Day 312: Harold B. Lee on Hope and Patriotism

Sigh . . . Is this what Michelle Obama felt like during all of those years that she was not proud of her country?

Like many of you, I'm severely disappointed by the results of yesterday's presidential election. I believe Barack Obama not only to be the worst president in our country's history but also a true threat to the Constitution, which I believe was inspired by our Father in Heaven.

Nevertheless, I love my country, and I believe there are yet many good people in it who will take a stand and will fight for those principles that will get us back on track as a nation. My sister shared some very inspired words today, uttered nearly 40 years ago by President Harold B. Lee. I draw a great deal of comfort from them, and I hope that they help you, too.

Thanks, Biz.

Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail.

This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the New Jerusalem. . . . This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple.

We are living in a time of great crisis. The country is torn with scandal and with criticism, with faultfinding and condemnation. There are those who have downgraded the image of this nation as probably never before in the history of the country.

I plead with you not to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. . . . It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through.
We must be on the optimistic side. This is a great nation; this is a great country; this is the most favored of all lands. While it is true that there are dangers and difficulties that lie ahead of us, we must not assume that we are going to stand by and watch the country go to ruin. We should not be heard to predict ills and calamities for the nation. On the contrary, we should be providing optimistic support for the nation.

You must remember . . . that this church is one of the most powerful agencies for the progress of the world, and we should . . . all sound with one voice. We must tell the world how we feel about this land and this nation and should bear our testimonies about the great mission and destiny that it has.

If we do this, we will help turn the tide of this great country and lessen the influence of the pessimists. We must be careful that we do not say or do anything that will further weaken the country. It is the
negative, pessimistic comments about the nation that do as much harm as anything to the country today. We who carry these sacred responsibilities must preach the gospel of peace, and peace can only come by overcoming the things of the world. Now, we must be the dynamic force that will help turn the tide of fear and pessimism.

(Excerpts from a talk given at Ricks College Devotional Assembly, "Have Faith in America ," October 26, 1973, and printed in two sources: Ye Are the Light of the World: Selected Sermons and Writings of Harold B. Lee, 340, 350-351, and The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, edited by Clyde J. Williams, 365-366.)

Faith, Hope, and Charity . . . and Patience

Today's post amounts to not much more than a spiritual thought, but I felt like posting it regardless.

I've been thinking about patience over the past few days, given that yesterday's elders quorum lesson covered Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf's recent general conference address on the subject, and also because of a conversation I had Thursday with a good friend.

I wish I could claim the thought as my own, but I will make no pretense about doing so. What he shared with me is this:

Patience with God is faith;
Patience with yourself is hope;
Patience with others is charity.

Well, anyway, I thought it was good enough to share.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!

A Marvelous Work and a Wonder

Two weeks ago, as we were about to take the stage for another Improvables performance, Parker came back to the green room and told us that his brother Keenan had suffered an accident while riding an ATV and, as a result, had broken both of his legs.

This has to be some kind of joke, I remember thinking. Keenan had, ironically, recently played the character "Legless Larry" on stage during a show, moving himself around using only his arms.

But this was no joke. Keenan had indeed broken both of his legs and was undergoing surgery to have a metal rod inserted into one of those legs as we were taking the stage. This would have been a painful and tragic occurrence in anyone's life, but add to that the additional fact that Keenan was scheduled to enter the MTC just under three weeks after this accident. Many of us, myself included, feared that his missionary service would end up being postponed for several months.

Fortunately, that wasn't the case at all. Keenan was a quick healer in the hospital, being discharged after only a couple of days of recovery. He continued to make further progress after that and began to walk with a cane.

Two nights ago, he again took the stage for his final Improvables performance for two years, a mere two weeks after his devastating accident. Though he needed to use his cane to get around, he put in another fantastic performance. Then, this morning, Keenan delivered his scheduled farewell talk at his ward in Centerville, with his plans for heading into the MTC this Wednesday and then going on to serve in the mission field in New Zealand still intact.

As I sat through today's meeting, the thought occurred to me more than once that I had witnessed some sort of miraculous event in Keenan's quick healing over these past two weeks. The Lord truly does watch over His work and those who labor in it. The sacrifices made and the blessings received by past, present, and future missionaries are nothing short of "a marvelous work and a wonder" to me.

One Year Ago Today

Mom's been in a car accident. It's pretty bad. She doesn't have much time left. You had better get to the hospital as soon as you can.

I'm paraphrasing, but those were essentially the words I heard on my voice mail a year ago today. It was one of the most frightening moments of my life. You had better believe that I got myself to that emergency room as soon as was humanly possible.

Fortunately, once I arrived, I learned that the situation was not as critical as I had been led to believe. Mom had been in an accident, and her blood pressure had initially fallen to a dangerous level when she was brought into the E.R. But it was soon stabilized. When I walked in, she was awake and could talk. I breathed a sigh of relief. I also felt somewhat helpless, looking at her in that hospital bed, with all of those tubes and machines on and around her. All I could do was hold her hand and wait for my other siblings to arrive.

Mom had suffered a sprained wrist and a few broken ribs. Thankfully, her seatbelt had helped to lessen the blow of the crash. The worst part of her injuries was all of the bruising and the hematomas she had from the impact. They were all over her body, from head to toe, especially on both of her legs. The main thing that kept her in the hospital was the excruciating pain of getting up and trying to walk.

For the next week, Mom was in Lakeview Hospital. She spent the week after that in South Davis Community Hospital, going through hours and hours of painful physical therapy. But she remained tough all through the ordeal. In fact, the kind of recovery that Mom made was nothing short of miraculous. I have no doubt that the priesthood blessings she received played a large part in that.

In addition, the response and support from extended family members, friends, neighbors, and ward members was nothing short of overwhelming. I can't count the number of people who fasted for her, asked me about her condition on a daily basis, visited her in the hospital, brought flowers - what have you. A few of the nurses who cared for her and one of her physical therapists were members of my own ward.

One thing about tragic circumstances is that they never fail to offer us an opportunity to develop our own compassion toward the plights of others. They also, I think, teach us a great deal about gratitude.

I am grateful that things turned out the way they did when they initially appeared so bleak. I still have so much to learn from Mom. I'm glad she is still with us.


At the same time, I think of friends and acquaintances who have had family members end up in the hospital, whose prayers were not answered as they had hoped. Truth is, I don't know why some people walk out of hospitals; others are wheeled out, never to walk again; and still others never return at all.

I find comfort in these words:

I know that (Heavenly Father) loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.
-1 Nephi 11:17; parenthesis added

In other words, He loves us, and we can trust in that. Trusting in that may mean having the faith to wait to find out the answers to all of our Why? questions in time, or perhaps even in the life to come. But they will come.

Moving Forward in the Face of Fear

I have a good friend who is very shy when it comes to girls. Come to think of it, shy might not be the right way to say it. Immobilized with fear may be the term that applies here.

Recently, I learned that a girl in our ward has developed a crush on this shy friend of mine. Upon learning of this, I was enlisted to try to help steer him in her direction. I told him only that I had heard someone liked him and asked if he would like to know who it was. To my shock, he replied that he didn't even want to know her name and that knowing there was someone interested in him was scary enough.

I guess I was shocked by his answer mostly because this is a guy who was a dating machine in high school. I don't know what happened between high school and now to change things, but it was definitely something. I was also shocked by his answer because he isn't afraid to do a lot of things. He is one of the smartest people I know, excels in his profession and in his hobbies, serves diligently in his Church callings, is loyal and fun loving, and is otherwise a well-rounded individual. He would make an excellent husband for any girl he married. But dating, let alone marriage, appears to be the last thing on his mind.

I want to help my friend. I want him to be happy and not idle with despair, for lack of a better term. As a friend, he has helped me over the years - in more ways than he knows - through thick and thin, in good times and in bad ones. But I don't know where to start, especially when he won't even let me help him.

It is a terrible thing to be a victim of fear. I know it well from personal experience. I think that the fear of two things keeps most people from dating and achieving the kind of happiness that they long for:

(1) People of both genders fear being rejected by the objects of their affection. They are afraid to make a move or to to do anything at all that will put their feelings out in the open and leave them vulnerable. Yes, there is a chance that he/she will return their feelings, but the possibility of it not happening keeps them from trying at all.

(2) On the other hand, people also fear not being rejected. The possibility of entering into a one-on-one relationship means the loss of a certain degree of independence, money, and time once devoted to personal hobbies and pursuits that will, consequently, have to be sacrificed. So many people are unwilling to give up those things.


Not too long ago on this blog, I mentioned Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin's book Press On, which I read about a year ago. One of my favorite messages in this book contains the following counsel:

Fear can make us run away from things — things like setting and achieving goals, developing relationships, or becoming the people we know we should become. Sometimes fear can even paralyze us to the point that we don’t even try.

Fear can be a thick fog that smothers our dreams. It can be a cage that restrains us from reaching our destiny. It can be a weight that restrains our every step. . . .

We may not be immune to being afraid, but we do not have to succumb to it. My friend Harold Brown once said, “It is better to face fear once than to live in its shadow.” I believe he is right.

We are surrounded and uplifted by the faith of our members and by the hand of heaven. If only we could see that, our fears would have far less influence over us. Move forward with faith, believing you will succeed! Don’t let fear of failure stop you from greatness.

There are two kinds of regret: the regret of having tried and failed, and the regret of not having tried at all. The regret of not having tried at all is far worse than the regret of having tried and failed.

To my friend, I say: If you are reading this, please know that I would not be a good friend to you if I didn't care enough to tell you these things. It is because I care about you and want you to achieve your full potential that I do so, just as you wish the same for me.