Lamentations 1-2

(February 11, 2015)

                The heartbreak that Jeremiah feels for Jerusalem is one that I can easily understand – it is the heartbreak that each of us feels for the missed opportunities, the mistakes, the wreckage that we have each left in our lives at some point or another from the mistakes that we have made.  I know in my life I can see some disastrous choices that I have made and I wonder how things can ever be made right.

                But somehow, some way, the Lord always makes things right such that they work out in the end.  I am seeing that in my own life even now – the Lord is taking my willingness to be made whole despite my failures and turning that into something that I could never have imagined.  Just as Jeremiah saw the ruins of Jerusalem and wondered how it could ever be made whole, there was a time when I looked at my life and wondered the same thing.  And just as Jerusalem was again made into a mighty city, I see my life coming together in ways I could never have predicted but can only be explained as Divine Providence.

                There is a piece of Mormon history that has always brought me a great deal of comfort.  President Hickley, shortly after acquiring the ownership of Rock Creek Hollow in Wyoming, stated that this location is the most sacred piece of land the Church owns.  He told only a few people why (I was not one of those people), so I can only speculate as to the significance of that place.  But having been there, I can attest to the Spirit that is there.

                The remarkable thing to me, and the source of the great lesson to me, is that only a few dozen years ago Rock Creek Hollow was a place that was being used for strip mining.  Growing up in West Virginia, I can attest to the damage caused to the land by strip mining – it is about the most destructive thing you can do to land short of making it a landfill or dump of some kind.  And yet, despite having spent a portion of its existence as a strip mine, Rock Creek Hollow retains its sacred character and the Spirit is still felt there strongly.  I take comfort that if Rock Creek Hollow can be healed from the strip mining of its past to become the most sacred piece of land the Church owns, then the Lord can likewise heal me from the strip mining I have performed on my soul.