On Monday and Wednesday I worked until 5:00 and on Tuesday I worked until 6:00. I can't remember what I did when I got home on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, I was super excited the next day was Thanksgiving. I finished a family history indexing batch that night.
Thanksgiving was enjoyable; we went to my grandparents' house. That evening I ate way too much pie and I was excited to see that a Peanuts special that came out on DVD in March, Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown, finally aired on TV--which meant I was able to watch it without buying it. Some of you may recall that before my mission I was big on a site called TV.com. I'm not so big on it now, but I am the editor for the Charlie Brown specials on that site, so I added information to the guide for Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown.
I had to be at work at 6:00 a.m. on Friday. I was scheduled until 12. Once 12:00 hit, I asked if I could go. They told me I could, but that I could also stick around. I decided to leave. I went to the temple with my parents.
I had to work Saturday, as well. Then Saturday afternoon I wanted to go running. But all my work prevents me from running and I'm losing my ability. I wanted to run for 47 minutes. After sixteen or seventeen minutes, though, I got lazy and I stopped. I don't know if I was just lazy or if I was more tired than I used to be. So I turned around, walked for about three minutes, and then ran the rest of the way for about seventeen minutes. So it was a failure run for me. But I have some consolation. One is that my ability is bound to decrease as I do it less and get more out of shape. Another is that what I ran will keep me in better shape than not running at all. And another consolation is that even the seventeen minutes one way is still better than what I could do four years ago.
My free time last night was taken up because today I gave a talk in my ward. I never read my talks verbatim, but this is approximately what I said:
First of all, I would like to point out that 364 days ago, on November 28, 2010, I stood at this very pulpit at this very time in the Orchard 14th Ward. There aren't very many similarities between last year and this year. Last year it was very snowy, and I was hoping church would be canceled so I wouldn't have to speak. There's no chance of that today. The ward was also much smaller; there are a lot more people today. I can't decide if more people makes it more or less intimidating.
Shortly after general conference in October, at institute we had a big discussion about things we enjoyed about conference. I shared that I liked President Uchtdorf's talk, “You Matter to Him.” I especially liked the beginning where he talked about the stars in the sky. He talks about how God showed Moses the workmanship of his hands, and Moses said, “I know that man is nothing.” President Uchtdorf says, “The more we learn about the universe, the more we understand—at least in a small part—what Moses knew. The universe is so large, mysterious, and glorious that it is incomprehensible to the human mind. 'Worlds without number have I created,' God said to Moses. The wonders of the night sky are a beautiful testimony of that truth."
He continues and talks about how “one group of scientists estimates that the number of stars within range of our telescopes is 10 times greater than all the grains of sand on the world's beaches and deserts.” He has this perspective being a pilot, flying over Earth looking at the night sky.
I'm not a pilot, and I'm not an astronomer. I find this concept fascinating, but it's not something I can totally relate to. However, at BYU, I'm doing a minor in geology. I'm not very far in this minor, but I think this same concept can be approached from a geological perspective.
Sometimes when I'm down by the train tracks on Center Street, I look up at our hill, and I see all the houses. There are so many houses, yet they don't come even close to filling up the entire hill. And then there's another hill behind it! They're so big—but then I realize that our hills right here are actually rather small compared to other mountains, even in our own state. I think about how many hills and mountains there are all over this world, and it amazes me to think just how big the world is.
Just as fascinating as the size of the earth is its age. Once I did the math—I must have been bored-- and I determined that if you were to draw a line in which one inch equals 1,000 years—now think about how much has happened in a thousand years—with one inch equaling a thousand years, from now to the time that the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, the line would be over a mile long! And that's just to the time that the dinosaurs went extinct—I didn't do the math for the time that they lived, or for time before them, or anything like that. This boggles my mind!
Our human history is only a few inches in the miles of the earth's history. It can be easy to feel insignificant when you think about this. But I like to think of it this way. We know from Moses 1:39 that God's work and glory is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man. That is why He created this earth. And yet the earth was around for billions of years before he formed man on it. We matter so much to Him that He created this world so beautifully, perfectly, and meticulously just for us.
President Uchtdorf uses this concept of the grandeur of the universe to warn us against a couple of tools of the adversary. President Uchtdorf says, "This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God. While against the backdrop of infinite creation we may appear to be nothing, we have a spark of eternal fire burning within our breast." Satan uses both sides of this paradox. One of these diabolical tools is pride. He leads some—and, I might add, all of us to some degree—to think that they are more important or more valuable than everyone else. We must really remember, though, that our individual time spent on this earth is only a fraction of an inch in the miles and miles of eternity. President Uchtdorf says, “Those who will 'inherit the kingdom of God' are those who become 'as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love.' 'For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.' Such disciples understand also “that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.'”
On the opposite end, Satan uses discouragement. He convinces us that we are small, insignificant, and forgotten. But this is not true. We matter to God. President Ucthdorf says, “The Lord doesn’t care at all if we spend our days working in marble halls or stable stalls. He knows where we are, no matter how humble our circumstances. He will use—in His own way and for His holy purposes—those who incline their hearts to Him.”
There's a scripture I really like in 1 Corinthians 12:14-23:
"14 For the body is not one member, but many.
15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness."
I really like this analogy. If, for example, our body consisted of nothing but ears, we would be useless. We need all the members of our body. So it is in the Church. We can't all be bishops and Relief Society presidents. We each have our own unique abilities to contribute, and we may think our calling or our role in our ward is insignificant, but it matters not only to God, but to everyone else in the Church.
President Ucthdorf says, “God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small planet who lives for a brief season”--I find it interesting he calls this a small planet—I've been telling you how big it is, but it really is tiny--"He sees you as the being you are capable and designed to become. He wants you to know that you matter to Him."
I know that we may be less than a millimeter in the miles of eternity, and we are little specks of dust in the vastness of the universe, but we matter to Him. God loves us, and gave us His Son because He wants us to return to Him. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
(And I'm sorry for the inconsistent font size. I just didn't care enough to make it all the same.)
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