When we drove our college kids from Michigan to BYU in Utah, the longest part of the journey was Nebraska. The road through Nebraska was boring, flat, and everlasting....
There are parts of Nebraska that are delightful, but when we were just driving through, Nebraska wasn't even worth being awake for....many of us get to the culminating stage of acceptance and renewal with God only if we are willing to endure things we don't understand, prayers that aren't answered as we'd like, or challenges we have...After awhile we learned to actually enjoy Nebraska, but first we had to just find ways to keep driving...If we hit Nebraska periods with God when nothing much changes, the radio channels all die out, boredom or relational flatness sets in, and we've run out of things to say. We just keep driving....Sometimes Nebraska is not just boring. Sometimes Nebraska might be a nightmare that never seems to end. Sometimes God seems to have left us in Nebraska with four flat tires, an empty tank, and a broken GPS, and we not only don't know where He is but we can start to wonder if He ever was...When Joseph Smith languishes for months in Liberty Jail while outlaws hound his followers, he too anguishes: O GOD, WHERE ART THOU?....In the throes of such extremities, it can be immensely challenging to just keep driving, or walking, with no assurance that we're even on the right road. When the journey hurts this much, it is understandable that we might start looking for exits to anyplace but here. We have hard choices to make.
these are my thoughts now - not from the book: so let's finish this little analogy of the long, boring roads of Nebraska and be reminded of how to have a renewal with God.
So driving those long roads until we reach our destination is much like enduring to the end or "hanging in there". It is our duty to help others along the strait and narrow path so they can reach their full potential and continue on their path in order to return to our Heavenly Father some day. Pres. Utchdorf says that enduring to the end is exalting and glorious, not grim and gloomy. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a joyful religion, one of hope, strength and deliverance. Enduring to the end is a process filling every minute of our life, every hour, every day, from sunrise to sunrise. it is accomplished through personal discipline following the commandments of God.
"For the mountains shall depart. and the hills be removed, (and the NEBRASKA roads bearble), but my kindness shall not depart from thee" (3 Nephi 22:10). "I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer" (3 Nephi 22:8).
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the divine powers of the gospel of Jesus Christ will bless you to endure joyfully to the end.
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