He suffered, He died, and He is risen!

General conference was really good, and I hope to post something soon about what stuck out to me from it. But as I find myself coming into another Easter season, I have to say a little something about my feelings about Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection.


I know Christ paid for our sins. Sometimes when I think about the fact that this event happened nearly 2000 years ago I wonder how something that is such ancient history could be so real, but I know it is real when I pray for forgiveness and the Lord gives me sweet peace. That’s an intimacy that belies antiquity and dust. That’s a love that trembles beyond the veil of the flesh, waiting for us to lay hold on it with our faith.


I know that Christ lives again, lives now. I have a strong hope that His resurrection made ours possible. I look forward to it with eagerness, especially after the events of this week. One Monday and Tuesday I got hit with what I can only call the “death flu”, which featured nausea, vomiting, fever, diarrhea, and cramps. It was sooooo not pretty. But I think I took it with a certain amount of serenity, which I attribute to the wonderful spirit left over from watching General Conference. As I lay on the bathroom floor and struggled to hold on to consciousness at one point, I remembered Elder Holland’s talk about the path Christ trod alone so that we didn’t have to. And that gave me some comfort. I’m not sure just why it was comforting to think of Christ’s horrendous suffering in comparison to mine, but it was to me right then. So I didn’t cry out, “Why me, Lord?” and I didn’t ask, “What am I supposed to learn from this?”; I just felt a certain kinship with Him.

HAPPY EASTER!!

Image 1: from http://www.myspace.com/ackinbadd09, L’ami Gentilhomme
Image 2: from http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2003/mortal.html, John Pratt