O Death, Where is Thy Sting? O Grave, Where is thy Victory?

Today is a beautiful Easter day!  Although this holiday has always meant a great deal to me, it means more today than it ever has before.

As most all of you know, I am a devoted sports fan.  In fact, yesterday I managed to spend several hours watching what was essentially a BYU football practice for the simple fact that I love BYU football.  I love seeing my team win.  I hate seeing my team lose.  When they win, I am elated and talk about it for a long time.  When they lose, sometimes I want to disappear because of the frustration.  I have lost my voice numerous times in cheering during and after victories. Today, I celebrate the greatest and most complete victory this world has ever known, in the most important contest this world has ever witnessed.

Because the Savior's victory was so absolutely complete that it was assured before the world was, sometimes we forget just how much was at stake.  Lehi declared that "all mankind were in a lost and in a fallen state, and ever would be save they should rely on this Redeemer" (1 Nephi 10:6). Amulek explained that unless an atonement were made, "all mankind must unavoidably perish" (Alma 34:9).  And Jacob gave the most detailed description of our fate, explaining that had it not been for the atonement, "this corruption [meaning our mortal bodies] could not put on incorruption [immortal bodies].  Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration.  And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more. . . . For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our sports must become subject to that angel who feel from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil to rise no more.  And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery like unto himself" (2 Nephi 9:7-9).

In short, everything was at stake.  It wasn't just a little disappointment that was on the line, where perhaps we didn't get to go home, but we could remain as good people.  No, our very ability to progress and to develop all of the virtues that make this life beautiful was on the line.  The Savior spoke an eternal truth when he declared, "for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).

But on that first glorious Easter morning, He burst the bands of death forever and for all "men, women, and children who belong to the family of Adam" that "the resurrection might pass upon all men, [women, and children]" (2 Nephi 9:21-22).  I can only imagine how we shouted that morning!  I can only imagine how glorious that greatest of all victories felt as we looked on in faith and wonder when the sinless Son of God took up His perfect body with His perfect wounds!  What an honor it must have been for two of our fellow children of God to declare those perfect words, "He is not here; for he is risen, as he said" (Matthew 28:6)! It was the victory of victories; the championship of championships!

With so very much having been won, we celebrate again today.  With Paul, we ask in humble adoration, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory. . . . But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ?" (1 Corinthians 15:55, 57)

Today I celebrate the assurance that because our Savior was victorious over death, so too will we be, and so too will be each of our loved ones, and so too will be each member of the divine household of God.  At some future date, my beloved Dad will rise again.  In fact, I expect to take a picture similar to this one above.  We took that picture in May 2014 as we were driving home from Texas for the last time.  In previous years, we had made that drive for me to come home to visit for the summer, knowing that we would be going the opposite direction the following August.  In May 2014 we made the drive home with plans for me to stay.  We took this picture right before we drove across the Colorado border into Utah.  I was home.  Someday I will be home again, and my Dad will be there to greet me and make the journey together with me and with the rest of our family.  And that day will be glorious, made possible because the Perfect Son of a Perfect God "hat borne [my] griefs, and carried [my] sorrows. . . . He was wounded for [my] transgressions, he was bruised for [my] iniquities: [and] the chastisement of [my] peace was upon him; and with his stripes [I am] healed" (Isaiah 53:4-5).  It will be possible because that first Easter, "the Son of Righteousness [arose] with healing in his wings" (3 Nephi 25:2; Malachi 4:2).

And this is truly a victory for which we can and will rise and shout to all eternity.

Brett

Let us Choose to Be Humble

This has been an interesting week.  On Monday, we celebrated my Dad's 72nd birthday.  It was his first birthday on the other side of the veil.  We all hope that it was a wonderful day for him and we miss him very much.  That day was a reminder that there will, of necessity, be some sobering times when his absence is more apparent than usual.  And yet we all know that he is nearby.  Speaking to a congregation in June 1856, President Brigham Young asked, "When you lay down this tabernacle, where are you going?" and then answered "Into the spirit world."  He then asked, "Where is the spirit world?" and answered, "It is right here." (Brigham Young, Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, 2:1131).  And so we know that my Dad is close by and we are grateful for those sacred moments when we are blessed to brush up against the veil and feel his presence nearby us.

The following day I learned that I hadn't gotten a job that I had applied for.  The news was delivered in a kind and compassionate manner and the person who received it is very well qualified, but it was still difficult to hear.  Of course whenever you apply for a job, there is the chance that you might not get it.  Despite this understanding, this experience can bring with it a measure of personal shame and embarrassment.  And it did for me.  I forced a smile for a couple of days, but it was hard.  But hard as this was, the Lord showed great care for me.  My beautiful fiancé assured me of her love and that she was proud of me and that things would work out.  My Mom and siblings each did the same.  And throughout the remainder of that week, I was blessed to have good friends and colleagues offer words of comfort and encouragement at work.  Through each of these words of encouragement, my feelings of failure dissipated and my hope in the future grew.

The challenging experiences of earlier this week were a wonderful reminder to me of God's love.  Sometimes we wonder how could show his love to us through hard experiences.  But the older I've gotten, the more I've realized that often these experiences are some of the most profound manifestations of God's love.  They are reminders of God's love because they help us to be humble and to remember just how much we need to turn to the Lord.  And then as we come to Him, we are able to experience the full majesty of His divine work in our lives.

In each of life's experiences, we have a choice as to how we will respond.  Writing about the end of a long period of Nephite wars, Mormon wrote, "But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Laminates many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility" (Alma 62:41).  These people had experienced exactly the same experiences, but where some were led to humility, repentance, and divine healing, others hardened their hearts in pride and found their lives made more difficult.  If we are humble, life's setbacks can and will become the "training ground for better and happier days."

As President Ezra Taft Benson admonished, "Let us choose to be humble. . . . We can choose to humble ourselves by loving God, submitting our will to His, and putting Him first in our lives.  Let us choose to be humble.  We can do it.  I know we can" (Ezra Taft Benson, Beware of Pride)

No matter what challenges life holds for us, let us choose to be humble, and in our humility may we then find the great power of God's love for us.

Brett

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

This has been a wonderful week!  On Monday afternoon, I asked Ashley A. Camargo to marry me and she said yes!  It would be impossible for me to describe just how much this beautiful woman has and does mean to me.  And I can only glimpse the smallest portion of what she will mean to me for the rest of my life and for all eternity.  But she is a kind and tender and wonderful woman whose goodness inspires me each day of my life and urges me to become better!

As Shakespeare once wrote, for me she is "more lovely and more temperate" than even the warmest and brightest summer day.  And whereas "summer's lease hath all too short a date" her "eternal summer shall not fade" (Sonnet 18).  And as Shakespeare's Henry V said of Katherine, I expect that as I spend more time with Ashley, she will "wear me, better and better."

As I contemplated my proposal, I really struggled to find the proper place.  I wanted it to be at a place that would be special and that would be something that was connected to our relationship.  For our second date, Ashley and I had gone up to Snowbird where we had ridden the Alpine Slide, so I thought that perhaps that would be the most romantic place that we could go.  But then I remembered that the Granite Quarry where the Saints had gotten the stone for the Salt Lake Temple was right at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon--where Snowbird is.  Suddenly, I had found "the right place."

I told Ashley that we were going to go to Snowbird and recreate our second date, but then stopped off at the Quarry site and told her that I wanted to show her something.  We walked down the path to where there are some large blocks of granite and I started telling her some of the history of the site.  I told her that Brigham had wanted to build the temple out of granite because he wanted it to last through the millennium and granite is big and strong and lasts forever.  I then told her that this was the kind of marriage that I wanted us to have, one that would be big, strong, and last forever, with the temple and its covenants at its core.  And then I knelt down and proposed to her in the snow.  (I was grateful to Rob for role playing the situation the night before.  He made a fantastic Ashley).

After that we went up to Snowbird and took the tram to the top of the mountain, which is where we took the picture shown above.  We visited Ashley's friend Hannah and her beautiful little boy Alvin and then we went to Sandy's amazing restaurant "Tuscany."  We capped off a perfect day by video chatting with Ashley's parents and grandparents and visiting my Mom.

It's been a wonderful week and I'm excited for a lifetime and an eternity of love and happiness with Ashley!

Brett