The Place Whereon Thou Standest is Holy Ground

One of my favorite cinematic moments was written by William Goldman: “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” While it’s a pessimistic sentiment, there’s a lot of truth to it. Life is just . . . hard. There are really amazingly wonderful moments, but those moments tend to be wonderful because we make them so through hard work. We usually don’t like to talk about or hear about the hard things – it’s why social media feeds are full of the high points of our lives and why our automatic response to any inquiry into our well-being is, “I’m good!”

The past few weeks have been hard. The specifics aren’t important, but I’ve been going through what everybody goes through at different stages of their lives – intense disappointment and pain. There have been many hours of tears, phone calls to my life lines and a deep need to stay busy. More importantly, when I am faced with uncertainty, the only thing I know to do is to turn completely to my Heavenly Father. As Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying, “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.” When my life seems to implode on itself and the peace of the world leaves me to my own devices, seeking the peace of the Lord just makes sense. The peace that comes not to free us from our circumstances, but in spite of our circumstances. The grace that gives us power and strength beyond what we normally would have the capacity to withstand.

I remember in the Missionary Training Center, one of my teachers said that he had “received freely” from the Lord on his mission. That is, quite simply, the only way I can describe what life has been like for me lately. I was talking with my sister last week, describing some of the things that I have felt and experienced. In an off hand way, I said that I wished that I didn’t have to go through this particular experience. Her response changed everything – she told me not to think of this time as a time of pain, but to make this a holy time. To take the amazing experiences and learnings that I’ve had and make them the focal point. We can make the darkest, most difficult moments of our lives intensely beautiful and meaningful in hindsight by focusing on what we are learning, how we are growing and what we can improve within ourselves. Become tough and tender, dear reader. And when all else fails, remember: sometimes it’s a good day if you get through the day without hitting or biting anyone.