Have you ever worried about something so much that it physically hurts?
Have you ever been so overwhelmed by a calling, an assignment, or a life event that it becomes hard to function?
This is exactly what Jacob is going through as he takes on the responsibility of continuing Nephi’s record and teaching difficult things to the people in his struggling community.
Jacob is seeing the results of his people choosing to disregard the commandments of God. He describes his “great anxiety” in carrying out his mission. He says it “grieveth” his soul and causes him to “shrink with shame” because of how difficult it is for him to do what he has to do and say what he has to say to his people.
For all of the terrible things going on around him, Jacob comes back to one single solution to every problem that he sees:
Jesus Christ.
“Be reconciled unto Him,” he pleads. Don’t look beyond the mark. Don’t look for happiness in places that true, lasting happiness will never be found.
There are some difficult times in the Book of Mormon, and Jacob was living through one of those times. But in his time and in our time and in every time in between, the open arms and unrelenting grace of Jesus Christ is there for anyone who comes to Him and seeks to be reconciled.
—Greg
Young Men General Advisory Council