However Long and Hard the Road: Part 1

(This post should have been called however long and hard the blogger may write. For your convenience, I have split the post up into two parts.)

This talk came at a perfect time. And it couldn't have made itself anymore obvious!

My mom handed me this book when we were perusing our home library. I put it on the pile with the other books I've been meaning to read or am currently reading. By pile, I mean one of the many stacks around my abode. 

Although it was just one of many, I was inexplicably drawn to it. My eyes kept finding it, no matter where it was. I would just stare and contemplate the title. 

I've even gone as far as opening it up and reading the flaps. Progress! I know. 

But the flap was all it took. 

"Often in our most difficult times the only thing we can do is endure. We may have no idea what the final cost in suffering or sacrifice may be, but we can vow to never give up. In doing so we will learn that there is no worthy task so great nor burden so heavy that will not yield to our perseverance. We can make it . . . however long and hard the road."

But here's the real kicker.

"All of my professional life has been spent with young people, an universally they (like the rest of us) have needed support, encouragement, reassurance, and confidence. They have, in short, needed hope- that incentive to keep moving, keep trying, and keep believing until hope's sister virtues of faith and charity can also work their miracles."

(Jeffery R Holland, emphasis added)

What. That is what I had been praying about the night before, when I wondered if my on hope was dormant. I thought this was going to be a book for a more mature audience. But there for all to see, it was aimed for me and my fellow generation.

I can't get over how this whole universal orchestration works! All things really do testify that there is a Christ.
Let me explain what I mean. I found an inscription on the inside. This means the book is at least over 27 years old. That's older than me! Before I came into my current 'party' (woo-hoo), BEFORE I WAS EVEN BORN, this man was inspired to say something that would strike me, guide me, and eventually influence me greatly. (I first came across a realization like this when I realized that if my companion, whom was 100% perfect for me and a bag of chips, and I did not have the names we did, we would not have been companions. CRAZY!)

When I asked my mom about the inscription, aka if she was holding out on me with her connections, she wistfully commented on how it's her favorite talk. Talk? It was given at BYU. In another funny serendipitous chain of events, someone found it and put it on Pinterest which eventually made it's way onto my little screen, and into my ears. Why read the talk when you can hear from the horses mouth? Erm, so to speak.

(Don't skip Sis Holland! Her talk is my favorite part.)

45 minutes may seem long, but it's one heck of a fast 45 min.

Nice, isn't it? Reminds you of the Sunday evening film screenings at the MTC, doesn't it? I miss those things. (P.S. I would pay money and a smile for Bednar's Character of Christ talk.) It was inspiring, it was nice. It didn't entirely give me the push I needed. But it gave me enough for the following days. More importantly, it was enough to get me thinking and pondering. At least until However Long and Hard the Road:Part 2!