Look to the Light

My dear friends,
   I wish I could just reach out right now and hold each one of you in my arms. I wish I could sing you to sleep or say something that could particularly touch your soul. I wish I could lead you or follow you. I wish I could know you. But I can't. So I will do what I can.
    I feel like Satan is pushing us more and more by the day. And it isn't just the temptations of "go steal that candy bar" or "go yell at your little brother". No. They are temptations far more internal and far harder to detect.
     Inadequacy is one of Satan's greatest tools. He loves that tool. He carries it in his little chain-link belt and sleeps with it on his pillow...if he sleeps. Why? Why does he love that tool so much?
     Because he is inadequate. Have you ever noticed that when you feel down on yourself, you want everyone else to feel miserable too? You judge them and you want everyone to walk around with a little rain cloud over their head, just like you are. Satan is that way. He is misery and he loves company. In fact, company is what gives him his "power". The more people he can persuade to feel inadequate, hurt, alone, or pointless, the more "power" he gains. It's rather pathetic, but it is true to the core.
     My friends, I cannot say 2013 was easy. I saw a lot of people fall. I saw them fall to drugs, to immorality, to depression, to inadequacy. I even frightfully saw myself fall. Satan loves to keep you company when you are face-down on the floor. He loves to pin you down and sit there with you, basking in the misery that radiates from your life and his life. He is a sick twisted being.
       In the moments that you fall, it feels like he has all power. It feels like he has biceps the size of basketballs and is pinning you to the cold hard snow. It feels like you'll never escape. But I have a secret for you.
     Even in the moments when Satan has you in a death-hold, you are stronger than him. Thousands of times stronger than him. Why? Because you are something that he gave up. You are a child of God. And that title is more than just a name. It is a power. Satan may dress up in an inflatable sumo suit and parade around with nerf gun, but you have true power. However, all too often we feel the pressure of his inflatable muscles against our skin and feel like struggling is pointless. From our position on the ground, we can only see the hard-packed snow and ice and feel his "muscles".
We would never guess they are inflatables.
    My friends, the only way you can overcome the devil is by looking up. When you look up, you will see your captor in all his weak, inflatable junkiness. You will see a puny, heartless creature - a creature that you were misled by to think that he was all powerful and so strong. You will see his true form, his inadequacy, his weakness.
     Look up. Look up and see his weakness. See the being who has you pinned and ask yourself why you are letting a sponge pin down a mountain, why a plastic bottle is keeping the sea from rising. And look to Christ. Look up and see the god who died for you. And feel His strength surround you. And stand. And kick Satan's inflatable sumo suit bottom and watch him roll away.
    My friends, you have that power. You just have to look up. And that takes prayer. And that takes fasting and scripture study. And that takes hope and trust and humility. Trust Christ enough to look up. And love yourself enough to move away from your pathetic captor. Serve others. Attend the temple. If you don't have a recommend, get worthy and get one. Cast aside your pride and your mindless passions and embrace others, yourself, and Christ.
Once you look to the light, who is the darkness to hold you down?
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
-Julie