Power? Yes Please

Hey kids. Welcome back! I am thrilled at the responses I received to my last posting. Thanks for all your feedback! Although I didn’t as for sympathy- it was nice to know I’m not alone.

This winter I was living in UT and loving the snow. One not snowy, extra cold day I got in my car to go home but my car wouldn’t move. It was the weirdest thing. It would start but not go into gear and therefore wouldn’t move. It would get close to drive but it wouldn’t really leave park or neutral. I panicked. I was freezing and it was getting dark. I tried everything I could think of, I did what I would normally do several times- still no change. I called my dad—not home. Called my brother—he had no idea. Luckily I got a guy on the phone at Ken Garff Honda. He talked me through popping the plastic cover off the gear shift and then pressing a key in this little spot. . . yeah, I have no idea what I did. But it worked.

I’d like to pretend like this little, unfortunately true, analogy is like the Power of Christ. The Power that Paul talks about in his letter to Timothy that I mentioned in my previous blog. In life I usually “go through the motions” to get where I think I should be heading. Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Whether it’s the “this isn’t my plan” moment or for some other reason—“point A to point B” gets delayed, post-phoned, rain-checked or bypassed. With the car it was some sort of anti-theft mechanism, in life it’s a myriad of possibilities. But the similarity in this lame analogy and life is that we have help. Even if the usual resources are unavailable or unhelpful there is one thing that is fail-safe; that is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And with this gift, we have power.

I agree with Mike’s comment that he posted. He said that power is agency and initiative. We are empowered through the Atonement. According to our faith in Christ, and acting in faith, enables us to draw upon the power of Atonement.

I think the problem is that as guilt-stricken LDS folk we worry that we aren’t doing enough, or doing the right things. Chad mentioned in this in his post about worrying if he wasn’t proactive enough causing him to miss opportunities. I think there has to be some sort of balance in our lives to know when we are doing well. It may not be as much or as little as the person next to you in Sunday school, but somewhere there has to be balance. I think Mike and Ashley hit it on the button when they both talked about having comfort instead of fear from the spirit when you are doing the things you are supposed to be doing. And yes, “hit it on the button” is a phrase that my grandmother uses.

I hope this adds to the discussion we’ve been having. I feel really preachy- I do apologize for that. You can tell me to get off my soap box and I’ll abandon my series of power, love and sound mind. Same bat time, same bat channel—keep the comments coming. Goodnight kids.