Not Comfortable.....

Religious post…….read at your own risk. ;)

Yesterday during Relief Society a story about the march of Zion’s Camp was used to emphasize how God can step in and help us out when things are beyond our control. During the lesson I had a thought but I couldn’t get my words to align so that I could express the sentiments running through my head. Ironically, while in the shower this morning everything snapped into place and I was able to word the comment I wanted to make. So you are stuck getting it. ;)

Abit of LDS background………

In the early days of the LDS Church the members were driven from state to state, trying to find a place where they would be allowed to live with their neighbors in peace. Time after time they sold what they could and moved on. At one point in Missouri, after mobs had forced the people to leave, the government in the area promised to help us get our land back if we provided the armed men to do the task. About 250 men volunteered to march from Kirtland, Ohio to the lands in Missouri to help the members that were living there. The group, called Zion’s Camp, ranged in ages from 17 to 79 and struggled to make the 1000 mile march. One night the men were warned that there was a mob gathering to kill them. Our men were outnumbered and outgunned. I am not sure what exactly happened at that point; I am at work so I don’t really have the ability to do more research. I am pretty sure prayer was involved but I don’t have the facts there. What I do know is that night a great storm arose. The men of Zion’s camp got wet and some of the tents were blown down. Some of the men even had to take shelter in a nearby Baptist church. The Prophet Joseph remarked that God was in the storm that night. A few miles away the men of the mob did not fare as well. The lightning and thunder spooked their horses. The rain that had fallen on Zion’s Camp turned to large pellets of hail. Bones were broken, guns were broken, and the river swelled to the point that the mob could not cross it to reach Zion’s Camp. The result: the men of Zion’s Camp were protected in their time of need.

All through our meeting yesterday the thought that it wasn’t comfortable kept running through my head. When it all finally clicked into place I realized that the men of Zion’s camp didn’t have it easy. During the storm, they got wet. There was lightning and thunder in the distance so it is possible that their own horses were a tad spooked. Their tents were blown over. They even had to take shelter in the Baptist church. To top it off…how would they know what the storm was doing to the men of the mob? The mob could have found shelter and were waiting out the storm to attack. Just because God steps in, doesn’t mean that life will suddenly be easy or comfortable. We can have the peace of knowing that we are doing what is right; but we will still have to work to follow that path that the Lord has set for us. I keep looking at the schedule my life will take here in a few weeks and getting more and more nervous about it. I know that I am doing what is right, but I guess I needed to be reminded that it isn’t supposed to be easy. This life is a test and a trial. Neither of those words are synonymous with comfort.

So in the end what did I learn in Releif Society yesterday:

Suck it up and deal!

A girl needs a forceful reminder now and then. ;)