Calmness Indescribable - God's Toolbox Part 4
The Spirit can work in a few different ways, in my experience. There’s the burning in the bosom that testifies of truth. There’s the heart pounding you might feel just before bearing your testimony on a hungry Sunday. There’s the above numbers 1-3, for example. This next one, though, is what I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
It’s a profound feeling of peace. You have a big decision coming up, you’re not sure what to do. You go to bed. When the sun comes up, so does absolute serenity. There’s a game plan in front of you. You know what to do.
My wife and I were looking for a house for about a year. Our budget, we told the realtor, was “former meth-house.” We all laughed, of course, and then she showed us a whooooole bunch of houses that might have actually fit the bill. Don’t take your shoes off, if you know what I mean.
That’s all an exaggeration, of course, but we did look at a bunch of houses. You really want to pick the right one. The primary concern is finding one where your kids can thrive without any creepy or drug related threats lurking around the corner. A lot of pressure there, really.
None of the houses felt quite right. We put in a few reluctant offers, but were actually kind of relieved when we didn’t get them. The last house we looked at, though, felt light. It felt serene.
Really, it felt almost overwhelmingly peaceful. Everything fell into place and the place was ours. The entire time it felt like we were doing the right thing. I’ve felt that peace two other times that I can think of - once for another big decision and once to let me know everything would be OK.
That extreme, overwhelming peace seems to be used time and time again by the powers that be. Here are a few instances other people have (thankfully) written down.
This first one is Parley Pratt. He, Joseph Smith Jr, Hyrum Smith & Sidney Rigdon went to talk to a military unit of some sort. This militia quickly surrounded and arrested them. It was unexpected. The plan was to take them to trial, find them guilty of anything that stuck and execute them. In Pratt’s own words:
Parley Pratt
“...We were informed that the general officers held a secret council during most of the night, which was dignified by the name of court martial; in which, without a hearing, or, without even being brought before it, we were all sentenced to be shot. The day and hour was also appointed for the execution of this sentence, viz: next morning at 8 o'clock, in the public square at Far West. Of this we were informed by Brigadier- General Doniphan, who was one of the council, but who was so violently opposed to this cool blooded murder that he assured the council that he would revolt and withdraw his whole brigade, and march them back to Clay County as soon as it was light, if they persisted in so dreadful an undertaking. Said he, "It is cold blooded murder, and I wash my hands of it." His firm remonstrance, and that of a few others, so alarmed the haughty murderer and his accomplices that they dare not put the decree in execution.
“Thus, through a merciful providence of God our lives were spared through that dreadful night. It was the common talk, and even the boast in the camp, that individuals lay here and there unburied, where they had shot them down for sport. The females they had ravished; the plunder they had taken; the houses they had burned; the horses they had stolen; the fields of grain they had laid waste, were common topics; and were dwelt on for mere amusement, or, as if these deeds were a stepstone to office; and it is a fact that such deeds were so considered.
“No pen need undertake to describe our feelings during that terrible night, while there confined—not knowing the fate of our wives and children, or of our fellow Saints, and seeing no way for our lives to be saved except by the miraculous power of God. But, notwithstanding all earthly hopes were gone, still we felt a calmness indescribable. A secret whispering to our inmost soul seemed to say: "Peace, my sons, be of good cheer, your work is not yet done; therefore I will restrain your enemies, that they shall not have power to take your lives."” (https://scottwoodward.org/churchhistory_farwest_josephandotherstakenprisoner.html)
There were still some twists and turns before the four men found their freedom. But that peace told them not to worry.
Here’s one that’s more modern. It’s from a kid trying to pick a college. Not quite as important as being held in the back of a militia death-wagon - but it was crazy important to her:
Megan
“...as we drove the three hours south to the next college, I felt a great sense of contentment. I didn’t notice the cold anymore, and was impressed with the beauty of the snowdrifts lining the freeway. I was perfectly at peace, perfectly happy.
“The second college was much less cold and devoid of both snow and construction. It had a great selection of Chinese food, and delicious ice cream to boot. It was closer to home, and had offered me an amazing scholarship.
“But as we drove south to the third school, I was very uneasy about the second school, even though on the surface it looked better than the rest school we had visited. But I did not feel comfortable.” (https://jesus.christ.org/holy-spirit-2/holy-ghost-helped-decide-college)
Here’s another recent one. It will probably seem small to you, but to her it was big. She explains it all pretty well:
Emily Belanger
“When I was younger, I developed a paradoxical fear of the Holy Ghost. You see, it wasn’t uncommon for me to feel a strong sense of peace just before receiving bad news. Unexpected bad news. The intellectual and academic in me of course looks back and interrogates those experiences. Did I subconsciously respond to some subtle stimuli that foretold bad news? Did I exaggerate the emotional feeling after the fact? And rationally, I can’t deny those possibilities. Memory isn’t sculpted from stone so much as wet clay.
“But my present memory of those experiences says that the peace was palpable, a type of peace I hadn’t really experienced outside of those 3 occasions, a calm I couldn’t break, despite my formidable ability to worry about anything and everything...
“But that particular answer from the Spirit – peace, reassurance – is so common to the Mormon spiritual narrative that I sometimes wonder why it’s such a common experience…
“...For instance, take this experience I had last summer – in the process of moving out of state, my husband and I sent our two cats ahead with some extended family that we’d be visiting for a few days before completing our move. The family members placed the cats in a room with an open window. There was a screen in the window, which they assumed would keep the cats inside. Instead, both cats broke loose. One cat ate some grass and returned in time for breakfast (later vomiting the evidence of her jaunt). The other cat went missing for three weeks. In coyote territory….
“...No matter how desperately I prayed (or perhaps because I prayed so desperately), I couldn’t get a clear answer. I vacillated between certainty that she’d turn up and certainty that she was already dead, but I said out loud, repeatedly, that I hadn’t received an answer either way.
“And then, about two weeks after my cat had gone missing, when there’d been no sign of her and even my husband and his father, two men given to optimism- verging-on-denial, had admitted defeat, I prayed again. There were some distinct differences to this prayer, but it wasn’t the first time there’d been something distinct about one of these prayers. Still, lo and behold, I finally got an answer. Not the weighty, palpable peace-you-can’t-shake that terrorized my younger days. No, this seemed very clearly like reassurance that my cat was still alive. My husband commented on how much happier I seemed the next morning. Several hours after he made that comment, his parents called to tell us that a neighbor had spotted my cat in their yard. About a week later we finally caught her and reintroduced her to domesticity…” (https://www.patheos.com/blogs/peculiarpeople/2017/07/why-that-peaceful-feeling/)
Is a missing cat that important? If it’s important to her, it’s important to Him.
Here’s a story involving a potential crash into a South American mountain range. It’s interesting because it also contains the opposite of overwhelming peace. First it depicts the Spirit telling him that everything is most definitely not ok:
President Milton R. Hunter of the First Council of the Seventy
“A few years ago late on an April afternoon, three other men and I got out of a small dugout boat at Agua Azul, Chiapas, Mexico, on the Usumacinta River. We entered a small one-motor plane to fly hundreds of miles westward to Tuxtla, Chiapas, on the Grijalva River.
“In order to reach Tuxtla, which we had left that morning, President Ernest A. Strong from Springville, Utah, Gareth W. Lowe, manager of the New World Archaeological Foundation, “William A. (Bill) Devenish, and I had to fly over one of the most dense jungles in the world and over ranges of mountains.
“Heavy black clouds had settled over the jungles. We anticipated that we might run into trouble. For safety’s sake our pilot, Bill, flew the plane very high to get above the clouds. We could not see the ground at any time through the dense clouds. The radio frequency at the Tuxtla airport did not match that on our plane, and so our pilot had to estimate our course back to Tuxtla.
“We had traveled a few hours when darkness came on with the immediacy it does in the tropics. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit told me that we had crossed the Grijalva River and were headed westward away from Tuxtla toward a range of mountains and that if we did not change our course quickly we would all get killed.
“I immediately told Bill that we were going the wrong direction, that we had crossed the Grijalva River some distance up the river south of Tuxtla.
“Bill tried to determine the proper course, but because of the turbulent weather conditions, he was unable to do so.
“A very depressing, dark feeling came over me. It was a feeling of gloom and despair. I said to President Strong, “We are going to be killed if we keep going in this direction. We’re headed for destruction. If Bill doesn’t change the direction of the plane soon, we will crash.”
“President Strong said that he had an oppressive feeling also. We were sitting in the back seat, and Bill heard our conversation. He asked, “President Hunter, which direction do you think we ought to go?”
“I quickly replied, “Turn immediately to the right and go north.”
“Bill turned the plane to the right. A sweet, peaceful feeling came into my heart, and the Holy Spirit let me know that all would be well. I said, “Everything will be all right with us now. We shall arrive safely at Tuxtla without any mishap. We had not traveled very long before we saw lights shining from Tuxtla. We circled over the small, dirt airstrip with the lanterns showing us where to land. ” (https://www.lds.org/new-era/1973/09/directed-by-the-holy-spirit?lang=eng)
Sometimes when you feel the Spirit you can be left wondering if the Spirit is actually what you felt. With this feeling of indescribable calmness there is no mistaking. It doesn’t happen too often, but when it does things really come into focus.
You ever felt it? I’d love to hear your story.
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