There are no coincidences. C.S. Lewis' thoughts.
"But in Friendship... we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting – any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples 'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' can truly say 'You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.' The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others."
-C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
Labels: commentary, quotes
posted by Bookslinger @ 10:39 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Hi! I really appreciate your blog! I enjoy reading your stories and it helps motivate me to do more missionary work myself. I noticed that you had a list of links to other LDS themed blogs on your site. I was wondering if you could do me a favor and link to my blog as well. I've already linked to yours. My URL is www.onelowerlightsphotosafari.blogspot.com
Also, sorry I didn't send this via e-mail. I looked all over your site and couldn't find an e-mail. If you don't want to post this in your comments, that's fine.
Thanks for the kind words. I gave you a link.
Here's where you can leave private feedback/email. I know it's kind of buried on the sidebar links.
http://indymormon.tripod.com/
You might also want to get your blog listed and ranked at: http://truthlaidbear.com/
It can help bring in traffic and compare you with other blogs.
I do believe that God can guide the process of bringing people together. I feel such an affinity to some people that I have worked with or gone to school with.
I have seen this in a very poignant way in my LDS Church experience.
I took Composition my first semester of College, which is pretty typical. There was a Junior in my class who was LDS,which is unusual not to have taken this class by that point. Also, I unknowingly signed up for a section with extra individual help though I tested higher. It counted the same for the credit that I needed. My friend was very zealous when it came to missionary work. I tutored him in the library as he had moved around a lot and lacked a background in English usage. I also arrived early for class and this allowed conversations. Let's just say, he was not the type to make one attempt at sharing the Gospel.
One of my earliest friends who was LDS, but attending Ricks is still my friend to this day. We are a like and different in ways that make us good friends. I did not know that she and I would develop as close of a friendship as we have before my mission.
Seven years ago, I was assigned a Visiting Teacher who lived about a block from me in an area of town that does not have a high LDS population. She was not active in Church but accepted the calling. I was not active due to my condition. She served a mission in New Jersey/New York while I served in Pennsylvia and some areas of my mission bordered New York. During that time frame, she became active and received a calling in Primary. She also got her temple recommend back. She related to the Bishop that I did not like going places because I worried aobut contaminating people and he said to her something like, "Let her contaminate us." She said he was so full of love. I did not meet with him for over a year though he wanted to meet with me much sooner. Through his kindness and listening, I am able to cope with my condition on a higher level as I rehearse things he has said as well as others. If people had been stern or made me feel like I was the menace to society that I felt like in my head, I am not sure what would have happened to me as I had what I would classify as a nervous breakdown a few years before meeting this Bishop. I was still in a lot of emotional pain when I met with him, but it did help a lot though I did not become active in Church as certain enviroments are harder for me than others.
I hope this is not a double post as I started to post this earlier but it did not go through.
I swear I didn't steal that from you. I've had it up on my wall for years, I gave it out to my friends for Christmas one year.
Isn't that so weird?
Anne, no problem. I stole if from your post at Mormon Mentality. Then I looked it up on the net for the source.
I have contemplated before that of the billions on this planet that there is such a small sampling of people that we will even have contact with even in passing. When I think of how we are spirit brothers and sisters, it makes me want to make the most of contact. Of course, life happens and I this is often more philosphy than my day to day actions.
I have met amazing people on blogs who I feel very close to and find that I have much in common with. Sometimes a person will blog about a thought that I had fleshed out in my own mind at one time.
This may be a double post although content is changed to some degree. I have the worst time with your letter verifying system.
I found that synchronicity lead me to the spiritual healing of shamanism. How does that fit into your philosophy?
rabidrabbit: I don't know for sure, but I can make some guesses.
My search as a teenager took me to several churches where I learned some things that prepared me to recognize the "big" or "overall" answers in the LDS church.
Shamanism may be where you are (or were) supposed to be in order to prepare you for later steps.
LDS doctrine accepts truths from any source. Whatever truths are in shamanism, you can take with you, wherever you go from there.
I still have/believe a lot of things I learned in those other churches. And whatever false doctrine I picked up in those other churches, just seems to have dissipated, and I've forgotten it.
I still credit synchronicity, or God's hand, in putting me in contact with those people who introduced me to those other churches.
As to the _why_ God wanted me to pass through those other churches, again, I can only speculate. Perhaps I was not ready for the fullness or completeness of LDS doctrine, or wasn't ready for the "weirdness" of LDS culture.
Perhaps there just weren't enough LDS members and missionaries at that place and time to adquately meet my needs at that time; and therefore God made do with what was humanly available.
I can foresee the next question. What if Mormonism is preparing me for the "next step" beyond Mormonism? I've found that Mormonism is very open-ended. There is always more to learn through personal revelation.
Plus, I've found something that has not only been spiritually confirmed to me as "good", but as "official." So my testimony is that the LDS organization and doctrines are not only "good" via experiential trial, but are "official" through divine confirmation which I have personally received.
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