On a runners journey to greatness, there are often bumps in the road known as injuries. But needless to say it is almost guaranteed for us runners to run into these road bumps. Yuck! Even writing about them reminds me of the countless hours spent in physical therapy and down in the basement of my high school icing my shins and foot. I would be so heart broken that my progress and training had gone to naught because a simple hurt foot. I found out shortly that tears could not heal the injured tendons in my foot and shin. I felt like i had been cheated by some one who should have been there for me when injury was about to emerge. (My coach, myslef, even my father in heaven)
That's where the story of the Currant Bush comes to mind.........
Elder Hugh B. Brown gave a talk in the 1973 issue of the Ensign titled The Currant Bush
I was living up in Canada. I had purchased a farm. It was run-down. I went out one morning and saw a currant bush. It had grown up over six feet high. It was going all to wood. There were no blossoms and no currants. I was raised on a fruit farm in Salt Lake before we went to Canada, and I knew what ought to happen to that currant bush. So I got some pruning shears and clipped it back until there was nothing left but stumps. It was just coming daylight, and I thought I saw on top of each of these little stumps what appeared to be a tear, and I thought the currant bush was crying. I was kind of simpleminded (and I haven’t entirely gotten over it), and I looked at it and smiled and said, “What are you crying about?” You know, I thought I heard that currant bush say this:
“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as big as the shade tree and the fruit tree that are inside the fence, and now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me because I didn’t make what I should have made. How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”
That’s what I thought I heard the currant bush say, and I thought it so much that I answered. I said, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down. Thank you, Mr. Gardener.’”
I think i may know how that little currant bush felt like. I would often ask my self very bitterly....
"Why did this happen to me! I was making such wonderful progress. I was almost as good as the other runners around me and this injury has slowed me down! Every runner in the state will look down on me because I cant run as fast as them! I thought you were a runner here?"
In one of the most real ways that heavenly father has made himself known to me is through this talk, an answered prayer.....
"Look Austin, I know what i want you to be. I didn't intend you to be a national champion, or a state champion. I want you to be Austin .......... and some day Austin, when you are laden with tons of accomplishments and wonderful memories you will say thank you, for loving me enough to cut me down."
Its my testimony to you that i know that God is in our lives and that he knows what is best for us. Though we may not understand why he does what he does, he does it because he loves us. Never in my life had a felt so much love from my heavenly father when i was injured and at a low point in life
. I never went on to be a nationally ranked runner, or even a state champ, but i have thousands of memories on running in high school and loving every second of it.
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