Monday, April 30, 2012

When the Universe Looks Traceless

We had another experience Sunday when a sister from our ward came up to us after a meeting and explained that her niece had schizophrenia and that she wanted us to come and give her a blessing (what she really did was draw a cross in the air with her hand and ask us if we could come “do our thing”). I’m afraid the sister originally thought we would be casting out some kind of spirit and even asked us if her niece’s sins could have caused the problem. We explained the story in John 9 and the purpose of some of our trials. When her niece finally came we gave her a blessing of health and Elder Richards shared a personal experience from his family. 


The spirit was extremely strong in the lesson and by the time we closed the sister that originally asked us for the blessing talked about how her niece was “an angel” and so close to God because of her innocence. The ability to put tribulation into an eternal perspective is something I’ve always struggled with, and I guess everyone else as well, but I learned from this lesson how that change of perspective brought by the spirit can change the manner in which we bear tribulation, our attitude while we do it and the products that tribulation work in us and everyone around us. 


I have this weird habit of repeating quotes over and over in my mind and for a while now it seems like I’ve been waking up with either the poem Invictus or a quote from The Screwtape Letters where C.S. Lewis says, “[The devil’s] work is never more in danger than when a man, no longer desiring but still intending to do God´s will, looks round on a universe from which all traces of Him have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” I think it’s a basic part of our own, personal plan of salvation that we have these moments, however much they may vary in degree. I remember missing a spelling test in third grade in the same week I accidentally offended the 8-year old girl of my dreams and I thought the universe looked pretty traceless. Since then, I’ve had a few more of those moments, and they seem to have increased substantially by degree, but in principle I guess it’s still the same. I’m grateful for the knowledge that someone far better than I’ve ever been had that same moment to a degree I can’t understand, and that He has promised to help us through our own diluted experience.”

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