The Road of Life Goes Up and Down

I kneel next to my bed in earnest prayer and there stretched out before me at the end of my arm, is a small scale diagram in flesh of my own journey through life, tracked out in the ridges of my own hand. “Oh Lord, here I am again,” that little graphic reminds me. “Down here in the ditch!”

Leave it to C.S. Lewis to give a name to our mortal propensity for a life of ups and downs. He called it the Law of Undulations (quaint phrase!) in his Screwtape Letters. And he properly explained why it is so important to understand this pattern of life.

If you don’t understand it, Satan has a subtle advantage. For when we are in the valleys of life, he can whisper in our minds, “Oh bummer. Rough stuff, you poor thing. You realize don’t you, that your life will be like this forever. It sucks now and always will. Stretching on out there in eternal bleakness. This dark mood will never change. The rain will never stop. This challenge will never get better. You will never be happy again.”




Our enemy operates not unlike the Dementors in Harry Potter, who glide about, tormenting their prisoners by causing them to relive their worst memories, and making them feel like they’d “never be cheerful again.”


When I hear of people taking their own lives, I know Satan laughs, and wonder if his whisperings were believed. But the message is a lie, as messages from the father of lies always are. For the sun comes out again. And you will not always feel the way you feel today.

Interestingly enough, he tells the same lie to those who are up on one of life’s mountaintops.



When life is at a high point for you, when you are feeling blessed and close to God, Satan is sure to try and get in this same whisper.
“Oh, congratulations. You just got baptized! (Or found true love, or had a spiritual experience, or a communications breakthrough. Whatever.) Well it’s nice to know that life will be good now. You certainly deserve it. What a great future you have to look forward to. It will be smooth sailing from now on!”



Of course you don’t fall for this, do you? You see the trap. As soon as life settles back down and the next serious bump in the road comes up, there’s the little imp, all ready with his line: “Oh darn. You’ve really blown it. It was too good to be true." Or, "You’re not really cut out to be a Mormon after all. (Or “love never lasts” or “you aren’t really the spiritual type,” or “Nothing good lasts in my family.”) Now you've got the proof. Don’t let yourself get fooled again. Might as well give up now and not set yourself up again.”

You see what he does. When we’re up he tries to convince us that we should always feel this good so that we will be devastated when life’s road curves inexorably down off the mountain top and back into the next valley. And when we’re down in some serious valley, he tries to discourage us by convincing us that life will remain unremittingly bleak from here to forever. Both are useful lies in his arsenal.

The antidote is truth. In truth, the road of life goes up and down. Some times the hills and valleys are gentle; sometimes it feels more like peaks and ravines. All life is cyclical. Energy, light, heat, all of it travels in waves. The earth cycles through spring, summer, fall, winter and then goes back to spring, summer, fall, winter. After the rain, the sun comes out. After stretches of sunny weather, storms will inevitably come again.

I can’t remember why I was in my room crying my eyes out one day when I was in my twenties, but I remember my dad poking his head in sympathetically and saying wisely, “It’s just weather of the soul, honey.” He knew.

The Orphan Girl

"The Orphan Girl in the Graveyard" by Eugene Delacroix

My son Ben is a missionary in the Southwest. Mostly he teaches Hispanic people. He loves them and he loves serving the Lord. Early in his service he was assigned to a rather desolate town called Chaparral, New Mexico. It's a grey hard-panned dusty place where the missionaries are happy when a dust storm blows because it means the people will take pity on them and let them in the door of the trailer (everybody lives in a trailer). As Ben says, they knew the name of every living plant in the city.

Ben has been gone from Chaparral for almost 8 months, having done a stint in Tucson. Now he is back in El Paso and has opportunity to visit his old areas. We had written him and asked what he wanted for Christmas. He wrote:

"This year, I am asking all of my friends for a very special Christmas present.

As you may know, I am a missionary for the LDS church serving in El Paso, Texas. About a year ago I had the opportunity to teach a family and help them come unto Christ. Just recently I went back and visited this single mother and her daughter and found them in despair and distanced from the teachings of Jesus Christ. The daughter had even recently attempted to commit suicide.

I noted that they had no friends to help them stay firm in the church or give them comfort.

Upon returning home from seeing this I wrote this poem.

What I want for Christmas is for you to read this poem and reflect upon how you might better help the down-trodden and those in despair and then put that into action. Then write me a letter and let me know how it went. Thank you so much and may God bless you in your efforts to serve others in this Christmas season. Sincerely, Elder Ben Wilson."

Here is Elder Wilson's Poem entitled
"On Zion's Walls"

The air is brisk, the stars are out
And lights are glowing dim.
I watch atop the city walls
And see the peace within.
The town is safe from fear and harm
And all can act as though
There was no raging war without,
Inside—no fear of foe.

I feel content, my heart at peace,
To think what I have done.
For I’ve brought some within the walls
Before the setting sun.
I've saved them from the enemy
Who in the darkness hides.
He seeks to hurt, to kill and break---
The father of all lies.

But as I watch, I hear approach
The sound of hurried feet,
And see a single, lonely lamp
Below me in the street.
I call out “The woods are dark,
The hour is growing late.
Tell me now what brings you here
Before the city gate?

“I beg you not to leave behind
The safety of the light,
The enemy is on the move
And watches in the night.
He seeks for souls who dare to leave
The protection of this place.
Do not go out—do not go out!
Don’t make this choice in haste.”

The footsteps cease, the lantern’s raised
And through the night I see
A young girl’s tear-stained, shadowed face,
A face well known to me.
It’s the orphan girl who weeks ago
I’d brought into the light,
Now standing there with lamp in hand.
My heart stops at the sight.

Her face is set, her eyes on guard;
I see there fear and doubt.
Her fists clench hard,
I hear her say,
“What enemy without?
It’s not so bad, the place I was
Before you brought me here.
I had my friends to comfort me,
To bring me needed cheer.
Your walled-off city is too cold,
I have no friends in there.
So thank you for the pleasant stay.
Don’t worry, have no fear;
I know you tried to help me…but
I must be on my way.”

I try to speak, to yell, to plead,
But fear my throat has bound.
So through the gates into the night
She slips without a sound.
For days I pray and watch and wait
For a miracle from above,
Until I finally realize
The miracle is love.

And then my prayer becomes a plea
For strength in present need
And with some fear, but ever hope,
I mount upon my steed.
I charge into that bitter realm
And tear on through the night--
Keep riding, riding without heed,
Till I see morning’s light.
Then through those dim and fragile beams
I see upon the ground
A lonely, sorry, broken child;
My orphan girl is found.

Her face is lined, her cloak is torn,
Her arms show battle scars.
Her hope and light and laugh and love
Gone out like dampened fires.
Upon the ground, I bend my knee
And give the girl my arm.
“It’s over now, the night is passed;
Come where you’re safe from harm.
The world is cruel outside the gates
And though now all looks black,
You have a place within the walls.
Oh, orphan girl, come back.”

And here's what Nana knows: This poem got to me. I guess it's not the kind of poetry your teacher would have you study in English class, not sophisticated. But it got to me. It came from such real, raw emotion.
It got to me so much I did something about it.
Now go and do thou likewise. You'll be glad you did.

Merry Christmas

And here's one of my boy.

Oops.  No, here he actually is, pulling out vicious roots with his bare hands.

Blessed are ye...

We Mormons get called a lot of things....legalists...non-Christian...even "damned"

Now we can add "bigots, racist, intolerant, haters"
The last one is funny really. I have never in 40 years in my church, heard a hateful or even unkind remark about gay men or women in my church.
I have heard lots of things about families, and how important they are and how central to the Creator's plan and to the health of a culture and a nation.
Nana knows that Jesus said "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets."
Prophets always got in trouble for telling the truth to the culture
in which they lived.
(Sign in SLC protest: "Keep Government Non-Prophet")

Here we are at the call center in our stake on election day.

Here we are at a sign waving out at Blackhawk......

...and another one on Monday night before election on Crow Canyon in the rain.

There was the most wonderful feeling at all these events.

It felt like Zion's Camp.

Well, except when that girl ran up with scissors and tried to slash the banner the Ferrell's were holding and then held the scissors up to their 16 year old daughter's throat. Then ran away. Yes, this really happened.

If you aren't on the side of a Judeo-Christian, Biblically-based, non-relativistic morality in the current culture wars, you will not understand. But this battle to keep marriage traditionally defined as between a man and a women is our Cultural Armageddon.

It is not about hating anybody. That is pure propaganda intended to silence our arguments.

It is about preserving the sacred order that God established the world on. As different as all the varied cultures of the world are, there are a few things on which they agree. Marriage is between man and woman. A week is seven days. (see Genesis)

Think I'm crazy?

This is Katy Perry.

She is exhibit 1.

Yes, it matters to the society if you start moving the fences and changing the norms.

Her song, "I kissed a girl and I liked it" was catchy, bright pop

and spent weeks at the top of the charts

A few of the lyrics:

This was never the way I planned

Not my intention

I got so brave, drink in hand

Lost my discretion

It's not what I'm used to

Just wanna try you on

I'm curious for you

Caught my attention

I kissed a girl and I liked it

The taste of her cherry chap stick

I kissed a girl just to try it

I hope my boyfriend don't mind it

It felt so wrong

It felt so right

No, I don't even know your name

It doesn't matter

You're my experimental game

Just human nature

Too good to deny it

Ain't no big deal, it's innocent

I kissed a girl and I liked it

I liked it

Notice the words: curious, felt right, experimental, human nature, just try

Well Katy: Here's what Nana knows. Narcissism is all about making what you like the center of your life, becoming your own little god. You're well on your way, and well on your way to influencing the teeny-bopper culture that listens to you and buys your records.
Luke 6:43 "For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes."

This is good fruit: A Forever Family