Watch Divine Love 2019
Mohammed Faerber
Just as how naturally occurring water runs forcefully or peacefully through a valley. How awesome is it to be blessed with sight or the opportunity to feel or even hear these running waters? How divine is it to majestically witness the grandeur of this naturally occurring experience? An experience that not only offers itself to us as human beings in its wondrous display, but somehow it also simultaneously works to be in symbiotic union with everything in its environment. How lucky, how fortunate, it is for the grass, trees, animals, and sea creatures to somehow seamlessly meet the water that runs through the valley, staged at times with peaks that softly penetrate the bluest of skies. How harmonious is the perfect pitch that is not orchestrated by our most superior, talented, and gifted beings in all parts of the Earth? It is a musical recital that none of us conduct though it instantly reminds and forces us to reckon with our Highest Power, a power that innately feels omnipotent in all things.
Again, both of my grandmas were born in 1927. They had different birth origins though similar livelihoods within a culture of oppressive systems, love for the Earth and being in harmony with the land, and tremendous faith in God, which guided their hearts, minds, and spirits as they stepped out on faith for their selves and our family.
Though titled differently and sung with different harmonies and melodies, both mirrored the same message giving all honor to God in recognition that there is nobody greater than God. Both songs offered inspiration and personal testimony to their life stories and how they choose to preserve through life with God.
An experience that could be viewed celestially in the manner that the stars aligned when the union of our families divinely occurred. A union where their rich histories of faith, challenges, triumph, and love taught us, guided, and showered all of us with wisdom. They have offered so many life lessons that I will always cherish, and they will serve as a guide in countless ways: what a loving gift, a priceless and lovingly rich gift.
It is an experience that subjects and objects the marginalized while others implicitly or forcefully turn their gaze, choosing not to acknowledge or cultivate these differences. The tireless web of these intersecting socio-cultural factors can be endless if we consider nationalistic, political, racial, economic, gender, sexuality, faith, and spiritual variables that we all embody. Despite these differences, there is already a naturally occurring remedy within us if we are willing to connect the source to unify and support all.
It would be marvelous if we all unified through love and extend love to one another. The action of love is by seeing, hearing, acknowledging, and supporting others with love. The love of letting pride, fear, inhibitions, anxieties intentionally stop for the incomparable gain of love. Betting, taking the risk to choose and operate in love because of the lovingly gains. God has freely given us love, so who are we not to freely offer the same love compassionately to others?
We all witness the kind of naturally occurring love as the river flows through the valley, carefully hugging each part of the river bend and effortlessly working in harmony. This is the form of love I believe can be healing and transformative in our society and our world.
Lessons from my paternal grandmother the lessons from a dollar bill. Every Sunday, she always pushed a dollar in my hand with guidance to place it on the collection plate at our church. It was a wealthy lesson that taught me that even with a dollar, it could be stretched to support so many when we collectively do our part in the service of others.
There is no coincidence that love is already a remedying gift within us. Love is a mutual experience. Are you willing to offer the love that is already innate within you to others as well? God is love and God lives in all of us which is not a coincidence and should prompt us to recognize divine love within us and extend it to others.
I am grateful for the opportunity to share my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His true Church with you today. I am grateful for Joseph Smith for listening to the Holy Ghost, praying to know the truth, and being an instrument in restoring the Church of Jesus Christ. Because of his act and love of God and Jesus Christ, my family and I are blessed with the knowledge and testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel.
Love is something we are born with. It is a divine character to love and divine desire to be loved. This divine love moves Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to do all they have done, do, and will do for us. They are love. It is this divine love that we respond to, be motivated, and be moved.
It took three deaths and a birth for the gospel to be introduced to my family. In November 1972, my maternal great-grandmother passed away. Exactly one year later, in November 1973, my maternal grandfather passed away. In January 1974, I was born. In February 1974, eight days after my birth, my dad passed away. My mom lost three people she loved in less than two years.
My aunt saw many miracles during the trip. For example, she had to go to an island, Ulleungdo, to see relatives there. It was an 11-hour boat ride, and she always had seasickness on a boat, so she was very worried. 30 minutes into the ride, she was so miserable. Then she passed out. She passed out for 11 hours. The sound of the arrival horn woke her up. On the way back, she thought she would get smart and take motion sickness medicine. As soon as she boarded, she took the medicine. If you know motion sickness medicine, she should have taken it 30 minutes before boarding, not when she boarded. Learning that she would soon feel very miserable, she got worried. Then, a man approached her and led her to a room with bunk beds. Her ticket did not include a bed. However, the man told her she could use any bed she wanted and there was no need to pay. She picked one bed, and soon passed out for another 11 hours. It was the mercy of God in a mysterious way that she passed out and had a peaceful journey.
After the Seoul Korea Temple was dedicated, my mom worked as an ordinance worker every Friday after work. My grandma attended the temple every Thursday after attending the institute. My grandma continued attending the temple as often as her body allowed her until she passed away at age 100.
Ordinances are literally done in temples all around the world. Many members in the Laie North Stake have been doing the temple work of my family names. I sincerely thank you. I now have a better understanding of why the number of temples is increasing so fast. It is amazing, humbling, and terrifying at the same time to see how fast ordinances are done in temples all around the world. There is power in teamwork. The power of God that moves things and people for His work to be done is beyond imagination and is awe-striking. I am utterly nothing, less than dirt, in the presence of His power. What my family and I do to gather and submit names is the least we can do.
Then, in my head, not physically, but like a vision, I saw a bright light on the right side of my head and heard a clear yet gentle voice saying, "I love you." Those simple words caught me off guard. I did not understand what it meant. What does that have to do with me in this situation right now? Then I heard it again, but this time I heard, "I love you. I want you to be happy." I knew, then, precisely what that meant. Everything made sense. All the so-called failures and rejections were not God tormenting me, but it was me tormenting myself and misunderstanding Him, who is a loving Father in Heaven. He only wants me to be happy. Instead of giving me a fancy job somewhere, He gave me an understanding of His love and divine identity as a daughter of God. It was another time of perspective shift.
I know Heavenly Father lives and loves us. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church with the fullness of the gospel and with the power of the priesthood. I know the Book of Mormon is the true word of God. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I didn\u2019t have a strong reason for visiting Norwich, England, last October. The medieval city is often overshadowed on tourists\u2019 itineraries by charming places like Oxford and Brighton. But I wanted a short getaway before beginning a master\u2019s program at the University of Cambridge, and Norwich was nearby and seemed interesting enough.
The first place I visited was the church of St. Julian, a modest pebble in comparison to the mountainous Norwich Cathedral. Unlike the other churches dotting the city center that boasted towering spires, intimidating stone, and intricate ceiling carvings, the church of St. Julian was unassuming. In a word, it was quaint: cobblestone walls beneath neat rows of shingles, sloping predictably in an inverted \u201CV,\u201D and small windows of unstained glass.
Inside, I found a small chapel with a capacity for maybe fifty people, plain white walls, and an altar draped in forest-green velvet. On a table near the entrance was a stack of paper, hand-cut into strips not unlike the quotes I\u2019m sometimes asked to read aloud in Relief Society. I took one, reading the following:
In this vision he showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, and it was round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought, \u201CWhat may this be?\u201D And it was generally answered thus: \u201CIt is all that is made.\u201D I marveled how it might last, for it seemed it might suddenly have sunk into nothing because of its littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: \u201CIt lasts and ever shall, because God loves it.\u201D
The words were attributed to Julian of Norwich, a fourteenth-century mystic and anchoress at the church of St. Julian. Her real name is unknown, so she is typically referred to by the church\u2019s name. As an anchoress, she lived a portion of her life (at least twenty-two years, according to scattered surviving sources) \u201Canchored\u201D to the church in prayerful solitude. She lived in a small cell attached to the nave, from which she never emerged\u2014although a tiny window about the size of a mail slot allowed her to watch mass and receive the eucharist. A servant would have brought her food each day. Perhaps in her cell there was a window to the outside world where she received visitors.
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