In This Very Room

It's been a looooonnnggg time, my friends! Probably the biggest reason: I'm lazy. Other factoring reasons is that I used this blog as a way to cope with being home from the mish. I'm totes used to being an rm now, so I need my coping mechanisms much less than before. But, I still love blogging, and I want to keep this up.

Today, I want to share a story about a man named Enos. Enos is a pretty cool dude. One day, he was out in the woods hunting. He was using this time to ponder and think about life, when he started thinking about the things that his father taught him. His father was pretty important - a prophet, actually. And his father had taught him about Jesus Christ. He started thinking about his life and about his father's words, and he suddenly felt the weight of everything. of his deeds, of those words, of what everything might mean. And he decided right then and there that he needed to take his life and place it in the Lord's hands; so, he knelt down and prayed - for a really long time. Pretty much the entire day. In this prayer, he was praying to be forgiven, praying that his soul might be saved. He received an answer to his prayer, being told that it was done all according to his faith.

Encouraged, and filled with the fire of his faith, he then began to pray for his friends and family; he wanted them to feel what he felt. He wanted them to be safe and protected in this life, and to have never-ending happiness in the next. He was told that because of his prayers, and others said like them, the Lord would guide them as best as He could, but they would still have to make their own decisions.

Again, he felt like he shouldn't stop there, so he began to pray for his enemies, the very people who were trying to destroy his people. He was filled with love and charity for them.

Enos' experience has always been one that I have loved, and it has always put me in awe. The reason why this story from the Book of Mormon has been on my mind is because of a song we sang in ward choir last week. It's called "In this Very Room." This song is special to my heart for several reasons. But, separate from those reasons, the song itself has a very powerful message.

Here are the words (by Ron Harris):

"In this very room there's quite enough love for one like me;
And in this very room there's quite enough joy for one like me.
And there's quite enough hope, and quite enough power to chase away any gloom,
For Jesus, Lord Jesus, is in this very room.

"And in this very room there's quite enough love for all of us;
And in this very room there's quite enough joy for all of us.
And there's quite enough hope, and quite enough power to chase away any gloom,
For Jesus, Lord Jesus, is in this very room.

"In this very room there's quite enough love for all the world;
And in this very room there's quite enough joy for all the world.
And there's quite enough hope, and quite enough power to chase away any gloom,
For Jesus, Lord Jesus, is in this very room."

This is the progression that Enos experienced. As he prayed, he felt love and he felt joy fill him. He knew it was real, and he knew where it came from: from the Savior. As he began to understand just how much he was loved, just how important he was to the Savior, he began to feel that love and joy for his loved ones - like those who might be close to us in a room - and to understand that Christ could fill them with that. And then, it expanded to everyone. He knew that even his worst enemies needed to feel that love and that joy. The entire world!

One of the reasons why I love this song is because of a moment when I sang it with a few members of my family. We happened to just be singing some church songs, but it was on a day when some confusing, frustrating, and sad things had happened. And, as we sang this song, I understood that the particular person who kind of instigated all of those feelings was loved by Jesus Christ. That even though my family might be feeling particularly frustrated, at that moment, when the Spirit was so strong and poignant, there was enough love in the room for that person, because the Lord was near us.

I love this song because it reminds me of how important each of us is to our Elder Brother. There will always  be enough love for me. ALWAYS. He loves me so much. I'm that important to Him. But, it's not just me. His love is enough for the entire world. His love is limitless. You don't need to feel weighed down; you don't need to worry; you don't need to fear; you don't need to feel surrounded by darkness. Because in the moment you need Him, He will be in the room with you. He loves you!

I know that Jesus Christ loves me, and that is there to light the path for all of us. Each of us is important and matters to Him. There is absolutely nothing that can change it. There is absolutely no reason to sit in the darkness, because of this knowledge.