Journal #11: Grace

I feel like a bit of a broken record sometimes in these blog posts because it is hard to identify growth and changes in my research plan, in my goals or in what I have learned enough to be able to put them in writing three times a week. I am lucky if I can write in my personal journal once a week because there is so much going on sometimes that I just cannot justify sitting down to write for an hour so it is a miracle that I can do these posts three times a week. I learn so much every day that it seems impossible to not have a multitude of topics to write about but it is difficult to gather these thoughts into words to put down on a page sometimes. Regardless, my heart was full of longing to reach Africa today. Preparation is exhausting sometimes. But I know I am in for a treat because it doesn't even compare to the exhausting I will feel when I am doing my research.
During Relief Society today the fire alarm went off. My ward has sacrament meeting last so we were only about 30 minutes into church. We did not have the opportunity to finish a beautiful lesson about God's grace and we were instructed to go home and we would be informed if we were going to have sacrament meeting later when the problem was identified and taken care of. As I pondered about the grace of God: how He has sent His son to make up the difference, ALL the difference, I thought about the gap that I can bridge in Ghana. I am in no way comparing myself to our Savior, but the concept got me thinking...Heavenly Father knew that we could not live perfect lives so He sent His son to do that for us and to atone for our sins to give us a gift. A gift that would allow us to return to live with Him. We can choose to accept or decline his gift but it doesn't matter what we choose because either way the work has been done, has been completed. If we try to do the work ourselves or ask the Savior not to do it for us, nothing changes. He has already bridged the gap between us and God. Because of that, we must only be grateful for what he has already done for us and strive to do our best every day to show our gratitude. Now how does this relate to my study? Malaria is not a disease which we deal with often here in the United States and if there is ever a case it is rare. That is not the case in Ghana. Malaria is one of the most fatal diseases in Africa, second only to tuberculosis (some might argue in the case of HIV/AIDS but people die from the compromised immune system and contraction of TB almost 100% of the time, not because of AIDS/HIV alone). People who contract this disease and seek treatment from a doctor or traditional healer are seeking a sort of grace. They cannot heal the disease themselves so thus, they need a mediator, someone or something (antimalarial meds for example) to make up the difference between being healthy and being sick. I of course am not going to be administering treatment nor will I have any direct impact on the health of these individuals but, I will be observing their search for that grace. That saving element to remove the pain they feel from the malaria. I love being able to identify spiritual aspects in my life and apply them to things that will be affecting the way I carry out and view my study. This was definitely one of those moments.