Drowning.
That’s the word dancing violinist Lindsey Stirling uses to describe how she felt once while traveling in a small town in France. She sat in a local French congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hoping she could find an English-speaking member to give her a blessing.
But the blessing ended up coming in a completely unexpected way.
Stirling shares this spiritual moment in the “Don’t Miss This” Episode for 1 Nephi 11–15 with hosts Emily Belle Freeman and David Butler. As a Sunday School teacher, Stirling has loved watching “Don’t Miss This,” and on a recent trip to Utah she asked if she could join with Butler and Freeman to teach a lesson.
In the video, Stirling explains how she was sitting in Relief Society with tears streaming down her face when God found a way to speak to her in a language she could understand (and it wasn't French).
It was a picture—a picture Stirling had seen before of the Savior rescuing Peter as he falls while attempting to walk on water.
“He was trying to walk on the water and he was trying to do everything right and he still fell,” Stirling shares in the video. She describes how she felt she was trying to do everything right, but still struggled with feelings of loneliness following the deaths of her father and her best friend. She then shares, “While I felt like I was drowning, He was there and He would never leave me.”
In the video, Freeman shares a conversation she had with a friend when they were studying the crucifixion of the Savior. They found it striking that Christ met the criminal on his cross and still offers healing and forgiveness in the midst of His worst mortal moment.
“He didn’t just meet them where they were . . . He was willing to go lower than where they were in order to completely understand,” Freeman says.
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Freeman compared the Savior's response to the condescension of God that Nephi witnesses during his vision as recorded in the Book of Mormon.
“I love that the angel wants to make sure Nephi knows, ‘Let me show you where He was born,’ and ‘Do you recognize the lowness of that place, the lowliness of what was happening? Now, let me show you where He was baptized—in the lowest place. Let me show you how He went and met people in their lowest place. Let me show you how He was willing to die the lowest of deaths,’” Freeman says in the video. “At the end of the day, this dream is about a God who would come down from where He was to where we are in our lowest place and bring ministering and healing and love into that situation.”
Butler adds that the Savior will meet you wherever you are and that no one is excluded from His love and forgiveness.
“If He’ll meet a thief and a criminal on a cross, you’re not disqualified from Him meeting you,” he says.
Stirling also testifies of how Christ will make us stronger than we could be on our own.
“No matter where you find yourself, the Savior will always—always—be there,” Stirling says. “The fact that He condescended below everything we would ever go through lets us know that and no matter how big or how small . . . He will help us be magnified. He will help lift us out of the water and He will make it so we can feel powerful.”
The segment ends with Stirling playing a version of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" on the violin, accompanied by Freeman on the piano.
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