President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "...our lives must become a meaningful expression" and that means we really have to take stock of our lives and see what is crippling us from having the fullness of joy we are entitled to being sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Everyone has something that cripples them and we ourselves must acknowledge that before spiritual medicine can be properly administered to us. For Christ will minister to those who seek healing and resolution and take the courage to admit it to themselves and to heaven's ears.
President Hinckley also said that, "as His followers, we cannot do a mean or ungracious thing without tarnishing His image" and that means that we dishonor Christ's atonement by letting ourselves remain crippled by our burdens simply because we are afraid of freedom. Fear of freedom comes from growing so used to suffering that it becomes a lifestyle with nothing else presenting as appealing. A life of fear is but a half-life and there is nothing to be gained by subsisting in survival.
In the days of Christ's earthly ministry, there was a woman with an issue of blood for 12 years who reached out and touched His robe and was henceforth healed. She was fearful at being discovered for her act because society had drilled a sense of worthlessness into her that she wore like a backpack, but the Savior invited her to go forward and make the most of her freedom, for she had spent time in a prison of suffering that was not of her making, but one made from life's harsh nature.
My thought concerning this issue of blood is that the woman was crippled by the issue that physically pained and drained her; it was otherwise known as menstruation and that can be a painful, emotionally draining process for all those because it involves change and blood loss and it can certainly debilitate normally steady emotions. The woman burdened by this issue was also crippled by the isolation brought on by the demands of society that was equally crippled and controlled by fear and indifference of anything associated with pain. This indifference kept the woman isolated from society and so she suffered from deprivation of love.
This suffering soul had the courage to reach out and seek compassion based on what she could see others receiving from the Savior. Christ responded with surprise at her feelings of fear and sense that she was not worthy of love by giving what she needed. He responded by giving her peace and praise and shared that even if you suffer and are crippled by life and choices, He still loves us and we will always be precious to Him.
Indifference is such a terrible disease based on social standards constructed by fear and that is why the devil loves it. The devil feeds on fear and uses it to shake faith as he did to trigger the catalyst that was the war in heaven. I am sure everyone was originally excited about the chance to come to Earth and live, but Lucifer saw that a new day was coming where he could not possibly resign himself to happiness under a reign that was not his own. His weakness was his inability and unwillingness to see that he didn’t always have to be in control to be happy and so he created chaos and fear simply to have control over something.
We don’t always have to control what we cannot in order to be happy; in fact, misery is our constant companion should we try because then we lose sight of what joy can be found. We can control how we feel and react and if we keep our reactions consistently level, we open ourselves to being able to feel the warmth and compassion by others who want to help, such as Christ. When we open ourselves to receiving love, we gradually become eager to give love and lose ourselves in living as we love and loving life as it is. Loving life as it is helps us to continually strive to make the most of what we have when we have it.
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