In the Dark of the Night

Have you ever heard that song?  You know, the one from Anastasia?  Rasputin is the star singer? Anyway, it's funny and the actual song has nothing to do with what I am writing about but the title remains fitting.

There are a few --  just a few -- examples of heroes in what members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints declare as scripture that act during the late evening.  OK, so I am sure there are other examples too in the scriptures that I won't highlight right now but here are a few I find fascinating:

1. The Savior prays late into the night the evening of his capture prior to his trial and crucifixion.  He invites other heroes to join him in acting  late into the night through prayer - but they fall short and fall asleep. 
2. Teancum "steals privily" into the tent of an enemy during the midnight hour to end -- or at least postpone -- an invading army from breaching home lands.  Everyone in his own army is asleep and everyone in the invading army is also asleep when this act occurs.  He did this at the end of a long day of brutal physical combat.  I can only imagine how tired he must have been. 
3. Captain Moroni goes to examine enemy movements in a fallen city once the night falls.  Still during the night, after a long march his own troops made, he require that they build ladders and cords and to sneak into the enemy infiltrated city while they sleep.  When the enemy awoke, they were so scared, they all ran away, and Moroni recaptured the city without a single person in his army dying.  

 I wanted to share a little story from someone who gets it.  Someone who would do something just like those heroes mentioned above. Let me give you one example from his life that illustrates this. Lets call him Jerry.   I was driving home with him one night.  It was late at night and I had an early class the next morning.  I was exhausted from the day's efforts.  Jerry told me he needed some help jumping his friend's car.  She had left it in a nearby town after the battery died when she was getting gas on her way to work that morning.  I told him I needed to go home but that  I would help him if he could get the keys from this girl right then and we could go right away.  He tried to reach her, and found out she was busy spending time with some family because they had just had a death in the family. The poor girl must have had one heck of a day.  They were about an hour drive away.  Jerry took me home and he told me he would just wake up in the morning and go jump the car.  

However, the next morning I found out after Jerry dropped me, he waited for a few more hours till he could obtain the girls keys and then he and another friend went out suuuuper late at night/morning to get the car back in working order.  

Now, I was exhausted that day.  I could hardly face going to help her if we even had the keys around midnight.  But lets think about Jerry.  And also his friend?? What in the world.  What saints, right?  Waiting up, getting the work done that needed to be done in a timely fashion.  They are heroes.  Exhausted, stressed, also needing to wake up early, but they still got it done.  The next morning the girl was so grateful. She didn't know how she was going to get to work that morning and I am sure she couldn't face figuring it out that night before she went to bed after spending a long time with her grieving family members.  

The world is filled with a lot of good. I want everyone to realize that.  Bad things happen, people make bad choices sure, but the world is FILLED WITH GOOD.  It's about time you open your eyes to see it.  And if you can't do that then open your heart and DO IT yourself.