Today at church we were discussing how we can follow the
Savior, serve the Savior and know our Savior.
The teacher used the poem “Footprints in the Sand.” If you don’t know this poem, pause and go
read it. After reading the last two
stanzas the teacher pointed out that if
we truly knew our Savior we would recognize his footprints in the sand and not
have to ask the question, “Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there
for me?” I like her thinking here and
hope desperately that I will recognize my Savior when I meet him but it got me
thinking, do I actually agree with this poem?
And guess what? I don’t.
The concept behind this poem is that in the hardest times of our lives
the Savior will scoop us up and carry us.
People may have experienced this feeling, I personally have not. Because in my hardest times in life I find my
options are either to sit down and pout (essentially stalling out any progress
and frankly making the hard time much worse) or I can choose to move forward no
matter how hard.
My question here is do I truly believe the Lord would carry
me? Being carried is passive. Anyone can
be carried. But isn’t the point of this existence to become more like him? To be tested, even if it is super hard?
See I don’t believe we only see one set of footprints
because the Lord decided it was too hard and scooped us up. I hope these are
the moments when I quit trying to walk my own path, quit believing I could walk
side by side with the Lord. I hope it is a sign that I started fully trusting the path Heavenly Father has set
for me. I didn’t trust my footing and so I stopped, listened and very deliberately tried placed my feet in the correct places. Is it one set of footsteps
because this is when I truly began following my Lord?
Wouldn’t it be more profound to look back at your life and
find that at some point you truly committed to being a follower of Christ and so from then
on, just one trail was found? My Savior
gave his life for me. He died so that I
could try. I don’t want to look back on my life and see pout prints in the
sand, I don’t want to choose to be carried.
He died so I could try. I want to
try. I want to be able to always be
progressing and hopefully aligning my path to always be more in sync with my
Saviors.
