It's In the Air

I almost forgot to make time to post about an experience I had while buying shoes. What is sad is that I go through a pair of running (I only walk in them) shoes every six months, but anyway, it was on Saturday at the NB shoe store.  It's the kind of store where someone measures your foot and they have different width sizes, and they put the shoes on you and lace them up. So, I'm sitting there with my foot in the salesman's lap looking at his forearm tattoo. Nate decides to comment on how stunning it was. It was very well done and all yellow and orange. Nate asked him what it was a picture of. He said "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego." Nate replied something like, "wow, that is so cool, what's that at the bottom in black." "It's the guards who were burned up by the heat." (so wish I had asked to take a picture) Wait, I remembered there's such a thing as the internet. I'll see what I can find to represent.

I knew I could find some pictures! It was similar to the scene below. The tattoo was 2 separate tattoos, but part of the same picture. The part in the furnace was in color and the guards were grayscale below the other one. 

The coloring of the tattoo was more like the below picture. It was really beautiful and I would have loved to have had it to hang as a painting on my wall. 

 He then started telling us why he has the tattoo and how he wanted to get a sleeve done with all the courageous miracle moments of the bible. His next one he wants is David and Goliath with the head being cut off. I'm sure it will turn out better than it sounds by the way the other one turned out. I asked "so are you doing Daniel and the lion's den, a lion would look so cool." He said no, he wanted to do Peter walking on water." I commented on how I loved that and how I loved that he faltered and then the Savior helped him recover. We had a great conversation about the world and he said "I'm just really passionate about what I believe, we need to raise water walkers." This was a 20 something year old kid with a  ton of passion. He's married and his wife is just about finished with nursing school and when she is he can quit his 2 jobs and they can move so he can go to a seminary school to get his doctorate and become a pastor so that he can help people become water walkers. When he said we needed to raise a generation of water walkers I got chills. God is the same God to everyone with the same message. He will use whoever is willing to listen. While we don't see eye to eye on the benefits of tattooing one's body, I can see how his passion led him to need to manifest it somehow. I get it. I have the same problem. You need another way to express what you're feeling. It is also a great conversational piece. I don't know how many times a day he gets asked about his tattoo, but when he does he gets to testify and that's super cool. We all have a purpose and a plan and we all need to figure out what it is and then live it. We need to come together as Christians no matter what the religious affiliation and stand together against evil. It may not be this young mans calling to be a member of the church in his lifetime, but I can tell you that he will in the eternities when presented with the chance.

This conversation reminds me of a quote I heard while watching a seminary and institute devotional yesterday. It is by Russell M Nelson when talking about the need to have resilient faith in Christ. "Why do we need such a resilient faith, because difficult days are ahead, rarely in the future will it be easy or popular to be a faithful latter-day saint. Each of us will be tested, the Apostle Paul warned that those who diligently follow the Lord shall suffer persecution. That very persecution can either crush you to silent weakness or motivate you to be more exemplary and contentious in your daily lives." 

That young man was well on his way to resilient faith. His tattoo exemplifies resilient faith and what miracles await those who are faithful in the face of being persecuted.

If you've ever thought that you need to step up your game, here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself often -they also came from the devotional. It was Kim B Clark that said them.
1. What am I doing that I should stop doing?
2. What am I not doing that I should start doing?

I can tell you that those are the very questions I began asking myself probably 8 years ago now. Changing your nature is a very slow process that requires daily effort. I've heard somewhere that it takes about 5 years to change and that's with constant effort and lots of failing. Have you noticed that when you've decided to -let's say stop doing something- you find yourself doing that very thing more often instead of less. It's hard work changing your nature but the rewards are 100 fold.

Now, maybe you're thinking "hey, I'm pretty awesome. I already do x y z and I'm rockin it." I have been guilty of that very phrase too many times. One example was when I thought I was so awesome for going to the temple all the time, but hadn't been taking my own names and was chastised during a general conference talk. Ouch. Those moments always sting. When something stings like that, I know it's time to change. Maybe it's something like "I'm doing my best, the Lord understands. I'm fine the way I am." Well, also from this same devotional and Kim B Clark he said this; "whatever level we are at will not be sufficient for the work." He said we are facing a greater work than we have ever faced before. "We need to be much better than we are now." This was after he listed off all the things he was doing when he realized he needed to be better. His list sounded like the achievement list- the crowning accomplishment list. It was not, he needed to do more and do better and it prepared him for what the Lord had waiting for him to do next.

I agree with that young man, we do need a generation of water walkers. Am I willing to become one and then, am I going to help raise up the next generation to follow? There's a great battle for souls on the line. I need to rise up. Do more. Do better. I believe that urgent whispering is in the air and those who are listening can hear it and it's exciting to meet them and find ways to connect and unite.