My Mind Blew Up and My Heart Broke from the Brilliance
Have you ever noticed that the most amazing and brilliant insights are the ones you have the inkling that you knew already but you just never thought of it in that way? Maybe that's just me, but I doubt it.
Last week I got to spend 5 lovely days at Campus Education Week! Yay! For those of you that don't know what that is it is where campus (BYU) holds a week of spiritually inspiring classes just before the normal hustle bustle of typical learning commences. And it was phenomenal.
I took a class on the practical and everyday uses of the Atonement of the Savior. This lady talked about a sweet little African girl that she had met in Uganda. Her name was Caroline and at five-years old her uncle raped her believing it would rid him of AIDS, thus infecting her with the disease. As Caroline grew she became sicker and sicker. The first time this lady from Education Week met Caroline she was seven-years old and took her to a medical facility to provide her with the best medical care available. This lady (whose name escapes me) worked with Caroline for seven years. When she knew Caroline was approaching the end of her life and the young age of 14 this woman took Caroline away from the refugee camp she had grown up in and took her to a beautiful place in northern Uganda where there are waterfalls and beautiful forests so that she could experience beauty before she died.
While at the waterfalls this woman was watching Caroline from a distance and became angry. She stood not too far off and fumed within herself about the injustices of the world. Caroline turned to this woman and asked why she was so angry (though the woman had done nothing nor said anything to imply her anger), the woman asked why she asked. Caroline responded, "I am trying to experience heaven and your anger is ruining it." The woman explained to Caroline that she was angry at her uncle for what he had done, at the culture that had taught him to do it, and at the war and all those who were causing it; she explained that there are a lot of things and people in the world to be angry with. Caroline looked at this woman and said, "You have to love them. You have to love them. My Jesus loves them, so you have to love them too." Just like that this little girl who has known nothing but devastation, sorrow and pain taught a woman who has known a life of relative ease what peace, love and forgiveness means.
This made me think about what Elder Russell M. Nelson talked about last April when he said heartfelt prayer is important to God and how our prayers and sincerity are always taken into account. He talked about how God does not always change our struggles, he does not always "save" us from our hardships, but if we ask in faith He will change our perspective and teach us that maybe the hardest and most unfair experiences can be turned from eroding and destructive to strengthening and fortifying if we but ask.
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