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Hey, guys. My name is Charan Prabhakar, and I was born in Chennai, India, but moved to America when I was six years old. And not just anywhere in America. I moved to Provo, Utah. I can't think of a greater culture shock than this. From the way school worked to how often recess was, I truly thought that I had discovered the American dream. This was it. But yet nothing could prepare me for the wrath of a Utah winter. Now, you have to understand that being from India, the only three temperatures I knew were hot, hotter, and hottest. But this was completely different. My anatomy was not prepared for anything like this. I might as well have been in the Antarctic tundra for all I was concerned. It was horrible. Thankfully, it only lasted a few months, and then I was able to feel warm and loved again. And then winter came again, and I felt cold and depressed. And I knew that I had to do something different about this or else I would be unhappy for a fourth of the year. And that's just no good. Then one day in 9th grade, I was channel surfing and I happened to see these snowboarders carving down the mountain. And they were so graceful. And I immediately knew that I loved it and I needed it to be a part of my life. I couldn't even wait for the next winter to arrive. And I even bought snowboarding books so that I could learn the techniques and be prepared beforehand. So when winter finally came, I went to the mountain, took a lesson, and it was awful. I was terrible at it. Then I looked at those books again, and I thought, maybe I better give it one more chance. And so I went the second time. And it was probably even worse than the first time. I felt like my body was gingerly placed in a jar of rocks and shaken violently. I should have given up then. But for whatever reason, I gave it one last time. That actually did the trick. Somehow my body figured out how to balance on the board, and I was completely hooked. I went all the time, and my technique improved rapidly. So imagine my absolute joy when the college I was attending actually allowed us to take snowboarding as a class credit. I signed up right away, and I was so stoked. It was so much fun. My instructor, Jeremy, took us down all these Black Diamonds, and he taught us all these sweet techniques to turn on the steep stuff. And it was awesome. And at first, of course, I struggled with it, but then I would leave the mountain, come back, and do it again flawlessly. It was amazing. One day during this class, we went on a lift that was going take us to some of the more advanced runs. Now, two things to note. This particular day was extremely cold, windy, and snowy. And this lift was also unimaginably old. It didn't even have one of those bars you can bring down to protect yourself or hold onto. I mean, I think this lift could have possibly existed before the mountain even did. Anyway, the rest of the class had already gone, and there were only three more people left. And this lift operator says to us that after he lets us go, he's going to stop the lift for the day because it was just way too dangerous to ride. Lucky me. I am still wondering why he let us ride to begin with. Doesn't matter. Besides the point. He lets us go up on the lift. Now, I'm running the lift by myself, and there are two other guys behind me. And as we start going up the lift, the wind starts to howl even more. And I am bundling up really tight so that the snow doesn't keep pelting my face. Now, to add to this incredibly uncomfortable situation, my chair is rocking from side to side. So this is horrific. And as I'm looking ahead, I see one of his big poles come up that, like, support the entire lift. I see it come up. I'm looking down. It's a 40- or 50-foot drop. And I had this horrifying thought, "Oh man, my chair's going to keep rocking and it's going to hit that pole, and I'm going to fall to my death!" And so as I'm going, and as I keep thinking these things, I hear the Jaws music playing in the background as I get closer. This was it. I had lived a good life. And I am going to die now doing the thing that I love the most. These were the thoughts that were in my mind as I kept getting closer to that pole. And I definitely started praying in the most authentic way possible, which was probably something like, "Please, don't let me die. I haven't even done a legit powder run yet." It must've been something like that. I'm not sure. But then right as I got to that pole, the wind completely stopped. It was almost like God turned off the air conditioner switch to Mother Nature. And I passed by that pole safely and calmly. And I started thinking about all the random times my mind makes up the worst case scenarios. And oftentimes, it doesn't even happen. And these are the thoughts that I was thinking as the next pole came up. And as that next pole came up, suddenly the wind blew really hard, and my chair rocked and slammed into that next pole. But before anything had actually happened, I felt this warm, peaceful feeling come all over me. And I felt this voice come into my heart and say, "Charan, you're going to fall. Stay calm." And I'm like, "OK." And I was just filled with so much peace and contentment that I actually didn't care what happened next. Well, sure enough, that chair rocked so hard at that pole, it flipped backwards. And I fell off the chair lift. Now, this wasn't a 40- or 50-foot fall. This was probably about a 15-foot fall. But it still gave me enough time to ponder about my life decisions and what led me to this moment. It was a really icy day that day, but right around that pole, it was incredibly soft snow. So I didn't get hurt at all. In fact, I felt another joy wash over me. I realized I just got 15 feet of air on my snowboard. I was going to be able to tell that to anybody. Well, the lift operator saw me fall, and he freaked out. And he slammed the lift shut. And he started screaming into his walkie-talkie. Now, the other two guys behind me were freaking out as well, and they were holding on for dear life and started yelling at me to see if I was OK. And then I turned around with this huge smile on my face and was just saying how awesome that was. And they looked at me incredibly confused. And they said, "Dude, we thought you died." Because apparently, when that chair hit the pole, I went so completely limp because I was so completely calm that they just assumed that I was a goner. By the time I started getting my board off, Ski Patrol came down to my rescue to see if I was OK. And I was like, "That was amazing." And he looked at me confused. And he said, "OK, well, if you're OK, then you can hike back up if you like," which I did. So he skied back down, confused as well. And the lift operator saw me and he was concerned, but then started laughing when he realized I was OK as well. So all in all, it was an incredibly hilarious experience. And I thought about that experience a lot. I realize that the first time when I was facing peril, the Lord stopped the wind. If I had fallen that first go around, I could have gotten seriously injured or even killed. Now, the second time, I did fall. But the Lord sent His Spirit to comfort me and let me know that He was with me. Sometimes the Lord delivers us from our trials, and sometimes He delivers us in our trials. More often than not, our lives can go through high levels of uncertainty. I mean, no one thought that in 2020 we would be under a quarantine. But it's amazing to know how much the Lord can come and comfort us. And sometimes that comfort is the only answer that we get right away. During these times of uncertainty, we may pray to be delivered. But sometimes the only deliverance we get is the comfort that we feel. Deliverance from worry, deliverance from stress. So just being still and knowing God is God allows us to give our uncertain futures to Him. We can choose to make the exchange. We give Him our stresses and our worries, and He gives us His comfort. Seems like we're getting the better end of the deal. So in closing, I'd like to say that whether we're falling off a chairlift or falling into levels of uncertainty that we could never even imagine, we can rely on the Lord to give us all the strength and all the comfort that we need to be completely happy right now, no matter what the outcome is. Thanks, guys.