Sunday, March 2, 2014

Many Tender Mercies

Several months ago, I wrote a post talking about the tender mercies of the Lord in my life.  I would like to briefly touch on the topic again because I recently had an experience where I saw several more of them.

My previous post can be seen here:

http://bobthejanitor520.blogspot.com/2013/10/because-of-circumstances-in-my-life-at.html

Two weeks ago on Valentine's Day, Latter-Day Voices got to sing at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.  We were performing the winning selections of music for the Church Music Festival.  It was a really big performance, and I greatly looked forward to the experience.  As I sat on the bus riding back to Logan in the dark, I had an opportunity to reflect on the tender mercies which I had experienced during our trip.  I will touch on three of them, although there were several others which I found.

One of my greatest weaknesses in life is that I often forget to do rather small yet meaningful tasks.  I don't often forget big things, no matter how much I may like to, but I often forget the small things.  I think that I just do a much better job at looking at the bigger picture rather than looking into the details of any situation.  It's very simple that these things just completely escape my brain.  In fact many of these things I often remind myself over and over to get it done, but when it comes time to actually do it, I just forget.  I can't tell you how many assignments and papers I've left in my apartment through my school years.  Usually all day before I leave, I remind myself to grab an assignment, and I often purposely lay it somewhere I can't possibly forget it.  However, as I head out the door, I inevitably forget it.  Sometimes I remember before I get too far, but I have also frantically re-done an assignment in class when I realize that I've forgotten it.  It drives me absolutely nuts.

This occurred again on the day of our performance.  We were just heading out to the buses after meeting our little girl to head to Salt Lake.  As I passed by Brother Salmond, he asked me if I was feeling better as I had been a bit sick.  Then in a moment he said something that made my heart stop.  He asked me why I hadn't shaved.  In that moment I suddenly realized that I had never actually shaved, after reminding myself all morning and making sure my razor carried enough charge to get the job done.  I couldn't believe it.  I had seen myself several times that morning in the mirror, and for some reason I didn't notice.  No one had asked or said anything about it until Brother Salmond said anything.  I worried a bit the entire way to Salt Lake.

On the bus, I tried not to worry too much, I eventually received peace in my mind.  I was told that one way or the other, it would all work out.  Either someone would have a razor I could use to shave, or I would get to enjoy listening to the rest of the choir sing.  Through the grace and mercy of the Lord, someone else in the choir had also forgotten to shave, and I was able to borrow his razor.  I was quite relieved!

As I mentioned above, I had been sick the week of our performance.  I started feeling it coming on Sunday night.  I was rather ticked because I was about 4 days removed from finally overcoming all of the symptoms of my last cold.  Strangely enough this cold affected me quite a bit differently than every other cold that hits me.  Usually I feel colds in my throat first.  My voice is often one of the first things to be negatively affected by a cold; however, this time the cold stayed pretty much in my head.  I was mostly just stuffed up.  My voice was affected, but except for the really high extremes where I never really sing anyway, my range wasn't affected.  The only thing that really suffered was the power in my voice, especially nearing my bridge.  Otherwise, I was just stuffed up and really tired.  I was able to continue to sing as we neared the performance though.  The night before the performance I was saying my prayers, and I prayed that, even if it was for the next day, I would be able to get over my cold so I could sing.

The next morning I woke up, and after getting rid of some junk in my nose and throat, I felt pretty dang good.  I felt much the same way I typically feel the last day of a cold.  I didn't really sing much that morning, but as we rehearsed in Salt Lake, I received a bit of a surprise.  I felt that most of my power had returned.  I would put myself 90-95 percent.  I was able to sing beyond my capabilities that night. 

Then an interesting thing happened.  I woke up the next morning feeling really tired and weak.  I was all stuffed up again, and my voice was absolute trash.  I could barely sing at all.  These feelings continued for the next few days.  The Lord truly blessed me with a bit of a miracle that night so I could sing.  With those two tender mercies, it would appear to me that someone wanted me to sing at the performance.

The third tender mercy which I noticed was a much smaller thing.  It happened as we were standing on Temple Square to load up for our return journey.  I'm not sure how long we were standing out there.  It was an absolutely gorgeous night, and the temperature was just about perfect, especially after being in the hot Assembly Hall.  Eventually the buses got there to pick us up.  I had spent much of the time just taking in the scenes around me.  I looked at the temple and the buildings at the City Creek Center.  As I exited Temple Square, I got a glimpse of something in the distance which I hadn't even thought of looking for.  As I mentioned in one of my last posts, I love visiting the Christus whenever I can.  It has always been one of my favorite places to be.  Suddenly, I saw the Christus on the opposite side of Temple Square.  There stood the Savior with His arms open to receive me.  I was again reminded of His love for me.  It was truly an amazing day.

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