Mysterious Ways and Marvelous Results

The Lord works in mysterious ways sometimes.

Just when you feel things are going great in your life, you have it down, you know what you are doing, and you are so happy about where you are, the Lord decides to change it up.  Something big throws everything off and you feel like you are starting all over.  You wonder why me, why now, why this?  It does not make sense to you at all.  It makes you reexamine yourself and have to go out of your comfort zone.  You start looking at things in different ways and changing yourself.  IT IS TIME TO LEARN AND GROW, and ultimately become what we are meant to be someday.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson told this story- “ President Hugh B. Brown, formerly a member of the Twelve and a counselor in the First Presidency, provided a personal experience. He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8 m) high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say:

'How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.'

President Brown replied, 'Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, "Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down."’

Years later, President Brown was a field officer in the Canadian Army serving in England. When a superior officer became a battle casualty, President Brown was in line to be promoted to general, and he was summoned to London. But even though he was fully qualified for the promotion, it was denied him because he was a Mormon. The commanding general said in essence, “You deserve the appointment, but I cannot give it to you.” What President Brown had spent 10 years hoping, praying, and preparing for slipped through his fingers in that moment because of blatant discrimination. Continuing his story, President Brown remembered:

'I got on the train and started back … with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. … When I got to my tent, … I threw my cap on the cot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, "How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?" I was as bitter as gall.
And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, "I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do."  The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness...'

'… And now, almost 50 years later, I look up to [God] and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.’

When we feel we are being cut down or changes in our lives make us wonder why we could not continue to be comfortable and grow where we were, we should remember that God sees the whole plan and is helping us to become the best we can be.  He is the gardener and I’m grateful he takes the time to prune me into the best person that I can be."   -"As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten"

In Revelation 3:19 it says

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Sometimes we are like little children who are certain that we know what we are doing and that we are making tremendous growth.  A loving parent will always teach their child what they need to become better, whether the child likes it or not. :)

In Hebrews 12:9-10 it says

 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

See that last line! Heavenly Father only chastens us so that we can partake of his holiness.  He cuts us down so that we will grow into the best thing possible.  It will always be for our own good. 

So next time you go to think "why me, I was doing so good?", instead think about all the possibilities of what you are going to be because the Lord saw fit to direct you into a bigger and better and more exciting path. 

Would you rather follow the plan of God who can see what is coming, or your plan where you can only see what's already happened?  I think I'll put my trust in the one who knows the future, he usually gives me much better things than I tried to plan for myself.