Friends In Low Places

I’ve often looked back on my life and thought about why certain people entered it when they did.  One of my favorite stories goes something like this:

“A man looks back along the beach of his life and for most of it he sees two sets of footprints, his and the Savior’s, but as he looks more closely at the sand he notices that the places in his life where he felt he was carrying the most weight there was only one deep set of prints.  The man, angry and confused, turns to the Savior and says ‘The times in my life when I needed you by my side the most you left me.’  Our patient and loving Savior turned to the man and said ‘The places where there are only one set of footprints are the times when I carried you.’”

This ties in closely with another story that has been on my mind recently:

“One day a very old man went to a beach covered in starfish.  As he looked out across the beach, and his heart filled with sorrow for all of the dying creatures, he saw a young boy pick up a starfish and throw it into the waves.  He approached the boy and said ‘There are miles of beach and thousands of starfish.  You can’t possibly make a difference.’  The boy thought for a second, picked up a single starfish and threw it into the water.  He turned to the old man and said ‘I made a difference to that one.’”

I know that these are two of the most overused stories, but I want to take a look at them from a different point of view.  When I look back at my life I see so many places where I was low, carrying so much sadness and anger that I thought I could just collapse, and then someone came into my life and taught me how to be happy again.  I’ve had three knee surgeries and each time I have had a special friend who carried my heart through the pain and loneliness until I could walk again.  I have had periods of spiritual stagnation and then I have had friends show me a new way to look at God.  I have had times where I feel low and filled with darkness and then I see the light of my friend’s candle burning in their window and find a way to raise myself back to joy.

Everyone goes through these periods of grief, pain, and darkness.  It is these times that we feel so utterly alone.  It is this pain that allows the Savior to carry us via the mortal angels who walk among us each day.  He sends a new friend for us to meet, or allows us to meet our old friends again.  These people are our crutches even if they never know it.

I think of all the hundreds of people I see every day and realize how many people there actually are in the world and I feel like a starfish on the beach.  Then a friend, who also sees the billions of other starfish on the beach takes the 3 seconds out of their life to smile at me, or send me a message that simply says “thinking of you” and I feel the difference they’ve made to me.

I see all of these things and try to live my life in a way that if Christ needs me to carry someone else I have the strength in my back to do so.  And if he calls on me to pick up a starfish I do it with love for that person.  I smile at strangers not knowing who needs my grin.  I write not knowing who needs my words.  I love not knowing who is missing love from somewhere else.  I point out the beauty of the world hoping that someone else can see the world as I see it.  I laugh praying that my mirth is infectious.  I do these things so that in my moments of weakness I can see someone else doing these things and I can be happy.