Oh my word. The last two days were spent crossing Nebraska and Wyoming. Talk about monotonous. Very flat, very boring. When I got into Utah today the terrain changed and it got greener and much hillier. Lots of fun, tight curves to zoom around. Whee! It's great to be in the mountains again. I hadn't seen them for just about three weeks. When you're used to seeing them lurking on the horizon every day, you kinda miss them after a while.
So I'm here in Salt Lake City for several days, and the plan is to hang out downtown for a day or two, go to the temple, check out the new conference center, the Joseph Smith Memorial building, the Family History Library, and at least a couple more of the many temples in this valley. I'm looking forward to going to church tomorrow. Last week I missed it because I had a long drive from Palmyra to Ohio and I needed to get on the road early in the morning. Next Sunday I'll be in Vancouver with my friends. I am so happy about seeing them again! It's been a long time. I had such a great time with them when I lived there. I moved from there to Calgary nine years ago. Where has the time gone?
So today, as I was trying to keep my mind interested and awake behind the wheel, I was listening to some of the general conference talks from this past April. I could feel the spirit very strongly and I shut the CD off and asked, "Is there something you want to tell me?" These words came to my mind a moment later: "Stay on this road."
Profound, as usual. The literal meaning was, of course, to stay on this road to get to Salt Lake City. The figurative meaning is to keep doing what I'm doing. I've been on the road for 21 days now and most of my time has been spent listening to church talks and the MoTabs (Mormon Tabernacle Choir, haha), pondering the events of the restoration of the church, and of course soaking in all the beautiful historical sites. I've been very focused these last few weeks. It's been such a great trip, and I'm sure it's due to feeling so absolutely confident, calm, and peaceful because I followed a prompting to take this long driving trip. This time alone has been a real time of spiritual growth for me. I've had many long hours on the road to think about things, about myself and about the youth in the church in general and the challenges they face. I'll have to keep these things in mind when I start teaching the seminary classes in September.
Just as another example of how profound the spirit is, I'll tell you a story about an experience I had many years ago. I was watching a movie about a volcano. I had seen it before and there was a scene where some scientists were right at the crater of the volcano, and a small tremor shook some rocks loose and injured one of them. I thought, wouldn't that be something to know that stuff like that was going to happen? I knew that the town at the foot of the mountain was going to be destroyed. How neat would that be to be able to tell everyone, "Listen up! There's trouble coming. You have 12 hours to get your stuff together and get to safety!" This idea was firmly in my head, and I continued giving it a lot of thought.
I knew that Christ had the power to control the elements. He did so when he calmed the storm and walked on the sea. He certainly could provide a warning to people that disaster was about to strike, to give them time to evacuate. I figured it was a righteous thing to want to help people to avoid destruction, so I bravely asked, "Could you give that power to me? What would it take to be able to do that?"
And right then that still, small voice spoke and said, "You need to know the will of God."
Wow. What a great answer. Of course He knows all the things that will happen to the earth, and He certainly could warn people. Sometimes a warning comes. Sometimes it doesn't. And we can't even pretend to know His will when something like an earthquake or tsunami or hurricane happens, because sometimes it is His will that some perish and some suffer. Often you hear people say that when the community came together to help each other after a disaster, it was such a time of bonding and love and they became closer and stronger by working and grieving together. That's part of His plan sometimes.
I asked for a superpower and got shot down because it would have to be used in accordance with God's will. I have trouble understanding His will for me sometimes, let alone the rest of the world! That little voice packs a punch in such few words.
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