Hurricane Ike

About eight years ago, I accepted a priesthood assignment to go down to Lake Jackson Texas, south of Houston, and work all day to clean up fallen trees. There were about 400 men from the Austin/Round Rock area that went to that area to help remove trees from the local residents yards. Many areas did not have power. There were over 500 men from Mormon Helping Hands as well as other volunteers, along with probably around 100 chainsaws in use all day.

I was put in charge of a group of nine people; we worked at four houses and cleared out around 10 fallen trees and major limbs, half of which were larger than my arm span in diameter. One had fallen against a house and damaged the roof. My group worked from about 10 - 5:30, or so, and it was a major success.

At church the next day several people who had gone down were surprisingly not sore. My reaction was that they did not have enough faith - they didn't work hard enough. But then I realized that the opposite is more likely the case. The people that were physically prepared to help were not as sore because their muscles were in a state ready to work without the repercussions of the weak like me.

When we talk about being prepared, this requires that we are healthy. If we are not healthy we cannot bless the lives of those around us in all the ways that we would otherwise be able to. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I am commanded to be prepared to bless the lives of others. I am a child of Abraham and Israel. We are to bless the people of the whole earth in all ways, not just spiritually.