Easter Thoughts

Maybe some of you can understand the feeling, but sometimes it is easy for me to go careening down Worry Road. Have you been on it? It's the one where your husband is 15 minutes late getting home from work and you have him mentally dead and buried by the time he walks in the door. Or when you leave your family to go for a drive 1/2 hour away, and you spend the entire time wondering if that was the last time you'll see your kids in this life. Maybe I'm revealing too much about my own paranoias. I don't know.

But a few years ago, I was on one of those aforementioned 1/2 hour drives and I had an epiphany. I was spending all my time on the Worry Road surrounding death, but Jesus has already given me a toll-free bridge off that road. "Death is conquered. Man is free. Christ has won that victory." I realized that if I was going to spend time and energy worrying about anything, it needed to be in evaluating my relationship with my Savior, and considering my own personal sin and repentance. The only obstacle I need to worry about is my unrepented sin. The rest is a gimmee.

I love how in the Book of Mormon, when the resurrected Savior comes to visit the people, they each go up one by one to "see with their eyes and feel with their hands" that it was the long-awaited Messiah. And after they knew personally, they all cried, "Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Most High God!" and they fell at his feet to worship him. (3 Nephi 11:15-17) It was so meaningful for me to learn that "Hosannah!" means "Save now!" When I think of this passage I think of how the people, once they had seen and known what their Jesus had done for them, they were filled with humility and gratitude, and pleaded as they considered their sins, "Save me. Please. Save me now. Don't wait. I need you now." Sometimes I feel that same way. When I start traveling down my old Worry Road, it reminds me to consider whether I currently feel that love and gratitude for my Savior, and feel the urgency to have him make me right before God, in this moment.

I am thankful for my Savior, who saves me unconditionally from death, and longs to save me from my sin, upon condition of my repentance. Here's also a link to the First Presidency Easter Message , in case you missed it. Happy Easter!