The Romanian Legacy

Last Friday in my IAS (International and Area Studies) class I learned a little bit about the last twenty years or so of Romanian history. Nicolai Ceauşescu (pronounced Nee-koh-lie Chow-she-scoo) was a Hitler-like man whose communist regime from 1965-1989 caused a lot of grief in his country. I would love to tell you about it, so please ask me, but I'm not going to expound on it here. Basically, it's tragic stuff. Broken economies, families, trust, unity, history, communication, lives, etc. But Liz (one of the teachers of the class who has also gone to Romania twice with this program) ended class on a really good note--she said that to the rest of the world, the Romanian legacy is the horrendous things that happened there, but that is not what the Romanian legacy will be for me. When I come home from the program in December, the Romanian legacy that I will carry with me is the amazing generosity, passion, resiliency, and beauty of the people there.

In class we discussed how Ceauşescu's rule would emotionally and socially affect the people. We talked about how after the fall of communism, it was embarrassing for them to find out what awful things were happening in their country that they didn't know about. After the state of the Romanian orphanages, economy, etc. got so much press from America and other countries, it was irritating to them to have foreigners treat them condescendingly because they "didn't even do anything about it." It was frustrating for them to be sensationalized by people who had no idea what it was like to experience such things. And it was even more frustrating when those very people looked down on them for "letting such awful things happen."

We also talked about how the breakdown of family ties, trust, and communication (ask me how he did this) would make it hard for people to feel secure, trusting, or open to communicate anymore. We also talked about the messiness of how since the fall of communism, things really haven't improved all that much, and so a lot of people in Romania wish Ceauşescu was back in power because "at least under Ceauşescu we had jobs."

After class, I think we were all feeling a little heavy, even with the positive note Liz ended class with. Right after class we have Romanian (the language class), with our teacher Maria. I love and admire and adore Maria so much--she is just so full of cheer and kindness and light. She is from Romania, and so that same day we talked to her a little about Ceauşescu and the Romanian Revolution. She was 6 when the Romanian Revolution happened (in 1989) and remembers little about it. But she remembers some of it, and knows extremely well how it has affected the Romanian people. Just as Liz had told us the people would be, she seemed very uncomfortable talking about it. When we asked her how she felt about Ceauşescu, all she said is that she couldn't really be sure what he did, and that a lot of people wish he was back in power because at least they had jobs while he was in power, and the morality of the people wasn't so low as it is now that people have freedom of expression.

Talking to her really made the reality and pain of the history come alive to me. It was really hard to see someone I care about so much seem so uncomfortable and reticent to talk about that aspect of her country's history and reality. We had just been in a class where we were taught about the effects of being under Ceauşescu's rule...about how people don't like to acknowledge the bad things that happened, about how a lot of people wish Ceauşescu was still in power...and then we got to really interact with someone who has lived the history we were taught and is experiencing the effects of it. It was good for me to have a taste of what it's going to be like in Romania, meeting absolutely amazing people who love their Romanian heritage, but don't want to dwell on the painful things that have happened in their country. It is so sad, but it also makes a lot of sense to me.

Anyway, so I've thought a lot about that since Friday night. What is the purpose of such messiness--why are things not much better in Romania under democracy than when they were under communism. How do the millions of broken lives fit into the plan of salvation. How is it that people's lives can be so bad that they are driven to wish for something so awful as to be under Ceauşescu's rule? And this is what I've come up with:

First of all, Heavenly Father didn't send us to this earth to sail through without any challenges. We were sent here to be tested, and tested through challenges. Physical, spiritual, emotional challenges. And while it's easy for us to see the challenges and pain the Romanians went through, because they are so apparent, perhaps there are people everywhere in the world who go through just as much pain (even in the U.S.). Romania isn't the only place in the world where there are broken families, poverty, broken trust, broken lives. And maybe God let the Romanians, and all the rest of us, get broken to test our faith. To see if we would have the faith that Christ can fix all things broken. To test if even in the face of atrocious things such as Ceausescu did, we still will believe and trust that Christ has more power to heal than Ceauşescu has the power to destroy. (See Elder Holland's "Broken Things to Mend" and President Packer's "I Will Remember Your Sins No More" talks from last conference!)

Another thought that I had, that may very well be completely incorrect (I'm open to commets!) is that maybe people like Hitler and Ceauşescu needed to be given the opportunity to mess up as bad as they did in order to show their true colors. So they could fail in their tests as much as they deserved. So the blood of the innocent would be upon them. So their works would speak against them when they would try to say, "No, really, I'm not that bad of a person." So God is justified in letting them descend into hell.

Two thoughts also came to me in church today. In Sacrament Meeting, someone quoted Paul as saying, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" in 2 Timothy 4:7. And although the word "my" is in italics (signifying uncertainty as to how accurate of a translation it is), I'm going to assume that it is completely accurate. I think it's fascinating that Paul didn't say, "I have finished the course," but rather he said, "I have finished my course." We don't all go through the same tests. God doesn't expect us all to experience or overcome the same challenges. Our tests are customized to what we need to (and can) learn, overcome, experience. And although it seems to me that Romanians (or the Mormon pioneers, or whoever) had to go through way worse things than I do, maybe that's the kind of tests they needed. And maybe I need different kinds of tests. I need to finish my course, not anyone else's. And that goes for everyone else in the world, too.

Okay, one more thought, and then I have to go. And this thought is kind of what all this has been leading to, why I sat down to write this in the first place. It's a quote in the Relief Society lesson today, on page 87 of the "Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff" book. He said:
"When we have passed through the sorrows of mortality and have the joy and glory of the celestial kingdom conferred upon us we shall then know that the afflictions of mortality have prepared us for and enabled us to appreciate the blessings which God has in store for the faithful."
!!!!! What an amazing quote, huh!! So all the terrible things that Romanians experienced, if they endure them well, will only prepare them and enable them to appreciate the blessings God has in store for them. It will lead to increased joy and glory. Truly, "all things will be for our good." It's so exciting to think that one day all the pain of mortality will one day be over and all the broken lives of the faithful will be fixed! And that their experience of being broken will enable them to feel more joy over their blessings in the celestial kingdom! It's an amazing thought. It's a hopeful thought. It's a thought that I need to hang onto to help me endure the hard things in my future.

So, basically what it comes down to is that the Church is true, life would be unbearable without the gospel, without Christ we are lost, and with Christ we have it MADE. Christ has overcome the world, and it's up to me to trust that He has, and not despair over the horrendous things that have happened in history. And thus, we come full circle. Christ can transform our histories that seemingly seem like legacies of poverty, pain, and destruction into legacies of generosity, passion, resiliency, beauty, and glory. Truly, Christ is the Redeemer and Savior of the World!!