My favorite band has a song with the chorus line of “when you’re lost and alone or your sinking like a stone carry on” and I’ve been thinking about that lately. There is so many times in my life where I have felt lost and alone and sinking like a stone. Often it has been due to my own foolish action, but many a time it has not. Sometimes life has just thrown me a curve ball and knocks me down a peg. I bet it has happened to you a number of times as well.
This feeling seems so ingrained in our lives as to call it part of the human experience. We have so many phrases for it: down in the dumps, depressed, down on my luck, life’s in the crapper, or any number of other terms. Like in the song lyric we have many pseudo-helpful phrases and sayings to deal with this: when life gives you lemons make lemonade, look on the bright side, see the silver lining, carry on.
But these seem to often fall short. Life gives lemons but rarely the sugar, water, and ice needed to make lemonade. Bright sides are absent in the pitch black of night, and not every cloud has a silver lining. Sometimes it seems impossible to carry on. It is with in this dark and gloomy thought that my message begins today.
What do you do when things aren’t going your way and haven’t been for a while? When platitudes fail and dark days persist? What is left when the building of your life has collapsed to its foundations?
Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ the Son of God, that we must build our foundations. That when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon us, it shall have no power over us to drag us down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which we are built which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build, they cannot fall.
That scripture, found in Helaman chapter 5, holds the answer. It is not some idol platitude, some saying of worthless origin, it is the answer. Center your life around Christ. Build upon him as foundation. And as promised you will not fall. When your proverbial life house crashes down to the foundation, it will be Him upon whom you land.
But that does little to immediately help those currently falling, or already in the dumps. Its kinda like telling someone who is hot in the sun right now, that they should have planted a tree 20 years ago so there would be shade now… but to stick with that analogy, is there shade for you now while you till your ground and trim your tree for days to come? Jesus Christ himself gives the answer to this:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn of me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.
Come to Him, Yoke with Him, and Learn of Him.
Come to Him
Jesus invites all men everywhere to come unto him. And as we learn in John Chapter 6 anyone who comes unto Him, He will never send away.
In what ways could you (not ambiguous you, but you the person right here reading this right now, that you) come unto Christ more?
Could you pray more? Can you read scripture more? Could you ponder upon Him more?
I don’t need to know what your list would contain, but you do. If you are reading this and feeling as I’ve described, take a moment and look at your life and you will see ways you can come more unto Him. Then write them down.
Yoke with Him
Meaning bind yourself to Him, labor with Him, spend time with Him.
Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let Thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to thee
“Thus, ye shall become instructed in the law of my church, and be sanctified by that which ye have received, and ye shall bind yourselves to act in all holiness before me” D&C 43:9
Be as Ruth with her commitment to Naomi but to the Christ:
“Stop urging me to abandon you! For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people will become my people and your God will become my God.” Ruth 1:16
Bind yourself so tightly to the Christ that if He were to quote a movie about it, it would half to be Anakin in episode three about obi-wan “His fate will be the same as ours”
Weld yourself to Him in ways that cannot be broken so that you may say as Nephi of old: I know in whom I have trusted.
I may make another post upon how to do this but for now it sufficeth me to say it needs be done.
Lastly Learn of Him
I’m trying to keep this one short, and since I could put all of scripture here as means wherewith to learn of Him, I shall endeavor to put but a single most important point to learn of Him first: that He Loves you.
“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
“Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”
“No one has greater love than this: that one lays down his life for his friends”
Jesus Loves you, God Loves you and there is nothing you can do to earn or lose that love. Learn this, read the scriptures, pray to know it, fast for clarity in understanding this. If you can gain an understanding of this you will be well on your way to building that foundation.
Take these 3 instructions from the mouth of Jesus and find rest in Him.
God is not willing to lose you, it never has been His wish nor ever will be.
I know that this has been a rough time for you. So much of what you thought stable and right has crashed around you. But there is Hope for the Hopeless and Help for the Helpless. There is Balm in Gilead and His name is Christ Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, your Loving Brother.
Build a better foundation for the future so when next this happens you fall less and it hurts less but, in the meantime, take refuge with He who is Mighty to save even now.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession [of Him] for we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help”
When you are lost and alone and you’re sinking like a stone, remember Him.
As always, Im praying for thee: please pray for me.