Is There No Balm in Gilead?

“Is there no balm in Gilead?” At times when I was in Chile, jokingly on a day when some setback would occur, we would dramatically throw our hands up and ask this question. At times, this setback would be as small as knocking a door and there being no answer. Times like that, we would always finish with a good laugh. At times, we would say it when we found out that someone who was a good friend won’t talk to us because he did not want to upset friends and families by talking with the Mormons. Times like that, we would ask the question in a very real way, a sincere way. “Is there no balm in Gilead?”

The story originates in the bible of this miracle balm, a type of medicinal salve, from a place called Gilead. This balm became a symbol for the power to sooth and heal. When warriors were wounded in battle, they used balm of Gilead. When someone was sick, they used Balm of Gilead. Balm of Gilead became one of the top exports in the land, so much that even the traders who bought Joseph and took him to Egypt were taking the balm to trade in Egypt. This Balm was a most miraculous substance.

At a time of devastation later on, Jeremiah the prophet asked the now famous question “Is there no balm in Gilead?” Jeremiah viewed his people and asked why it is they were having difficulties if they had this miracle balm. Of course, his two sided question became a spiritual one, why are they having difficulties when they have God? Just as the balm heals a broken body, obeying God would heal the broken soul.

This week has been one of me asking for this balm. It has been one of those weeks that kicks me down, throws me in a hole; however you want to look at it. Tragedy in the life of a young girl I baptized in Chile has hurt me emotionally. This young girl (not so much anymore, being seventeen), took her own life. It is a very personal kind of pain, one that is hard to comfort. I write about it to make sense of it, not to publicize it. These last two days, I haven’t been sleeping well. My thoughts are with her. I’ve read journal entries to make sense of it all, but I find myself at the end just being sad. Suicide is such a tough subject because it is a tragedy in the most real of all definitions of tragedy. How does God forgive one who gives up on their mortal life?

Then, I was touched when people close to her, remembering me as the missionary who taught her, asked me for comfort. Of course, my initial thought is that they are asking the wrong guy. Then I figured, if they ask me I better do all I can to try to get an answer. It was difficult process thinking, pondering, understanding, and praying. I then thought about the life of any person. Does God judge a person by one mistake and solely that mistake? Does he take us at our worst, and use that as a way to judge? I don’t think so. Just as it would be unfair for God to judge you for only one sin, it would be unfair for him to judge this young woman only on her final act.

I then thought as God as a judge. I thought of who the advocate, or who the lawyer is in this situation. I believe it to be Jesus Christ. He is the one who will be begging God to apply mercy in our situation. I can honestly say there is no better person to be that lawyer than the Savior.

I wrote back those who asked for words of comfort. It was a short message, “God will not judge one act alone. I am sad with what has happened, but I am happy that Christ is her lawyer before God.”

Many times when life gets hard, or we are left asking for that balm, it is no more than an opportunity to realize where our power lies. Often we hear stories of people blaming God, and then when they realize that it is that same God that delivered them from their time of crisis, they turn to him. We may not all be shaking our fists at the heavens every day, but we will still find ourselves in the hole sometimes. It is those moments in the hole that we learn that we can’t do it alone. It is then that a hand comes to lift us out, strengthening our belief in Him.

If you are in a hole, look at it as a chance to strengthen faith. Although there isn’t a lot of brightness in our dark times of life, we most certainly can make an effort to put our trust in the deliverer while we are down for the count. There is a balm in Gilead that we have today. That balm is the morals that rule us, our concern for our neighbor, our ability to love others, and our love for quiet pondering. That balm is the same balm we find in God’s law. To receive it, we must only live it.

Little Things…

Last week, I didn’t post. My wife and I were in Disneyland. As much as I love blogging, I must say that riding Pirates of the Caribbean trumps that.

This week has been full. Westminster College, the college I am attending, will have its inaugural day tomorrow. I am very excited to be part of that.

 I spoke in the Spanish branch of my church this Sunday. It was a wonderful opportunity. The main theme I talked about was the progression of life. A lot of times, people do not progress much in life simply out of lack of vision. They do not know what they want to do, so many remain stagnant. Someone once told me a few ways to make life feel less stagnant, and to feel like we as people are going somewhere.

First off, some of the greatest advice I was given was fake it ‘til you make it. I was given this advice when I began my journey as a missionary in Chile. I didn’t know the language, I didn’t know how to be a missionary, and I really didn’t feel like I was ready to be looked at as a spiritual leader. The advice of fake it ‘til you make it helped. I was told to study the scriptures like an apostle. Speak the language like a native. Love the people like the Savior. Eventually, the faking became reality. In life, we need to just be confident in ourselves. If we love to sing, sing like the most famous singer. If we write, try to write like the best known writer. If we want to be a good friend, try to be the best friend in the world. Eventually, slowly but surely, we raise the bar. So much of what life is is what we perceive of it.

The other advice I received was that the purpose of life is to live today better than we did yesterday, and make tomorrow better than today. The important part of this is to not blow the improvements out of proportion. Little improvements count. We don’t have to make any huge jumps, just the little things. Today, we can be kind to someone. Tomorrow, it could be two people. The next day, help two people and send a text message to someone you have been meaning to talk to. Make today better than yesterday, and yes, the little things in life do count.

There are many little things that we can do in life. Let’s just try to improve.

A Fresh Start...

It is that time of year again. School is in session. I personally don’t start my college courses for another few weeks, but a majority of kids in Mesa are back to school today. It makes me reflect on days gone by, my school days, and what the first day meant to me.

I always viewed every school year as a fresh start. You get your little outfits, new pens and pencils, new haircut, a new schedule, classes, classmates. It is a very exciting time, a refreshing time. The way one carries their self the first day of school is also very interesting. In classes, I would keep distracting comments to a minimum. The inner clown would come out about two weeks into the school year, but for a little bit there I would keep myself pretty tame. It seems that many people during that adjustment period tone down their personality, testing the social waters of their surroundings. The first day of school is an interesting phenomenon.

I view days like that as special, a new start in life. Reflecting on those experiences, first day at school, first day at work, first day in a new city, in a new house, I see that people seem to be very forgiving. You always view first days as a new start, therefore generally one will forgive past mistakes of prior tries they have. I think that is an amazing thing that happens, and that is the reason why a majority of people really enjoy first days. It gives them an excuse to forgive themselves.

That having been said, I think about why that spirit of forgiveness is only present in new situations. Maybe our spirit of forgiveness that we owe to ourselves is misunderstood. Maybe our definition of a new situation is misunderstood as well.

We owe ourselves forgiveness. Life without forgiveness is a very painful experience. People will react to the way you live your life in many ways. That is natural, and many times they react in a mean manner. That will happen. What you can control is the way you forgive yourself. Set the example for others. We always talk about being an example, and showing others the way through actions. Decide that the example you will set for others will be forgiveness for self. They will see you do it, and then they will do it.

We look at new situations, or new beginnings all the time. I believe out view of new beginnings is completely wrong. School starting, a new job, a new location, those are often our excuses for a new beginning. A new beginning is simply the start of something new. The sun rising. The mornings commute for the day. Every experience we have is a new beginning. Every experience we have is an opportunity for us to start again.

To summarize my thoughts, as refreshing as a first day of school can be for the soul, every day is a first day of school. Maybe not a formal first day of school, but every day we arise with the opportunity to feel good about ourselves. We can forgive past mistakes, and much like study habits early in a school year, we can be more dedicated. We can try harder. We can get to know new people. We can realize that from this day forward, life starts. Every day can be a first day of school, if we let it be.

Mistakes will be Made...

I have been thinking a lot about the past. Everyone has a past, old and young. Some pasts are as tainted as a water supply next to an arsenic factory. Some are without much experience. Some are smooth and joyful. We all have pasts.

Visualize it: You are out in public and in walks a piece of your past, someone who is tied perhaps to mistakes you made. Maybe someone you were not very nice to (or wasn’t very nice to you). Perhaps it is someone who you are frankly embarrassed to see, because in your mind you think that the first thing they will do is walk up to you and make it all known what mistakes you made, how you were, what a jerk you were, etc. Now, you cannot tell me that at least once in your life, while out and about, you haven’t looked at the door and feared someone like that walking in. I do it, and I am positive we all do it. Maybe it is just embarrassment for our mistakes, or maybe it is fear that we will never be able to be forgiven for stupidities. We all have someone, the last person we want to see walk through that door.

Human beings seem to bear that cross of past mistakes, often unnecessarily. This brings me to one of my favorite movies, Les Miserables (spoiler alert). Think of Jean Valjean. He had a tainted past. Although he received forgiveness, and went on to become an incredible man in a position of power, he always had his head looking over his shoulder, convinced that people would find out his sins and not see him for what he actually is. The investigator, Javert, was constantly on the hunt to catch Valjean. Only when Valjean finally stops trying to run Javert, Javert leaves him alone. I believe the Javert in our life isn’t somebody else trying to hunt us, but ourselves hanging our own life and fears over our heads. Think about it, as soon as Jean Valjean finally stopped running, and faced the fact that he had made mistakes in life and agreed to surrender himself, Javert, rather than arrest Valjean,  jumps off of the bridge, realizing that his life of hunting Valjean was a failed effort, because Valjean, once a convict, proved himself a good man.

We are our own Javert. We often don’t let ourselves move on. We all make mistakes in life, and we are supposed to! From the beginning of time, man has made mistakes. All the way back to Adam and Eve. They ate the forbidden fruit. Why? To receive knowledge of good and evil. Was it a mistake? YES! God said no. That is disobedient.  Was eating the fruit a necessary step in learning? YES! I then ask the question. If an all knowing God knew that Adam and Eve were going to have to eat the fruit to move out of the Garden, then why did he put them there in the first place? Was He teaching a lesson to them that in life, you won’t be perfect and mistakes will actually be a powerful way that we learn? Adam and Eve went on to be very righteous people. Did the painful experience of being cast out of the garden motivate them to live better? Personally, I think so. I think that to a certain extent, God not only expects us to make mistakes, but wants us to so we learn from them. Mistakes have the ability to be one of the most powerful teachers that we have.

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying; you are still obligated to try your best. I can’t go out to the streets and beat someone up just to have the learning experience the mistake of assault charges carry. We must try our best. Only when we do the best to be a good person do we have the forgiveness for our mistakes. That having been said, why do we constantly beat ourselves over the head for things that we are supposed to do?  We can’t walk through life beating ourselves up, that prevents the learning. Think of life as us hiking up a mountain with buckets of paint. We are going to spill paint. It is impossible not to. Maybe you position yourself poorly, or don’t watch your step and stumble and spill some. It would be stupid if after you spill, you shake your head the rest of the way and beat yourself up for the paint you spilled miles and miles before. That seems ridiculous! As ridiculous as holding your past mistakes over your head.

People from your past will walk through that door. You will see them at the grocery store, and they frankly might not have forgiven or may even still hold your mistakes over your head. You cannot control that. They will always be there. Just realize that you are meant to make mistakes. If you learned from your mistakes, and are now a better person, then whoever it is walking through that door is at fault if they don’t see who you are rather than what you were. Your mistakes shape you. They don’t define you. What defines you are the lessons you learn from your mistakes. A favorite proverb of mine says “a just man falleth seven times, but riseth up again.” Forgive yourself, and rise up.       

 

Everybody has their Demons

I am a firm believer that every single person who walks this earth has their demons. For some, they desire to quit smoking but can’t seem to beat the addiction. Addiction is their demon. For others, they are not happy because they want something more, or feel like something is owed to them. Greed is their demon. For many, a demon is the inability to show love to others. The list of demons goes on and on. It is always interesting to hear someone talk down on another person for their struggles and trials in life, when you can see their demons so clearly that it might as well be hanging on their shoulders. Point is, everybody has their demons, they are all different, they are all important to conquer, and it doesn’t do any good when we look down on others for their demons when we know we have ours. Don’t look down on others for sinning differently than you do.

I was able to conquer a demon this week.

Deciding what I am doing for school has been a demon for me. The school decision is haunting. Being young and married ten-months ago, the school decision comes down to a lot more than just what campus I like or what program is good. There is money. There are plans on how I can continue working to make enough money. The school decision is huge. I have not only been unable to truly decide on school, but even when I would take the steps, I never felt good about it. I felt good about going to school, and getting an education to fulfill my dream of becoming a screenwriter in Hollywood. The one thing that never fit was the where of it all. This has been the demon on my back. It has caused grief, and stress. It truly has been a trial to me.

This has weighed on me for a while. Saturday, my wife and I received a phone call. Westminster College, a Midwest liberal arts school brining a campus to Downtown Mesa, was having an open house. I had slept in that day, and had ten minutes to shower and get there. It was a rush, but they had mentioned that everyone who goes gets a free t-shirt, and who doesn’t like that? We hurried and went. We saw the renovated building, we heard about the program, and talked to them. They mentioned financial aid, scholarships, grants, and it looked like I might have a shot to get a good education at a decent price. I spent the weekend researching college list after list, comparing school options that I have, money, and everything. I scheduled a meeting with Westminster to meet with them and get a specific plan for what tuition would cost. I went in there knowing that we had a budget, and as good as I felt about it, if the price wasn’t right then I wasn’t going to go. I talked with them, and they were able to put together a package to save me a lot of money. It was a shock to me to receive that much money, but it was a huge blessing. Long story short, I am enrolled at Westminster College and couldn’t be happier.

This experience reminded me of the struggles we face every day. We all have demons that will weigh on our souls, cause us stress, and ultimately keep us down for a while. It will require a good amount of faith to wait out the storm. While we wait for it to end, we will also have to go about our life. Even though we are weighed down, we need to still do what is right and live our lives. Eventually, something will come up that will be the key to helping us out of our slump. Mine was that open house. Yours may be going to see a friend, reading a certain book, calling a family member. Once we do that, then we are able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is then that we have to have the strength for a final push. My final push to conquer my demon was what seemed like hours of research and reflection. I looked at list after list of colleges. I even arose late in the night because I felt like finding my answer was important enough to put off sleep. That final show of faith is what then rewards us with joy. Then, I found out that I was going to be taken care of, after all the struggle. My demon was conquered.

We all have demons. I know that no matter what, you just have to hold on. Keep living your life and doing good for others. When you have that final push, when you think your strength is run out, that is sufficient, and you will conquer your demon. Odds are that you, much like me, have more than one demon. We all have multiple. In life, we must conquer them one at a time. Trying as hard as you can is enough. Sometimes it will take you longer than others, but realize there is no race. We are not valued on how fast we get rid of our demons; we are valued by how constant our effort is at trying to rid ourselves of them. Keep trying. Your demons in the end will not be able to defeat you, as long as you are at least trying.

One step back, One leap forward!

I have thought a lot about the big picture in life, and the idea of putting trust in the Lord.

I always notice people who are caught in good situations in life thanking the Lord for their good fortune. People who have bad luck blame their misfortunes on the higher power. It always seems so black and white without a medium. We are all living looking at one side of the coin rather than being on the edge of the coin where we can see both sides and how they coordinate in this big picture we call life.

I have had some interesting experiences with my job as a junk removal worker. This job has been a huge blessing and has allowed me to work and provide some financial security.  Over the past month, I have noticed some discomfort in my leg, and was encouraged to get an MRI. Sure enough, my vastus medialis (part of the quadriceps), was 80% torn. My doctor made it apparent that the risk of tearing the muscle completely was too high, and my days as a junk removal man were over.

This was a bit of a downer. Just as quick as I had found this job and began to really enjoy it and see the benefits, it was taken away. The scramble came to find a replacement and train him to take my job for me. It was not fun picking someone to take the job I enjoyed, and it was even less knowing I had to train them. We found a guy, he agreed to start, and I spent a few days training him. My feeling of misfortune grew and grew.

When I was near finished on my last day of training him, my replacement and I had a good conversation. He told me about his reaction to getting the job. He had been thinking for weeks about leaving Arizona, and had come to the conclusion that he had no idea what to do right now in life. He said a prayer that he could know where he needs to be in life right now, for he was confused. At that moment, he received an e-mail with an offer to start working a junk removal job, the same job that I had left vacant. He knew at that moment this was a good thing, and he felt then for the first time in a while that he knew where he needed to be.

I thought about this. My misfortune is the answer to his prayer? Then I thought about that statement. Misfortune? What misfortune? I have so much to be thankful for. Sure, I am unemployed for the next month until school starts, but at what price? My misfortune resulted in someone finding their place. I remember when I took this job; I thought and prayed to know how I could use this job to do the most good. I had thought I would do well by donating useable furniture to a needy family, using my truck to clean a yard, helping someone move. The possibilities were endless, and I did do a lot of good. I didn’t know it at the time, but the most good I would be able to do with that job was to give it up to someone who really needed it.

Life is strange, and it is funny how it works out sometimes. Just remember, just as my moment of small loss was the huge gain of another, which is so often the case. We may have to take one step back so someone else can take two leaps forward in life. Next time you pass through a trial and take a step back, look for who it is that you allowed to leap forward.

One mans trash...

This week was interesting.

I had a fantastic experience through my work. I am working this summer as an employee of a junk-removal company.  As you may have guessed, this job has provided all kinds of experiences for me. From disgusting to awesome, I have seen it all.

This week, I was cleaning out a rental property. The owner had decided to sell. As I entered this house, there was a very distinct smell, garbage everywhere, and it was more than apparent that the place had been doing no more than gathering dust for months. Amongst the trash, I found many clues as to the type of people who must have lived there. They were a worldly people, who often consumed their time with drinking and drug use. It was a house cleanup that caused heaviness of the soul. I was saddened someone would live that way.

I walked into a closet in one of the bedrooms, and there I saw a neatly hung-up military uniform, and a bible. It was a latter-day saint King James version of the bible, with an inscription on the inside cover. This bible was gifted in 1989 from this man’s parents. I looked up the name, and found it to be a war hero, a man who was a decorated veteran, and had passed away in 2010. I decided to do some research on this man; because I did not feel that a bible and uniform were very fitting of that house, which had shown it had been in possession of nothing more than people who did not live a life with any morals.

I found out about this man. He was a noble man with high morals. He lived to serve, enjoyed the outdoors, and full of integrity. He had been married a few weeks before his death to the woman that lived in the house. From conversations with several people who know the woman, she was a selfish person who used him for his military benefits. Shortly after he died, she had a boyfriend move into the house, igniting the moral decay of what once was the home of a hero.

I spent about an hour on the internet trying to find the family of this man. The next morning, I received a phone call. It was the brother of this man. His family had had some trouble finding out the details of their brother. They hadn’t heard from him for a space of years. His brother searched and searched for him, only to find out that he had passed away. I talked to this man for a good amount of time. He has nothing to remember his brother by, and I was more than grateful to mail them the items I found. They had often called their brothers wife, but she would ignore them, and not help them out at all. She wouldn’t so much as send them a picture. It was a good thing to right this wrong, and give them the bible and uniform that had belonged to their brother.

This experience taught me many things. As I sorted through the most important lessons, the one that came up over and over again was the idea of creating experiences that bring us closer to our spiritual side. I remember when I first saw the bible. My immediate reaction was to take it home myself. Although this was better than throwing it away, it wasn’t the right thing to do. My second impulse was to donate this bible. Perhaps, someone would have bought it, and it would’ve changed their life. A good outcome, but still not the right thing to do. It was my third option that I would find the family, and contact them. That was going to be difficult. This man had a very common American name, and that was the only lead I had. It seemed a large mountain to climb, but I felt that it was the right thing to do. I found the man, had a talk with him, and he was incredibly grateful. As we talked, I felt like I was edified spiritually. This man now had a connection to his brother who had since passed on. The family also took great comfort that this man, whom they thought had strayed from the faith, had this bible with him until the day he died.

Much like this experience, we have to make experiences for ourselves. We so often find ourselves praying to God that we can have a spiritual experience, or that we can do some good in the world, or help someone in need. Every day, like the bible, these experiences fall into our laps in a most unconventional way. The way we can let these experiences work for us and fuel us is by acting. Not only must we act, but we must act in the right way. We should stop, and try to view every option and all the outcomes. Sometimes, our first and second option won’t give us the spiritual manna we need.  Sometimes, our third and fourth option won’t. We need to think of what option will fuel us, and do it. Spiritual experiences don’t fall into our laps, but opportunities to make spiritual experiences do every single day. Seize them.