Tanner Lund
I’m reading a trash novel right now. The Hero leads a band of faceless peasants through hordes and hordes of orcs/zombies/monsters, hack, hack, slash. Sometimes the peasants die. But sometimes a light turns on within, they become endowed with power, and they also become heroes, with names and character and participation in the story.
Your trash novel, the Spirit whispers, is truer to life than great novels.
Brigham Young:
that act alone will ensure C. Allen Huntington, George W. Grant, and David P. Kimball an everlasting salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of God, worlds without end.
So let us now speak of Tanner Lund.
Until a few days ago I didn’t know Tanner Lund. Now I feel I do. It is no small thing for a boy to overcome the world.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/general-conference/2020/10/media/6197205757001?lang=eng
He overcame it bald-headed, shuffling, leaning on a pew. Boylike, probably his shirt was badly tucked in. In such a fashion was he armed and armored when he overcame the world.
Suffer the Tanner Lunds to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Let us pray for him. Let us pray for his family left behind. Let us pray for ourselves. Should we not like to be fit for such exalted company?
The Hero shuffles down the aisle, the Spirit whispers. You, my peasant, have been endowed with power. Should you not like to be a hero too?
Other Posts from the October 2020 General Conference
Marilyn Nielson Unity, trials, and “redoubling”
Annie
October 6, 2020
Tanner Lund truly was (is) a devoted, courageous, beautiful soul.
E.C.
October 6, 2020
I think that sometimes, in some moments, people become for that fleeting span of time what they were always meant to be. And then a Light shines through them, and we see things as they really are.
I’ve been reading “The Place of the Lion”, by Charles Williams, and one of those moments just happened. And then you reminded me of the story of Tanner Lund, and it was comfort to think that such a moment might happen in real life.
William James Tychonievich
October 6, 2020
Anyone care to provide Cliff’s notes for us videophobes? What did Mr. Lund do, and why is he a hero?
the_archduke
October 7, 2020
While dying of cancer, the boy chose to keep going to church so he could pass the sacrament. He had noticed that his example was helping others.
Bookslinger
October 7, 2020
WJT: text here:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/10/23lund?lang=eng
Ralph Waldo Emerson
October 7, 2020
Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well — he has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun.
William James Tychonievich
October 7, 2020
Thank you, Archduke and Bookslinger. That is indeed an inspiring story — and the context in which it was told gives it added poignancy.
Pneumonia — ventilator — those words were not mentioned by accident, or in ignorance of what they mean in 2020. (Pneumonia is not central to the cancer story and is not mentioned in Tanner’s 7-paragraph Deseret News obituary.) And Tanner went to church anyway because it helps people, and because some things are (or used to be) more important than physical health.
Tanner Lund died 22 years ago. Can anyone doubt that it was by inspiration or providence that his father chose to tell the story now, in 2020, as a rebuke to the Church, and to every church?
Praying for Blessings I Already Have – Nauvoo Neighbor
October 12, 2020
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