My Broken Hallelujah

"I will always deserve to go to hell 

but by the grace and mercy of God
I am not going. 

If there is no hell, 

then heaven is merely a pleasant option

 for nice people." 

I heard someone say this C. S. Lewis quote on a Christian music station as I was driving to the Huntsman Cancer Center in Salt Lake City, UT where I would have my first MRI since being diagnosed with melanoma and the surgeries that followed to remove the dreaded cancer.  I was reminded that no matter WHAT happened to me that day, it would be possible to live with my loved ones eternally because Jesus did descend below all to conquer death and hell. INCREDIBLE! My scans were clear and all is well for another four months. Hallelujah!

                   

Following this thought, these two songs came on and I felt my testimony and love of Jesus Christ grow exponentially. This might not be your kind of music but I love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo3DudOzV4k

"My Broken Hallelujah" - The Afters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtPmX7e_Rpw

"We Believe" - Newsboys

Irony Bites...

IRONY BITES….

"Irony - The Crust on the Bread of Adversity" by Neal Maxwell was given when my life was rife with irony and I absorbed these words like a sponge. 

"Irony may involve not only unexpected suffering but also undeserved suffering. We feel we deserved better, and yet we fared worse. We had other plans, even commendable plans. Did they not count? 

At the end, meek and lowly Jesus partook of the most bitter cup without becoming the least bitter. The Most Innocent suffered the most. Yet the King of Kings did not break, even when some of His subjects did unto Him “as they listed.” (D&C 49:6.) Christ’s capacity to endure such irony was truly remarkable.
You and I are so much more brittle. For instance, we forget that, by their very nature, tests are unfair."

These past few weeks have brought irony back like an old friend returning from a long vacation, so I looked this talk up again, for comfort. Life has changed so much with the passing of time and I've long moved beyond the situations he addressed so well, but the last paragraph will probably apply the rest of my life. #mamabearshame

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/irony-the-crust-on-the-bread-of-adversity?lang=eng