Pixelshot

GUEST BLOGGER: Robin

I had the honor (if not the pleasure) of speaking in Church today.  It had been a hectic week and I had all but forgotten about the talk until Thursday night.  (I did not share any of these things over the pulpit because Scott has taught me to never show my cards!)  Luckily the subject was one dear to my heart: Jesus Christ, our Savior.  Instantly, I thought of President (then Elder) Uchtdorf’s talk from last October Conference, Have We Not Reason to Rejoice? (For those of you who don’t know, every six months in October and April, the leadership of the Church consisting of our Prophet (aka “President”), his two counselors, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other General Church Leaders speak to the worldwide church.  The talks are broadcast from Salt Lake City to every corner of the world through satellite and internet technology.  Dieter Uchdorf is one of our new Prophet, Thomas Monson’s, counselors.)

This brilliant message of joy has carried me through some challenging times, and helped me to see life with increased hope and joy. He talks about his family’s discovery of the church:

“We were living in the rubble of postwar Germany with a devastating feeling of hopelessness and darkness about our future.
In the middle of this despair, my family learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the healing message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. This message made all the difference; it lifted us above our daily misery. Life was still thorny and the circumstances still horrible, but the gospel brought light, hope, and joy into our lives. The plain and simple truths of the gospel warmed our hearts and enlightened our minds. They helped us look at ourselves and the world around us with different eyes and from an elevated viewpoint….

Wherever you live on this earth and whatever your life’s situation may be, I testify to you that the gospel of Jesus Christ has the divine power to lift you to great heights from what appears at times to be an unbearable burden or weakness.”

Amidst personal storms or angst over the world’s tragedies and chaos, knowing the Savior and coming onto him enables us to have the strength and hope to overcome sorrows, triumph over temptation, and feel joy.

p.s. The Church has a great new website on Jesus Christ.

It’s 8 minutes long. I promise you’ll watch the whole thing:

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.