to glenn beck.

for some time now, i have been mentally writing an email to my friend, Glenn Beck.

i love that recovering alcoholic, passionate, Mormon, talk show host.

he's half crazy-- but you have to be half crazy to really make a difference in the world.

i can't listen to his show often-- both because of the business of my life and the heaviness of his message.

he is often talking about the end of the world-- the hard things that we are in for.

and, i do believe he is right.

although i don't like thinking about it.

he once described our future as hurricane-Katrina like chaos.

he said, it doesn't have to be a hurricane that will hurt us, it will be the absolute bedlam that follows the hurricane.

the anger, the confusion, the disorder.

that image has stuck in my mind.

i do think we need to be prepared.

to learn skills, to be wise with resources we have now, because some day we may not have those resources.

i often wonder what things my pioneer ancestors would buy today if they were here and they had my resources.

i don't think they would buy $5 wal-mart shoes.

i think they would buy sturdy, leather doc martin type shoes.

anyway... that's not what i would write to my friend Glenn.

i would write this.

Dear Brother Beck,

Thank you for seeing the evil so that i can listen to you and know it is there.

Thank you for living what you believe... for not only preparing your family, but for helping me prepare mine.

sometimes, from watching political debates and listening to talk radio, i find myself in a valley of hopelessness.

i see the mess of our country and i doubt it will every get better.

i often think politics are like soap operas.

i often feel that our country is just spiraling downward into a toilet bowl of immorality, greed and deceit.

i think if i struggle to remain hopeful, it must be even worse for you.

i was reading the other morning and this thought hit me so strongly.

we are fighting a war-- a war of good verse evil.

this is a war that we fought before-- in the pre-existence (Rev. 12:7-12).

and, we WON it then.

we won then... and we will win again.

it's like we're in the playoffs- playing a team we already beat.
in fact, we doubled their score.

yes, it's a tough game... but not a hopeless game.

i believe that long ago many of us spoke out for the Savior and His plan.

we were heard and we led and many followed. 

we will be heard again. we will crush his head

we will win.

many who are not Mormon might not believe in the pre-existence.

ok.

i still think everyone understands that GOOD is STRONGER than evil.

light is stronger than darkness.

and, just fyi... i'm not talking about republicans vs democrats.

i'm talking about liberty vs. captivity.

morality vs. immorality.

love vs. hate.

peace vs. war.

good vs. evil. 

it transcends politics.

yes, Nazi's did rise to power.

but they were eventually defeated-- by us.

Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt.

the walls of Jericho tumbled down.

Christ was resurrected.

the colonists WON.  seriously? against a powerful monarchy!

the slaves were FREED.

the iron curtain fell.

and we will continue to choose freedom and liberty.

we will win again!

we've played this team before.

we whipped them.

we'll do it again.

i have hope.

you probably already know this, better than i do.

but, i needed to remind myself.

“The FUTURE of this world has long been DECLARED; the final outcome between GOOD and evil is already KNOWN. There is absolutely no question as to who WINS because the VICTORY has already been posted on the SCOREBOARD. The only really strange thing is all of this is that we are still down here on the FIELD trying to decide which TEAM’S JERSEY we want to wear!” 
― Jeffrey R. Holland

Carry on with hope brother beck!

the banner still waves!!
and, we've got this one!