Begging is our only wisdom

Halfway down the canyon, I realized we hadn't brought our swimming suits with us for Island Park. Since my suits are at least five years old , some with visible holes, I figured we may as well just buy new ones. In the mens department, sizes were easy to find and the selection was good. Steve tried on five in ten minutes and found one he liked. In the womens department, finding the sizes was a joke. Instead of having all size X together, the suits were on a dozen racks based on style, with no divders between sizes. You read the tag (no size), unclipped the tops so you could find an inner tag (sometimes a size), and finally held it up to guess at the size. YUCK! Dillards is a huge store with zero people shopping, and still no one came to my aid. How do they expect to sell anything when even finding your size is a major hurdle?

However, the worst was yet to come. I don't know why trying on suits is so painful. Either you look like a shapeless blob or they highlight every bulge you THOUGHT you were hiding. You discover bulges where you shouldn't have bulges and nothing where you thought you did have a shapely bulge. Plus, instead of shoulder straps, the "in" style is a tie behind the neck. It's a little scary, given that with a flick of the wrist, you would be nude from the waist up. (It could be a worry for a young gal, but I figured people would be constantly checking the security of my tie and helping me to monitor it - as they had seen too much already. :-) )

I had decided to opt for a T-shirt and shorts, when I decided to try Penney's. They had suits on half price sale, with an extra $15 off. I found TWO that actually fit. They were even well made. I count that as a huge success.

However, my good luck was soon to come to an end. I walked in the house to a voice message that the teacher for Relief Society was too ill to teach. Thus, it falls to me to teach. I had been listening to a BYUI devotional - Becoming a Saint - so I just copied from it.

It did point me to a quote I wasn't family with.

C.S. Lewis: The price of Christ is something, in a way, much easier than moral effort – it is to want Him. It is true that the wanting itself would be beyond our power but for one fact. The world is so built that, to help us desert our own satisfactions, they desert us. War and trouble and finally old age take from us one by one all those things that the natural Self hoped for at its setting out. Begging is our only wisdom, and want in the end makes it easier for us to be beggars. Even on those terms the Mercy will receive us.”

I am constantly "recalculating" (as my GPS would say) to figure out what this life is all about. I thought Lewis' insight was profound.