How did this happend?

 I was writing a long email to Fredy Martinez that had taking me two hours to write explaining some things relating to the home he manages for me in Salt Lake when all of the sudden I somehow deleted the whole thing! and of course there was no way of getting any of it back. I erased it before I had saved my work. After hours of hard work I yelled out " How did this happen?!?!”  Arggghhhh!!! So frustrating, right!?!

At that moment I knew I had a few points I needed to discuss and couldn't wait for the next day– it was time to consider the all-important question of, “How did this  happen?!?!”

Every single one of us has days where all we can do is yell out, “Why and how did this have to happen?!?” It could be when a business fails after years of hard work, or when a test score comes back with an D after weeks of studying for it, or when a girl or boy turns you down when you ask them out on a date, or when a spouse does something stupid (which we all know happens pretty much daily in a marriage), or when the meal we spent hours preparing burns, or when the tire on our car is flat, or when we get stopped at every stop light when we are late to get somewhere, or when we lose a loved one…

Sometimes we have laid out the most perfect plan and then something really insignificant and unnecessary messes it all up…so why did it have to happen?  That’s the question isn’t it…

I don’t have the answer to that question tonight and much of the time we don’t get the answer to that question until maybe years later when we look back and go “Oooohhhhhhh, now I get it.”  Yet there will be other times when an answer never comes, even after year of time have passed. Sometimes we may never find out why.

But what I do know is this: For the things that really matter in life I believe the answer to that question is one of two things depending on the circumstances surrounding the question – I believe it is either, “It happened because of something we did that we have to learn from” or “It happened because it was for our best good.” I truly believe that. I admit that at times I hate that I believe it because it ticks me off just a little that I can’t just have things go the way that I think would be easiest, but the fact is that I do believe it with all my heart.

So tonight when my powerpoint presentation crashed and lost my work it was either because I was dumb and forgot to save my work in progress, or it was God’s way of getting me to change something about my presentation. And maybe it was a little of both…who knows…all I know is it happened for a reason so now I need to get over it and get back to work and move forward with getting it redone. And that approach will be a heck of a lot better than sitting around whining about it and playing “poor me” for the next hour, because “poor me” ain’t gonna produce a new presentation, so “get over it me” will have to step up and do it instead.

Early that morning I went to work in the temple. Being there every week helps me to not worry too much on why things happen the way they do. It has helped me have peace and truly trust Who is in charge. One of the things that I will miss when I move is having the temple next door.