Having Cake and Eating It Too...

How many times have we heard "I hate [fill in the blank]". And then almost while the words are still in the bubble above, the same action is taken again to promote more of that same negative feeling?

We are such an entertainment driven, overly comfortable society in many ways. We are grateful to have such an abundance - and yet could it be that we want the comfort, but are going to sleep or are not willing to do the work, fight the good fight, diligently learn... to sustain it?

So often I hear the victim's cry of look at what she did to me... instead of I am so sorry that I treated her that way and I will go and make amends and ask if she will forgive me.

Ownership of the cake let's us eat it too. Blame and whining about the eating the cake prevents us from being able to own it and enjoy eating it.

The second great temptation of the Savior by Satan was turn the bread to stone. It was something like, have some cake and eat it too - DON'T:  buy the seed, til the soil, plant the seed, pull the weeds, water the garden, harvest the wheat, separate the chaff and grain, grind the grain, make and bake the bread, break the bread and eat it. Abuse your power and privilige and get what you want when you want it without price.

Like so many before us who gave us an inheritance of freedom and luxury, may we earn the right to eat our cake and savor it remembering today that we can go buy the flour (or the bread) - because of the hands that provided it. 

Bryan
i2i2blog@gmail.com

The Savior in Gethsemane

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I Can See It. I Can Almost Reach the Shore...

There is a story of a man who was warned about swimming in a nearby river. It's undertows and flow were strong and dangerous. He was warned that it was better to walk or go the extra distance to the lake where it was safer to swim.

One particularly hot day as the man walked towards the lake, as he had done so many times before, he noticed the river bank was gentle and inviting. So, he left the path and walked down the soft sandy slope. His feet were hot and what could it hurt to dip his hot tired feet into the cool water? He remembered the warning and then curiousity and the gentle rush of excitement soon found him shoeless standing on the edge. This isn't so bad he thought. Why all the fuss and worry. This is so much closer and better than going all the way to the lake.

Days passed and soon he found himself excitedly up to his knees splashing water on his face and reveling in his new discovery and pleasure.

A little more time passed and soon he was sitting up to his neck at the water's edge. He thought, I am a strong swimmer and am curious to see if I can match this water with my skills. Carefully and anxiously he prepared, but he could not imagine the excitement that came as he plunged into the water near the shore and began to swim. From time to time to he would reach out his hand to touch the sandy embankment. And to his horror he found that everytime he reached out to touch it, the current pulled him a little closer away from the embankment. Excitedly he swam harder and reached farther only to be pulled and move a little further away. Before long his cries for help and fatigue found him in the middle of the river being pulled down stream against his will. His strength and efforts against the undertow were in vain. Panic filled his body with adrenaline as plunged under the water and was tossed about. He deeply regretted ever stopping to look, then straying from the path to the lake and "just" putting his feet in the water that was now consuming him to the point of taking his life.

At the point of despair, and with one final cry an arm reached out from a rocky embankment and pulled him to safety. He looked up and saw his Brother standing there.

In the future, the man enjoyed walking the path to the lake more than ever before... shoes on his feet, his feet on the path, safely traveling on and the lake never felt so secure.

The Strength Within

I recently spoke with a friend who has run an ultra ultra marathon - 100 miles in less than 24 hours. He explained that when he runs he has reached points where he isn't feeling strong anymore, he's tired, his muscles burn, his body and his thoughts simultaneously scream it's time to stop. And he could stop and feel good about the pace run and distance covered as he has already pushed himself hard today. But he hasn't reached his goal yet. So he pushes on, he refuses to let his mind and body dictate when he is going to stop.

And then something amazing happens as he forces his spiritual will against his natural self. His "reserve" kicks in and he moves forward while his pain subsides - he pushes on strong again and reaches his destination. He said,

"I have come to know that there is a reserve within us. Our bodies hold a power that we won't tap into until we are taxed to our first or second limit and hear it is too hard to proceed. Yet, when we push through and commit to moving forward we find an oft hidden and untapped power and we succeed."

We all have strengths. We all have problems. We all bring some issue(s) from our past that sleeps until an event provides a chance to wake up. Unbelievable performance or sleeping tyrants surprise us from time to time. But it's really not the problems that are our problems. It's believing in and then finding the strength within to keep moving forward.

Instead of giving more effort to learn and serve others sometimes we want to quit or we get discouraged. The winds of opposition invite us to sit. The closer we get to finishing something good, the more they echo around us and sometimes, sometimes we listen; instead of lifting our heads up and persisting through the storm to the other side of calm faster.

When we are looking for an answer, through the Grace of a Kind Father in Heaven it comes in spite of our perceived shortcomings. And sometimes answers wait until we get our work done first, or just stop and listen.

There is more to us than we know: Indominable Spirit. Resiliant Soul. Powerful Light Within. Children of a Divine Parents. Heirs to a throne. You. And me.

The strength to succeed is within us all. How deep is our reserve? How far will we be pushed sometimes? Even Moses learned, after his arms dropped and his people started to lose the war and die, that he needed help holding up his staff so the Israelites could win against their foes.

My wife put on a DVD where Oprah Winfrey was speaking sitting on a plush couch, beautifully dressed in a palatial home. She had interviewed three women in prison who had killed their young children. As she left the interview, they declared, you probably hate us dont you. Oprah said something like, I don't hate them for what they did. They had problems. I had problems (equal to their abuses). They chose to deal with their problems their way. I choose to deal with my problems different than they did. May we all see the other choice, the alternative, the higher road that becons us, if we will raise our heads and look up instead of down when things get challenging and flat out difficult to go on!

Indeed. "The problem" isn't an excuse or in most cases a reason to become less than the Spirit prompts us to be through our conscience and feelings and others. We were born to succeed. Each person on earth is given a special set of weaknesses that we might learn to find our strength within, paradoxically by relying on God's power. We are His offspring. A well of Power resides within us if we choose not only to endure long enough, but seek to learn and improve then we really tap into it who we are, who we are called to be.

How often has a temptation haunted you, patiently, diligently stalked you, day in and day out? It will not persist forever with the same force and influence if we resist and turn our focus to getting outisde of ourselves, learning, serving and doing our work. Work cures a myriad of ills and woes. Service takes care of the rest.

The Strength Within is in you. It's real. It will grow with you. It's available on demand. It's yours to use as you want, need and have to.

May we find the strength to look up instead of down and then rise once more and finish the work that is ours to do. That we use our problems to empathize and strengthen others who may need your strength within.


Bryan
i2i2blog@gmail.com