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If there’s one thing that this country needs, it’s to unite together behind a common purpose. The purpose of building a better future. No matter which candidate you prefer, Obama’s thoughts certainly resonate with our point in history:

I love our country. There’s no doubt. But I worry. I worry that we, all of us together, are sleeping at the wheel - sedated by comfortable lives. I also believe that there is hope for the future if we can collectively put our minds to solving the problems before us. Who will lead us as a nation?

In “Who Will Tell the People?“, Thomas Friedman (author of The World is Flat), sums up my thoughts quite elegantly. We need a leader, he says, who will tell us what we need to hear, not just what we want to hear.

“Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.”

Have a read.

Why did it take so long before I actually played Guitar Hero?! Well, the wait is over, thanks to my buddy Jeff who took a walk with me to Best Buy tonight to take out some stress with a plastic guitar and Pat Benatar.

C’mon - HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!

Oh and, in case you’re wondering. I rocked the house.

I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.

I had a message all written up and ready to post, but it just didn’t connect to the general challenges I’ve been
wrestling with recently. So, I started over…

It seems that I am quick to criticize. Quick to find fault. Quick to point out weaknesses. But, in the end, that does me (or others) no good.

As I was talking about this to my sweet Robin last night, she pointed out that I can find a positive spin in the midst of these challenges. I can look at my tasks and see hope and opportunity. The trick is to see them for what they are and what they can be, rather than to complain because things could (or should) be better.

How right she is.

Last October, we heard from Dieter F. Uchtdorf, a member of the First Presidency of the LDS Church, who gave a talk entitled “Have we not reason to rejoice?” (You have to listen to it or watch it to get the full effect of his warm smile.) He speaks of the world’s tendency to focus on bad news. And then points out the great opportunities in life. (Mainly he’s speaking about being a member of the church, so it’s especially poignant for those of you who are members.)

He points out that one of our tasks in life is to “endure to the end.” But, rather than thinking of this as a burden, he encourages us to think of “enduring” is an opportunity for transformation. It is “exalting and glorious, not grim and gloomy.”

Yet our reason to rejoice does not come free. It requires patience, sacrifice, and hard work. It also requires humility, integrity and honesty. But, Christ has the power to “lift you to great heights from what appears at times to be an unbearable burden or weakness.”

No matter our challenges, life can be an opportunity for change and growth, for adventure and exploration. So, a reason to rejoice.

Just what I needed to hear.