Monday, April 6, 2009

Sunday Sessions

Sunday A.M., I spent a few hours doing my extraction-director work and when 10 A.M. arrived I realized it was time for my nap. The only thing that would have prevented me from immediately going to sleep would have been to sit on a tack or to take Vivarin intravenously. A pill simply doesn't work fast enough. Both of those involve sharp points, and I determined to take a nap, instead, so I missed a lot of the 4th session of GC.

However, I did pick up on at least two speakers saying that righteous acts are not a spectator sport. We don't get credit for them by observing and commenting on them.

For the 5th session, I noted a very interesting thread:

Elder Bednar talked about the temple -- one of my very favorite topics.

Elder Stevenson (?) told a story, the punch line of which was that the little boy said, "We aren't lost. Even though we are way out in the boonies, on muddy roads, across rickety bridges, as long as we can see the temple there, we're not lost!" The image on the screen was that of the Logan Temple seen above the trees in the foreground.

At that time, I thought that the being-able-to-see-the-temple was much like navigating with a GPS that does not have a map. It's as though your destination is like some high landmark that you can see so you know where it is, which way it is from your current location, and how far away it is. You may not know the absolutely optimum way to get there, but since you can see it, it's just a matter of time and patience to find it.

And then Elder Teixeira startled me by giving the talk that I have thought of giving if I ever got a chance. The GPS is such a great metaphor for so many things. It tells you where you are, where you're going, and how to get there. It works fine as long as it can hear the satellites. The metaphor is obvious, in my opinion.

Then Elder Watson told of having been taught that, when you are in a fog so dense that you can't see your hand in front of your face, you can give the horse completely free rein and it will find the way back home. The metaphor for him was that there are times when we simply have to give our trust over to the Lord who knows and perceives things that are hidden to us. He will guide us through his servants, the prophets as well as through inspiration directly to us.

Even though I'm not particularly comfortable with the use of a horse as a metaphor for the Lord, his point is well taken and ties in nicely with the rest of the thread.

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