The Parable of the Frozen Pond: Part 2

 You start, looking up at the source of the voice.   You rub your eyes again, because you can't be seeing what you're seeing.
 It's you.
  But a you from a long time ago.  You can't be older than 10, yet there you are, smiling warmly, knowingly, at yourself.
 "Don't be afraid. I'm here to help you. Uh..me. Us."
 You don't know what to say.  You don't know if you can speak, anyways.  Thankfully, the young you continues, "There's something you need to know about this pond. It isn't just any pond.
 It's your heart."

 "We all have a heart within us, much like this pond.  It swells and ripples, some places are deep, and others are shallow.  The pond is deeper where we feel deep love for people, like our friends or family.  Other parts are shallow, like your love for a good movie or slize of pizza."
 "Sometimes the water is disturbed, roiling and crashing on the shore as you face adversity in life.  Emotions like anger, doubt, fear, and jealousy disturb the waters of the pond"
 "Other times, it is still as glass, reflecting the beauty all around it.  As the waters cease to roil, you can see the clarity of the water, and the depths beneath.  It is a beautiful thing to behold, and is a benefit to all who are near."
 "Your heart was once like this: free, clear, beautiful.  That's why I am here.
 "What is your heart now?"
 Having regained a little composure, you choke out a reply.
 "Frozen."

 "That's right," replies the little you, still smiling, yet a little somberly. 
 "You see, just as water can stagnate, so can the heart.  Just as a pond can freeze, so can the heart.  How does a pond freeze?"
 "Well, it has to be cold," you reply.  "Right?" you add on, uncertainly.
 "That's right, and now we're to the point of why I'm here.
 I'm here to teach you about the Atonement of Jesus Christ."

 "We are shaped by every decision we make in life.  Every choice, every action, has eternal consquences we can't begin to fathom. From the time you were little, you have been making choices that have slowly affected your pond.  As you stepped onto the ice, what did you see?"
 You ponder the question a moment before you answer. "I saw everything," you answer, "Everything I've ever done wrong.. Every hurt I've ever dealt.  Every sin I've ever committed."

 "Oh no," replies little you, "that wasn't everything. That was just a mere fraction.  If you were to behold every sin, wrong, and misdeed you had committed, you wouldn't be able to live with yourself.  Remember the story of Alma the Younger? He was 'harrowed up by the memory of his many sins', so much that he was unconscious for the span of three days! That didn't happen to you, did it?" the little you adds with a smile.
 "I guess not," you admit.
Your youthful doppelganger continues, "What you saw was to help you understand why are you standing on this icy pond.  It hasn't always been this way.  In fact, not too long ago, this was a beautiful place.  The water was clear, and the sun shone in its radiant warmth all the time.  At night, the stars reflected on the surface like a mirror.  Birds sang, and deer came to drink every morning.
  Your heart used to love. It used to bask in the warmth of our Savior Jesus Christ.
 There is no warmth now."

   Those words hit home.  You wipe the frozen tears from your cheeks and look up to the little you.  "Ok, you're right.  Maybe I've been feeling a little more impatient lately.  I know I can be a bit nicer and giving and stuff I guess. I know I've been skipping out on church too... but it's not my fault!" the words start coming faster now, and you feel heat rising in your face.  "I've been working all the time, and I don't get paid enough, and you've seen the people I work with!  I mean, no I'm not perfect, but I'm trying! I don't think I'm any worse than the next guy! And so what if my pond is icy?! Maybe I like having an icy pond!  There's nothing wrong with that! I like to skate!" you add on almost as an afterthought, oblivious to the humor of the statement.
 The silence that followed seem to hang in the icy air.
After what seemed like eons, your youthful voice breaks the silence. "You're right.  You aren't perfect.  And you aren't 'worse than the next guy'.  There are many frozen ponds in the world today.  It is a very cold place, bereft of the love and peace and warmth that can only come from Son.
 Too many are lost.  Too many have grown cold.  Too many don't even know how to find the warmth they seek. A heart that loves Christ, and his fellowman, is a precious commodity indeed.  You knew this once. You felt this once. The reason your pond is frozen isn't because the Savior has turned away.  His loving arms are always open to us.  You are the only one who can choose to come to Him, and He is the only one who can thaw your frozen heart.  That is why I'm here.
 Now let's melt the ice."

The Parable of the Frozen Pond: Part 1

It's been a long day.  You stumble in the door, wearied by the stresses of the day.  You reflect on everything that happened as you stagger to the bathroom to wash your face.   It was just one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.  Nothing went right! Your thoughts simmer as you look into the mirror, seeing only a tired, disgruntled face looking back at you. You're tired of people. You're tired of work.  Your tired of responsibilities. You ask yourself out loud why life is so hard, a sharp edge of bitterness in your voice.  You make a personal goal to take tomorrow off, and not to talk to a single soul.  Yep, a good day of lounging on the couch, watching movies, maybe some ice cream... that will give you the boost you need to get back into the flow of things. 
 For now, you decide to collapse onto your bed, clothes and all.  Sleep takes you almost instantly.
~~~~~~

You open your eyes, squinting, until your eyes focus.  You rub them, shivering.  You are standing in a tranquil forest glen, but the branches are empty and the trunks cold and bare.  A thick layer of snow is covering the ground, and the sky above is a deep, roiling gray.  There are snowflakes glittering through the air, one lands squarely on your nose with an icy bite.  Where are you?  As you look around, you see a trail.  Since the alternative is glomping through the snow, you decide to follow it.
 You walk for what seems like a few minutes, but perhaps a few hours, and you come to a clearing in the trees. A pond slowly comes to view, and the trail ends right at the bank of it.
 Now, your natural instinct tells you this is the end of the trail.  But you feel something inside you, encouraging almost, to step onto the ice.  You stand there, hesitant.  You've been on thin ice before, and that was an experience you won't soon forget.  The feeling doesn't go away, and you again receive the strangely comforting prompting to step onto the pond.  You take a deep breath, and step forward.

 For a moment, you think you must be dying.  Your life is flashing before your eyes.  But these aren't the memories you expected... You see yourself, young, stealing your little sister's candy and pushing her to the ground.  The image flashes forward to another of you, furtively, slyly, stealing a snickers bar behind your mom's back at the grocery store.  More and more flit before your eyes; fights with your parents, lies you told to your friends... hurt feelings, bitter choices, angry words.  As the memories progress, they seem to gain speed.  You are in high school, now leaving to college, being fired from your job, leaving your old apartment for a cheaper one, the memories flood on.  Then, as suddenly as they started, they stop.  You hadn't noticed that you had fallen to your knees during the onslaught.

 You are in the middle of the pond now, but you realize you are quite safe.  This water is frozen; probably several inches, if not feet, thick.  Still on your knees, you realize your face is bitterly cold, wet with tears.  What was the purpose of all this?  Why did you just relive all the worse memories of your life? Wasn't your life at least fairly happy?  Why can you only remember the worst parts? Exhausted, forlorn, your shoulders slump and the tears continue to track down your freezing cheeks.

Suddenly a voice cuts the icy silence.
"Maybe you'd like to know what this all means?"

Calamity

an With the terrible disaster this past week in Japan, I had to somberly reflect on just how seemingly little power we have over things as awesome as the forces of nature. Storms, pestilence, famine, tectonic shifting, the list of things that have forever brought death and destruction upon the inhabitants of this world can be seemingly endless.  Especially as of late, it isn't difficult to be worried, apprehensive, even afraid, when we are constantly bombarded with disaster after disaster.  Are these signs of things to come?  Is the end really near? Many, if not all of us, have let these questions flit through our minds as we see images of cars, buildings, and debris swept away as flotsam and jetsam through what was once a quiet Japanese town.

 These are terrible tragedies. My own heart aches for these people, and I can't imagine the horror of facing such a cataclysm.  The silver lining, however, behind every calamity that strikes a people, is what happens around the world.  People of all nations, tongues, and dogmas come together to the aid of those afflicted.  I truly believe it is in times of darkest woe that mankind shows its greatest virtue.  As hundreds of thousands rally to the scene of a disaster, bringing aid, supplies, support, and love, I think we start to get a sense that maybe we all are really family.  Maybe these divisions we live with, be they political, societal, monetary, or religious, don't really matter in the long run.  Maybe that is what is meant when the apostle Paul spake "that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together with love."

  I pray that we will all remember our brothers and sisters around the world who need our support.  I pray that someday, perhaps, humanity will truly, finally, become as we only briefly glimpse in times of strife:

 A family.

King of Hearts

Today brought the wonderful opportunity to go to Zone Conference.  It was even extra special, because it was held in my (mission) home town of Napa!  As we cruised through the familiar streets, I had the opportunity to ponder on the time that has past since I had called that place home.  That, coupled with the message President Bunker had for us at Zone Conference, caused me to ponder the changes I could see in myself since those days.
 As I stand in the mirror, I don't look too different from back then; my hair is still short, I'm still about 6' even.. I'm even still wearing the same outfit! I guess the place I've changed the most is a place the mirror can't show.
 There's a quote I heard once that has stuck with me since the day I heard it:

"What you are is God's gift to you, but what you choose to do with yourself is your gift to God."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Where I see the most change is in my desires, my heart.  That's a metaphor we hear all the time, isn't it?  "He's had a change of heart," "She is heartbroken," or even, "I Heart NY!."  It's a well known scientific fact that our brains are the center of our bodily functions, ranging from things as simple and unconscious as breathing to things as complicated as releasing chemicals that produce a vast array of emotions, such as anger, joy, and (to get to the point) love.  The heart merely pumps blood through our circulatory system( which is still very important, because our brain needs oxygen to function).   But why, then, is the heart so critical in who we are?

  Christ said, "..I, the Lord, require the hearts of the children of men." You can find hundreds of verses in the scriptures referring to the heart.  This doesn't literally mean our beating hearts, as you've probably figured out by now, but what our desires are.

 The man I see in the mirror now is different than the younger version of a year ago.  He's soared many highs, weathered many lows, and trudged through the no-man's land of the mundane in between.  He's felt the joy of seeing brothers and sisters accept Christ's message, and give everything they had to try to follow him.  He's felt the sorrow of losing yet others as they fell away from the light put before them, fading into obscurity.  He's had struggles overcoming his own pride, selfishness, and disobedience. He's had times of peace, strength, and hope as he steadily learned to trust more in the Lord, and not in himself.
  His desires have changed.  He isn't perfect, but he knows that through the Savior, he someday can achieve his potential.

 The man I see is a new man. Or rather, the same man with a new heart.

"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh."

Christ sees our hearts. He knows us perfectly, inside and out.  He knows every good intention, and every secret lie.  He loves us.  He beckons us to Him; to learn, grow, change, and follow the path He has paved for us.  He knows the way,  He is the way.  To do this, we must change our desires.  We must change our hearts, and hand our stubbornness and pride over to Him.
 When we do this, we will become as He is, and we will finally understand the mysteries, and capacities, of the heart. We will see ourselves, finally, as He has always seen us.

 He is the Lord of Salvation, the King of Hearts.