Raise my ebenezer

Today was a homecoming and three angelic girls sang, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" -- one of my most favorite hymns with such powerful lyrics. Oh how I wish it were in our hymnbooks, but then again that might make it kind of banal and not as heart-stopping.

As they sang the second verse, I had to lean over to Kiersten and ask if she knew what "Here I raise my Ebenezer; Hither by thy help I've come." All I've known about the word Ebenezer is he's a character in a Dickens novel. I've never heard it used as a noun.

Turns out it's actually from the bible, 1 Samuel 7. The Israelites are under attack from the Philistines and beg the prophet Samuel to plead in their behalf for the Lord to intervene. The Lord hears his pleading and prayers and smites the Philistines. This victory is recorded in 1 Samuel 7:12, "Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."

Eben-ezer literally means stone of help and was set as a monument for the children of Israel to remember the Lord's mercy and goodness in delivering them from the Philistines.

Wow! I love that little story. Shouldn't we all have our own ebenezers of miracles, tender mercies, spiritual experiences that we raise to help us remember who's really at the helm, who's really waiting to help if we just ask, who's really given us those experiences that's made us who we are today.

If there's one recurrent theme with all scripture that I read, it's that the people are constantly in a cycle of remembering and forgetting their God. It is the tendency of the natural man. Please let me learn the lessons of history. Let me raise my ebenezer so I don't forget the blessings that have poured into my life from a good, gracious, loving Father in Heaven.

As I've thought about this little story, I do have an experience that has stayed with me for many years. Not because it's miraculous and awe-inspiring but because it's probably the first time I really felt the Holy Ghost with power.

It was the summer after my freshman year of college. I was staying with my aunt and uncle for the summer so I could continue working. One afternoon before I had to go in to work, I was sitting in the bedroom I shared with my cousin, reading a book titled, I Know that My Redeemer Lives: Latter-day Prophets Testify of the Savior. As I read the testimonies of these men, I had a strong feeling come over me that what I was reading was true. I felt light. I felt good. I felt inspired. Time seemed to stand still for a moment as the Holy Ghost bore witness to me that day that Jesus Christ is indeed a savior to all men. He is my Savior.

I cannot deny how I felt that day and it's one of my own ebenezers that I can raise as a monument to God that I will not forget, that I cannot forget such an experience, insignificant as it may seem.