Wombs not Tombs

 

I hate missing church.

Don't get me wrong.  I eagerly watch for that cancellation text when storms come as much as anyone.  My warm covers beckon on Sunday mornings. 

But on weeks when my health (and consequential need for continual close proximity to a restroom) make church attendance unwise, I miss it.  

The people.  The messages.  The music.  The Spirit. And especially the Sacrament. 

And while I have troubles and difficulties of my own, they pale to many of those around me.  And I feel their pain deeply.

Maybe you are feeling like you have no more reserves left to face this next chapter and are running on empty.

Maybe you feel all alone and like no one understands.  Not even God because you haven't been able to hear or feel answers in awhile.  

Or maybe you feel like you are too well known and will never be able to shed the shadow of your past choices no matter your current heart.  

Maybe you've been hurt or are suffering physically or spiritually.  

Or maybe no matter how hard you keep trying it feels like the light is slipping further and further away and Satan's shouts that you might as well quit keep echoing in your head.

Regardless of your own personal darkness, clouds, fear and frustration, please know you are loved.  

In spite of the shining sun, I was feeling darkness today.  For a variety of reasons.  Weariness and darkness.  

And then my friend shared the message she heard at church today.  I'm so glad she shared.  

The message was this:

When things are dark and difficult, think of it not as a TOMB, but as a WOMB.

That message spoke to my soul and the Holy Spirit confirmed its truth.

I am in a period of growing and changing.  

But I am in good hands, in fact amazing and perfect hands. 

Growth may feel uncomfortable but I completely trust my Creators.  

As Elder Robert E Sackley taught, "It was the great Apostle Paul who said, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  (2 Cor. 5:17)

To find that “more excellent way,” brothers and sisters, we must cast aside our old selves and our old habits and ways of thinking. We must first recognize how we should change, and then we must make those changes, thus putting on the new and beginning to live as we have never lived before—walking in a newness of life."

I would say we also must ALLOW and SUBMIT to that process of change. Trusting in all we can become. 

And learn to recognize darkness is sometimes the opportunity to grow.

In the womb, not the tomb.