A whole new world

I guess when I started this experiment with blogging I considered it a form a therapy.  I would occasionally log on and start to write something because it felt therapeutic to get everything out in the open and air it out.  I was really struggling at the time and each time I wrote it helped to aleviate the feeling and confusion that was all pent up inside.  Only on a minor scale did I consider it a form of a journal. 

Well here I am over a year later...what happened, why have I not written anything?  The answer is simple.  The therapy is over.  Thanks to miraculous intervention I have been healed.  I am not trying to be sarcastic, it really is true.  I will not claim to not have had tough times or rough days during the last year and a half, but there has been so much progress internally (figuratively and literally, he he) that the intense purging that seemed so necessary is not needed. 

What brought on such a great change?  And what has prompted this return to the blog?  The answer is one in the same.  I have never been fearless in declaring my faith, but the time is past for timidity.  The change in my life and heart has been brought about because of the Savior.  Wow, this is going to be difficult.  The fear of ridicule is growing stronger everyday and the world seems to falling deeper and deeper into confusion, darkness, and doubt. It seems  that to openly express faith in God or in miracles is to invite ridicule today more than in any other time in the history of the world.  Where then is my faith?  Should I be content to stay safe and comfortable in my daily routine, safe with people who share my beliefs and values, comfortable only thinking what I feel instead of expressing it.  The time is past for fear.  The time is past for doubt.  We need to try our faith.  If it fails it was not sufficiently strong, but if not, then we will bring to pass the greatest work that the world has seen.  We will hasten the coming of the Lord.  But there are many, many who are not prepared. Our friends and neighbors who have not had the full opportunity to learn, to feel, to understand, and to know.  And what kind of example are we setting for these.  When I read the accounts of those who have come to the gospel from situations far beyond my own, from poverty, from third-world countries, from despair and sin, I wonder "where is my faith".  Their faith to act, to follow, and speak out, puts my own to shame, because I have not needed to make the difficult decisions that they have had to make.  I have not needed to sacrifice for my faith and beliefs.  So now is the time to act! Now is the time to speak and to speak boldly.  And I know that if I can find the strength to do it I will be given even greater strength and greater faith.  I just need to start.

So here is my beginning.  I will try this new experiment.  I will try my faith.  I will try to be bold and honest about the feeling of my heart. And I can only pray that it may make a difference to someone, and if I can make a difference in just one persons life, then I will know that it has been worth something.