Day 3: Tune My Heart To Sing

Day 3 MoTab Tour – Wednesday 20 June, 2018

The palm trees were swaying in the breeze and the blue strip of ocean was sparkling in the distance, but I lay in my bed sobbing.

After sleeping in I had checked in on my social media feeds and decided to catch up on current events. I read horrific details about the border crises, and I listened in agony to the pleading voices of the children being subjected to their worst possible nightmare, ripped away from their mommies and daddies. Frantic, and inconsolable.

I was rendered physically ill and incapable of getting up, eating anything, or facing the day. I was, and remain, bereft and broken thinking of all the precious children who are being forced by MY NATION to suffer irreperable harm, and entire families to be broken. What kind of monsters have we become?

And the heavy burden of all this unspeakable evil is now resting on all of us. On me!

“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

– Jesus

These little ones desperately need to be rescued and returned to the loving arms of their parents. Right now! Every moment that passes is another agonizing moment too long causing catastophic trauma.

My heart is completely shattered.

So, how dare I feel any joy? How can I possibly go about my life as “normal”, enjoying this tour while knowing all those babies, toddlers, youth and their families are suffering so much agony?

I laid in bed and watched the palm trees sway and the blue ocean sparkle and I prayed – I BEGGED God to help all of these families and to forgive me for being just another white American born with an undeserved life of comfort and ease. Who am I?

In the midst of this major human crises, how could I possibly in good conscience dress up, smile, and go sing a big concert in such a beautiful place of privledge and ease?

My mind recalled the many talks of President Monson teaching us to serve and “rescue” our fellow human beings.

“The world is in need of your help. There are feet to steady, hands to grasp, minds to encourage, hearts to inspire, and souls to save…Yours is the privilege to be not spectators but participants on the stage of service.”

– Thomas S. Monson

This was my personal answer. Plain and simple. My calling is not to just be a “spectator” in life, but an active PARTICIPANT in making the world better. We all have a “stage” for serving – and it is custom designed each day by our Father in Heaven. I longed to go physically gather up babes in my arms p, wipe tgeir eyesm kiss their cheeks and carry them to the desperate loving arms of their parents. My whole heart was with those children. But, my “stage for serving” on Wednesday night was a different assignment. It was a literal stage inside the magnificent Disney Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

I’ve had to put my whole trust in God that somehow my offering on this night has been used for His purposes to rescue, save and heal at least one of His precious children.

“May my prayers find access to Thee…lost in wonder, love and Grace.”

The concert at Disney Hall was especially sacred for me. I felt God’s Spirit around and within me. My aching heart is poured out in prayer that each of us will be in tune to how God needs a to serve Him. And an extra portion goes to those who are serving and advocating for the most helpless and vulnerable. – MoSop

Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above;

Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I come,

And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God.

He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

O to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be!

Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

Seal it for thy courts above.