It’s dark, well maybe there’s a little light. What is that? Is that a clue? It may be random but hang on to it, it might be important. Thud. I think I just tripped on something. I think my nose is bleeding.
Have you ever played Clue, murder mysteries or an Escape the Room game? We have played Escape the Room games together as a family (Escape from Star Gazers Mansion) and we recently went to a place called Get Out Games where we had an hour to make sense of seemingly small or useless clues.
The Get-out-Game room was poorly lit with no light switch in site. There was a set of golf clubs, a book shelf with some ordinary decorations on it and a computer with a broken monitor. We were placed in this room with two people we knew and three people we didn’t know and given one simple instruction: your first hint will be on the bookshelf.
I felt timid. We were kind of standing around in this dark room half-heartedly turning things over. I found out one of the decorations cost $39.99. I was a little disenchanted by that. This was going to be hard and I was too tired for hard.
Eventually small clues started turning up that we would get excited about. We found a magnet with a chain on it, a magnifying glass, a key, some crumpled papers in the trash can and a locked safe behind a picture frame. But…none of these discoveries gave us the answer we were seeking- only clues. Aggravating, I know. It was work and it was clumsy and it was trial after error and trial after error again and again.
I feel like we are living an escape-the-room game in real-time, clumsily in dim light. But the answers are there. Searching my own escape-room situation, I listened to Elder David A. Bednar talk about how revelation sometimes comes like light turned on in a dark room, but most often it comes ever so gradually like the sun rising at dawn.
I loved the analogy of the sunrise. I can visualize that. Revelation from God comes gently, reliably, perhaps imperceptibly like the suns first rays of dawn. Meanwhile life keeps rolling and we do our best with limited light and understanding. For me that results in tripping and falling, trying and erroring and inevitably, eventually through prayer and effort, stumbling into the clue I need for the next level of light (All the while trying to be patient and not resentful).
By small and simple things are great things brought to pass
Like in the game, sometimes I’m given clues, glimpses that I don’t understand initially. I am coming to be okay with that because I believe that God is good and He loves me. Major cornerstones of my life have been shaped and placed by receiving a small thought or feeling (like- it’s time to move) and then praying about it to understand if it was from God and then asking, what should I do next?
The Everlasting and Almighty God, the Creator of this vast universe, will speak to those who approach Him with a sincere heart and real intent.
He will speak to them in dreams, visions, thoughts, and feelings.
He will speak in a way that is unmistakable and that transcends human experience. He will give them divine direction and answers for their personal lives.
As we’ve been navigating the notion of uprooting our family, we have come up with random clues and certain fear. But, as sure as the sunrise (though I often forget how sure it is) new light comes and new unforeseen doors open.
Whatever the current “escape-the-room” scenario is for you or for me, it is not a mystery to God. He knows we are not lost and He is trying to get us where we ultimately want to go.
Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth
It’s hard. But, good things are happening…and I think there is a hidden door behind the bookcase. Keep the faith!!
Ready or Not 