To those who are suffering

 - especially at the hands or words of others.

May I offer up the words to this hymn. (It is found on #285 in the 1985 green LDS hymn book.

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Ye fearful Saints fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his works in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain

 Some background:

One of the ways I receive things is through pieces of songs playing in my mind. Most of the time, they prove prophetic. Sometimes, they're more on a comforting level. So, I was going through a week that felt like hell, with so many things pressing down on me. I reached my breaking point over and over again. I was at the point where I was wondering if God was even real - and if God is real, do they really have any actual power to help alleviate the hell this place is?

And after a week, I broke down yet again and told God that I wanted to believe. (I mean, there's no other direction or being for me to focus on, so it's them or no one.) "I want to believe . . . but I can't." And pieces of the above hymn started playing in my head, and all that day pieces from that hymn played. It was "louder" than I've ever "heard" the songs in my mind - and more constant. I would like to believe, and I do think, it was God/heaven communicating with me, to let me know there is a purpose for this suffering. Some day, at some point, it will be made plain.

And so, to you who are reading this blog post, I offer up the song in the hopes that it will likewise give you comfort in the trials, unjust suffering, and even hell you are going through when you read this.

Why Your Prayers Aren't Working

I watched this video by Matt Walsh a few days ago (the title of this post is the title of the video). I found his advice on prayer to be quite enlightening. I have not prayed on my knees much lately, except for during sacrament (bread and wine) prayers. Listening to Matt's words, and following his advice did seem to bring me closer to God during my prayers.

A Broken Heart - the death of a friend

When I heard that Bret Corbridge had asked to be let go, and was taken off all machines, my heart broke. There have been other trials in my life recently, my children's lives, my siblings' lives, and in the lives of other friends. All of them were pushing me down, creating meltdown types of stress, but this news (and his subsequent death) was the final straw. My heart broke wide open. Samantha, I'm crying with you. A lot of us are. 

 This morning, I got a sense that this life is not really that much, that there is so much more to our lives than this little place and that it's okay when someone dies because they are just continuing their journey. Their work here is actually done. This was in response to my strong feelings about Bret and Tyson dying (because this brought up stuff from when my friend Tyson died, too). 

(There is a link at the bottom of this post where a mutual friend created a go-fund-me to help with Bret's funeral expenses.) 

 I think I was being shown that we put far too much emphasis on losing someone when they go, and not enough on seeing that this place is temporary. So temporary. For all of us. 

In my life, I have found that songs comfort me when I am stressed, depressed scared, angry, terrified, and so on. I get more from singing than from listening, but both can be powerfully healing. 

I am sharing some below. There are two that are not videos and 5 videos that are videos.

 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/bret-corbridge-memorial-fund-for-wonderful-family

Hymn - How Firm a Foundation

 This one is also from the hymnbook. It's one of the public domain songs.