This week a Young man sent us a message a Little after 9 pm. He asked us if we could stop by his house. Sincé we know him well and he would not ask if there were not something wrong, we went out the door running. We arrived to find that he had had a big fight with his father. To make a long story short... his father had been unfaithful to his mother and the situation is quite complicated. He has been preparing for the misión, but is now unsure of what is going to happen. He asked for and we gave him a blessing before quickly retiring to our house to be home on time.

 

With that as a background let me share with you some of the thoughts I had that evening. I found it difficult to sleep as I pondered both that situation and another one of an investigator we have who is struggling because his brother is a meth addict. Lots of things. Lots of suffering and pain.

 

As I gave that priesthood blessing I felt inspired to say more than once that this good youth remember all that he had learned about the Atonement of Jesús Christ. That he turn to and draw himself near to its power.

 

And for lack of time, let me share you my thoughts that evening as I sat thinking a Little late, asking myself how it could all work. How does it really work? Sometimes a semi-poetic form helps me to concrete my thoughts, and so that is what came out.

 

Could anothers suffering really dull the pain?

Does knowing I am not the first to fall change the way I feel here on the ground?

What does the blood of another man have to do with my own?

 

Blood long spilt

tears long shed

pain long gone

 

But that is where the error is

for God there is no time

That pain and anguish that he felt

in truth he feels it now

It's not from a royal throne he speaks

but rather from my side

 

not that he felt, but that he feels

not that he cried, but that he crys

not that he lived, but that he lives

Our Savior, King, who died

 

Who passed through that uncertain curtain

in doing so it fell

it could not hold his perfectness his power conquered all

 

and so although he long since fulfilled and more with me

I find Him at my side again in this my time of need

 

 

I started out this thought process a Little upset or questioning, but by the end understood things much differently.

 

The atonement is not something that happened, but something that is happening. The Atonement is not an event, it is a law and a power.

 

I found that as I studied the scriptures I found many of them referring to this moment in the present tense, not in the past or future. Saying that he suffers, for example, instead of suffered, or will suffer.

 

Not enough time to elaborate, but there is a brief thought I had this week.

 

With great love,

Elder Brighton