Ben & I have been taking a lot of showers together to talk. It’s what we do.
If you have been following us on social media, you know very well us moving from AZ to NY, and the dreadful challenges that have prevented us closing on our house. We currently have been in a hotel for 32 days and counting. And although our situation has not changed & there is no timeline for an end, we’re in a gooood head space.
How freaky parallel we are to the whole barges thing. The barges are built b/c God commanded him to do it and he did it in the way that God Himself showed him to do it. (ether2:18) “Being directed continually by the hand of the Lord,” is how it goes. Step by step guidance the whole way.
So, it’s done. He did it. There the barges are. But only then he realizes, wait… there’s no light in them. Wait, we can’t breathe in this. Wait, we can’t survive in this thing. Wait, how is that even possible if I did what God wanted me to in the way that He showed me?
Now, you know the brother of Jared is problem solving every logical resolve he can come up with b/c he goes to the Lord talking about them all–All of the solutions he can possibly muster up & they all are dead ends. Windows & fire!, he tells God. But those can’t work, for “these reasons” he explains. (eth2:23)
He goes to the Lord after he’s exhausted his resources & ideas & is literally “crying unto the Lord,” what now? What next? I got nothing. Dead ends. There is no way, no options, no hope, left that I can see.
And what was the response? You’re gunna be in a storm. “Mountain waves” are going to hit you. BUT— those winds? They come from “My mouth.”And those waves, “have I sent.” They’re mine, they’re from me. But, “I prepare you against these things.” He knows. He’s behind all of it. And He is still in charge.
And it wasn’t until the brother of Jared was working it out *with* God, conversationally, in honest prayer, that a new idea came: Stones. Regardless of what seemed to be logical dead ends, a new avenue came. A resolve came. Hope came. Light came. Literally. And even though it lasted wayyyy longer than anticipated, (344 days, yikes!), every bit of it was bringing them towards where they needed to be. (Ether 6) And the light was always there.
xox AL
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