by U2
I'm 'round the corner from anything that's real
I'm across the road from hope
I'm under the bridge in a rip tide
That's taken everything I call my own
One step closer to knowing
One step closer to knowing
I'm on an island in a busy intersection
I can't go forward, I can't turn back
Can't see the future
It's getting away from me
I just watch the tail lights glowing
One step closer to knowing
One step closer to knowing
One step closer to knowing
Knowing, knowing
I'm hanging out to dry
With my old clothes
Fingers still red with a prick of an old rose
Well the heart that hurts
Is a heart that beats
Can you hear the drummer slowing?
One step closer to knowing
One step closer to knowing
One step closer to knowing
To knowing, to knowing, to knowing
"But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive" says Joseph to his brothers. Genesis 50:20
I want to know that what I pass through to save me alive is worth it. I want to feel that I wouldn't want an easier path because what I become through extremities is precious and is meant unto good.
Right now I know that it bites.
3 comments:
Francis Webster - Martin Handcart Company
It was in an adult Sunday School class of over fifty men and women. Nathan T. Porter was the teacher and the subject under discussion was the ill-fated handcart company [Martin Handcart Company] that suffered so terribly in the snow of 1856. Some sharp criticism of the Church and its leader was being indulged in for permitting any company of converts to venture across the plains with no more supplies or protection than a handcart caravan afforded. One old man in the corner sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it, then he arose and said things that no person who heard him will ever forget.
His face was white with emotion, yet he spoke calmly, deliberately, but with great earnestness and sincerity. He said in substance, "I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here, for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the Handcart Company out so late in the season? Yes! But I was in that company and my wife was in it, and Sister Nellie Unthank whom you have cited here was there, too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with Him in our extremities!
"I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up for I cannot pull the load through it. I have gone to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me! I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the Angels of God were there. "Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No! Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company."
The speaker was Francis Webster. And when he sat down there was not a dry eye in the room. We were subdued and chastened lot. Charles Mabey who latter became Governor of Utah, arose and voiced the sentiment of all when he said, "I would gladly pay the same price to personally know God that Brother Webster has."
That quote always impresses me. I don't think we have to love what we go through, and your current situation does suck. But I do know the Lord is there for both of you, of that I have NO DOUBT.
Marty
Hang in there Kaerlig. We all have our challenges, for the exact purpose you wrote, to make us better and closer to Christ.
I really liked that song. I liked the other comments as well. It reminded me of my lesson yesterday on Zions Camp. They went through many hardships including, disease, sore feet, rotten food, and dirty water. 14 men died out of 200. It was a huge test for those men. It was basically a training program. It was the way the Lord created his leaders to guide his church. All the apostles and first quorem of the seventy were chosen out of the men from Zions Camp.
We really are molded and refined through our trials. Don't lose hope! Keep up the great work you are doing!
Love love love,
Julie
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