For The Elect's Sake, Those Days Shall Be Shortened

I am humbled by all that I see my friends and family enduring right now. I feel that under the surface of everyone I have talked to lately lurks some inner or outward huge struggle.  This video puts it well:

10-day old grandbabies life-flighted to the hospital, mothers having heart attacks, inner demons of darkness raging, debilitating depression and anxiety soaring to new heights...it is incredible!  As I marvel at all that is unleashed in this world--shootings, pornography, addictions, anti-God dialogues and traditions raging, crazy elections, tornadoes ripping through the Gulf states--I have pondered on a passage I read in Matthew 24 yesterday.  Christ is speaking of the days previous to the Second Coming:

 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

Wow. "Except those days should be shortened, there would no flesh be saved."  I don't know about any of the rest of these beautiful, suffering people I know, but I find that sometimes I am hanging on by my fingernails just to deal with the inner struggles I face and not lash out at those beloved people around me.  I have blogged about this before (and am feeling rather upbeat right now, so I don't want to delve there at the moment), but it is hard.

For some reason, this scripture gave me comfort.  Just because I am suffering, doesn't mean I am a bad person or that I am being weak.  The Lord knew these days would be hard, so hard in fact that even the elect would struggle. I don't know about you, but when I think "elect" I think Joan of Arc, Joseph Smith,--epic proportion faith...still struggling under the burden of living in this very world.

Again, who knows when the Second Coming will be here? However, it is a huge comfort to know that "these days will be shortened."  God knows all.  He knows what we can handle.  Hold on, my friends, my family.  May we draw strength from one another.