Go Out Into the Darkness

"And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown'
And he replied:. Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand Of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way'
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night."

This is a set of lines composed by British poet Minnie Louise Haskins in 1908. It was made famous when King George VI of England read it in a radio address at Christmastime as the British entered World War II. President Monsen quoted these lines in his Stake Conference address (which I wrote about in my last entry). These lines express to me the value of faith. Faith is what the Lord requires of us, and is one of the many things that we strive to give him, that derives and sustains itself in him-- his goodness, his love, his caring, these are the things that bring us faith.

I loved the way President Monsen phrased it. After extending his personal love to each member of the congregation, he admonished all of us to love the Lord and love our neighbors. He said, "the Lord's Gospel is a law of love and encouragement. .. 'Follow thou me,' is the Savior's beckoning call."

President Monsen counseled the congregation to model ourselves after the scripture D&C 88:119, " Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;" This scripture was given in context of building a temple, and President Monsen reminded us that the Lord has said, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" In this talk, he asked us to, "be sincere with God, fair with others, and honest with ourselves." In our "Houses of God" we should have, "clean hearts, noble purposes, and willing hands."

If we are striving to build ourselves into a place where God can dwell, we have access to his power. The Lord makes this promise as recorded in Moroni 7:33, "If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."

President Monsen of course is very in tune with the Spirit, notwithstanding his inability to cook for himself or use simple household appliances (see his Conference talk from last April's conference). He told a story that was a perfect example of being on the Lord's errand and being led to do what the Lord desires even when you have no idea what it is.

He described making a stop on the way home from his work day to attend the viewing of a female friend. At the funeral home, he walked in the wrong direction and showed up at the viewing of a gentleman. He walked through the line and up to the viewing area and to his chagrin, realized he did not recognize the person in the coffin. However, he graciously proclaimed, "He was a good man!" He turned around only to notice that he was in the midst of a grieving family that exclaimed, "Thank you President Monsen for coming! Thank you for remembering our son!" It turned out the that man who had passed away was the son-in-law of a brother who was a counselor to President Monsen in a former responsibility he had as a Bishop. President Monsen testified, "The Lord knew where I needed to be that night."

This story was a counterpoint to Elder Ballard who shared that as a Bishop he had a prompting to visit an ailing sister in his ward, but he put it off a couple of hours, just missing her passing. Elder Ballard's story hit home for me as he said (quoting Pres. Monsen), "The Lord is not far from us-- the Spirit will direct us. Never have the regret of ignoring a prompting." I have this regret as I had several promptings to visit my grandmother in the weeks leading up to her death a couple of years ago and did not go visit her. I have a lot of reasons, but not one of them seems very important now. I wish that I could have that chance back again and do it differently so that I could have talked with her one more time before she went.

This conference was a joy to me as it reinforced my love for our Heavenly Father, for the Saviour, and for the Holy Ghost. I have a deep and abiding love for the Gift of the Holy Ghost and have in the past few years come to realize what a profound gift that is. It was wonderful to hear again the importance of using this gift to find our own unique missions and to learn truth from the ultimate teacher of truth. Indeed the guidance of the Holy Ghost is, "better than light and safer than a known way."