Stories from Conference
From a fellow whose name I didn’t catch on Saturday morning (Captcher?) — the Jonah-esque story about the Nigerian stake president who tried to escape his calling by going on a trip, only to have the conference rescheduled and a near-fatal accident.
Saturday afternoon, another speaker whose name I didn’t catch, right before Elder Gong — the story about being worried about all the good things in his life he might lose if he went on a mission but he did. “And that young woman, she married one of my good friends.”
Sunday morning, Ringwood — the story about the guy awkwardly bearing his testimony of Joseph Smith at an evangelical revival because he didn’t realize he was in the wrong church. And rescuing someone else there because of it. I’d like to think that my great many awkward acts and bumbles were actually part of some divine mercy to someone else who was around.
These stories all make me think that the divinity has a sense of humor, and not of the particularly safe kind either.
Annie
April 4, 2022
“divinity has a sense of humor, and not of the particularly safe kind either.” I like that, and it reminds me of this thought that occasionally passes through my foggy brain: We mortals take such an avid and intense interest in extending our own earthly lives. It’s hard to understand from our point of view that God has an entirely different and much longer perspective.
WJT
April 4, 2022
Weird synchronicity: Last night I read an old Times of Israel
story “reminiscent of Biblical Jonah” — about a lobster diver who had survived being swallowed and spit out by a humpback whale. The next day I check this blog and find a reference to a modern-day “Jonah-esque story.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/humpback-whale-swallows-diver-whole-then-spits-him-out/amp/
G.
April 5, 2022
Jonah references are not a dime a dozen. I go months without seeing one.