Elevated

This is an article I enjoyed recently. It was good to read a perspective from someone outside of Utah. I think you will enjoy it as well.

The trick to being more virtuous

We can be the passive beneficiaries of moral elevation. Or we can actively pursue it by rejecting bad and seeking good.

I commit to better help others, uplift the downtrodden, and embrace civility.

Our examples often speak more loudly than do our words.

Living in Thanksgiving daily

Recently, I have taken up exercising. Camilla encouraged me. And it has been great. All during my youth, it was automatic keeping fit, but in recent years not so. My exercise of choice has been to go walking every morning. Your mother walks and hikes daily with friends and has acclimated to strenuous climbs and lengthy distances. I am now in a small way following her example.

During my early morning walks, I have had time to think and plan for the upcoming day, weeks, and months ahead. Even in the midst of my health goals, I have found many other benefits of walking like vitality, invigoration, and spiritual edification. I learn new things every day. And they have the unique ability to help, prepare, and sustain us. When Alma addressed Korihor, he said “all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it.” Probably the most unexpected benefit of my early morning walking is that for a few minutes each day, I have a chance to reflect on our abundant blessings and contemplate the world and God’s majesty.

One day when I left the house I saw the majestic spire of the Mount Timpanogos temple in the valley. I thought that’s where I’ll walk today. Rhetorically speaking, I have been there a million times, so following the typical route was going to be easy, so I didn’t. I took some less-traveled roads, which were more serene, quieter and not so busy with traffic. But before long, I was on unknown paths that obscured my view of the temple. The trip took much longer than expected because of diversions and obstacles I didn’t anticipate. But the goal was the temple; time didn't really matter anymore. I continued through the dark, across the ice, past the trees, and up the hills. And I made it.

The temple is a beacon in our lives. This ensign can help us through life’s obstacles, motivate us when we are lost, and inspire us when we need help most. I have always known that, but living it one morning helped re-establish this fact in my heart and life.

The Savior Jesus Christ set a perfect example to encourage and motivate us to follow him. His life and Atonement give us hope in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. Sometimes a detour from our typical planned route seems like a setback when in reality we are being prepared for something much greater. I have always loved CS Lewis’ writing in this regard:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

I am more in tune with my Father in Heaven. I feel more passionately the hope we all have through Jesus Christ. Walking every day has really turned out to be a blessing.

Living in Thanksgiving daily is an invitation to enjoy the abundance all around us.

The Race of Life

The following story is not my writing, but it embodies my commitment to honoring those whose examples inspire, uplift, and sustain us just by reading about them.

During the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, John Stephen Akhwari placed last in the marathon, yet major sports magazines named him as one of two “top international Olympians” that year. While losing the race, Mr. Akhwari won the admiration of untold thousands because he embodied the spirit of a true Olympian as he finished despite setbacks.

Track and field athletes that year faced a common challenge when they arrived in Mexico City: its altitude. At 7,350 feet, it was the highest elevation at which any Summer Olympics had been held. From Mbulu, Tanzania, where the altitude is -3.85 feet, Mr. Akhwari suffered leg cramps early in the race. Yet he continued to run.

He collided with another runner and fell, dislocating and badly cutting a knee and injuring a shoulder. He got up and he continued to run.

By sunset, most of his 56 fellow competitors had finished the race. Wounded and in pain, he continued to run. Most spectators had left the arena where the marathon’s finish line was located.

Those who remained noticed lights flashing on a vehicle escorting a lone runner and cheered as the Tanzanian hobbled along the track in his own victory lap to cross the finish line more than an hour after the winner.

It’s doubted that anyone present realized they were witnessing a great moment in the history of the Olympics. Many journalists and people posting on various media have told the story of Mr. Akhwari’s personal victory. In a New York Times article upon the death of Bud Greenspan in 2010 is this account:

“Mr. Greenspan, an eight-time Emmy Award winner, often distilled his view of the Olympics into an incident from the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City. He was shooting the marathon, which was won by an Ethiopian, Mamo Wolde.

“But what mesmerized him was John Stephen Akhwari of Tanzania. … When Mr. Greenspan asked him why he continued to the end, Mr. Akhwari was incredulous at such a question. ‘My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race,’ Mr. Greenspan often recalled him saying. ‘My country sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race’” (Richard Sandomir, www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/sports/olympics/26greenspan.html)

Finishing the Race (read more here)

We have all been sent to earth to complete a mission. Though challenges and obstacles engage all of us, enduring to the end is our call.

With faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are never alone.