Come What May

“God help the outcasts, the hungry from birth.  Show them the mercy they don’t find on earth…God help my people, the poor and down trod.  I thought we all were the Children of God” (Esmerelda). The other day I re-watched Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which I know is a very loose interpretation of Victor Hugo’s much darker Hunchback) but let me just say that it was fantastic. I have been a fan of Disney movies my whole life and in all these stories the heroes and heroines are trying to find out where they belong in the world.  They are different, they are outcasts in society, but they also have admirable qualities that carry them through their personal struggles and lead them to the “happily ever after.”  In my opinion one of the most admirable and most relatable of these heroes is Quasimodo. He doesn’t get the girl, he isn’t reunited with his long lost parents, he undergoes no physical transformations, he inherits no riches, he rules no kingdoms,...

“In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer” (Isaiah 54:8). In moments of confusion and distress I often hear the comforting words: “Well, everything happens for a reason.”  That is so very true.  But in my moments of confusion and distress I usually don't want to hear it. Is it my lack of faith? My angry heart? My lack of perspective?  I know that everything happens for a reason.  I realize God didn't send us here to be tested for His own amusement.  He doesn't let us struggle without purpose. Everything happens for a reason.  It only makes sense; but for me the hard part comes in living through the pain until I better understand the reason and my understanding doesn't always come in a day or two. I believe someday we will learn the lesson; the sun always comes out after rain; but the pain of the present is also very real. As the Savior knelt ...

“For I know that my redeemer liveth… And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25-26). Some days are fine.  Some days are not.  Some days all I want to do is get up and go.  Some days all I want to do is lie on my bed.  Some days I find that there are too many things to do.  Some days I find that there is nothing I can do.  Some days I’m restless, some days I’m peaceful.  Some days I am energetic and enthusiastic.  Some days there is a cloud of melancholy hanging over me.   Some days I am happy, some days I am unhappy.  It is an unpredictable and frustrating pattern. That is a difficult thing to live with.  I don’t like being ill and nobody likes seeing me ill.  By peers I am accused of being anti-social, of using my illness as an excuse.  By family I am given worried looks and sighs.  People want me to just stop being sick.  They want the pain to be ...