The Abundant Life of Christ: An Easter Talk

I am grateful for this wonderful opportunity to share my testimony and “Talk of Christ and Rejoice in Christ” on this beautiful Easter Sunday. 

He is risen! He is risen!

Tell it out with joyful voice.

He has burst his three days’ prison;

Let the whole wide earth rejoice.

Death is conquered; man is free.

Christ has won the victory! 

 Is there anything worth celebrating more than Christ’s victory over not just His death but the death of all mankind?  “He is not here, but is risen.”  How much hope we have because of that glorious proclamation.  Death is conquered, man is free.  Christ has won the victory. 

I would like to talk for a few minutes today about what Christ’s victory means for us-each of us, not just when we die, but in this moment, right now.  Throughout the scriptures, the Savior invites us to receive the life that is available in Him because of His Atonement and Resurrection.

He says “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” John 11:25

And “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

What is this abundant life He has promised us?  We know that because of Him, we will be raised from our own physical deaths.  We also know that His Resurrection provided a “Redemption of our souls” D&C 88:16, saving us from spiritual death if we come unto Him.  These eternal promises are glorious and full of hope, but sometimes we (at least I) categorize these life saving blessings as happening only in our eternal future.  When Christ says that He is come so that we might have life more abundantly, does He only mean the life we will have after this life is over? Or He is talking about a life we can experience right here and now?  I think we know it’s both, and yet, I have thought more about the abundant life I may receive if I live worthy as opposed to the abundant life He invites us to experience each moment of each day. 

Christ says “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:3

I think He is telling us that eternal life comes to us as we come to Him.  Although it is a process, the more we know our Savior, the richer and more abundant our lives become and we begin to experience the blessings of our eternal life with God and His Son whether we are on this or the other side of the veil.

In my life, I have received great blessings from my relationship with Christ.  In times of great need, I have felt of His comfort and love.  When I have repented, I have felt of His forgiveness and mercy.  When I have needed help with a great challenge, I have felt of His strength and encouragement.  When I have actively sought Him, He has been there just as He promised.  However, over the last few years and especially the last several months, I have been feeling like there is more.  He wants to give us more.  Through His Atonement and His Resurrection He opened the way for us to LIVE-and to LIVE abundantly…not just in certain moments or when we die, but always. 

As I have studied and pondered what I can do to receive this abundant life, I have found much instruction in the scriptures.  I want to focus on 2 of these points today.

First, we must be Born of God.  If we are to receive life from Christ, we must be reborn in Him.  Although baptism is a symbol of this, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee we have been reborn.  Alma was told by the Lord:

Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; and thus they become new creatures. Mosiah 27:25-26

Changed from my carnal and fallen state to a state of righteousness, becoming a new creature in Christ.  I have thought about my own rebirth, and though I feel like I have taken steps, I feel like it has not been complete.  I think of the people of King Benjamin who fell to the earth after hearing him testify of Christ. 

And they had viewed themselves in their own carnal state, even less than the dust of the earth. And they all cried aloud with one voice, saying: O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified;

 

And of Alma the younger “after wading through much tribulation, repenting nigh unto death, the Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God.   

My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more.

These experiences are very immediate and dramatic and sometimes these kinds of accounts in the scriptures are written off as atypical (which really means to us non-applicable).  But are they so different from the experiences we must have in our own lives? 

In both cases, they were awakened to a sense of their nothingness and their worthless and fallen state (as King Benjamin puts it) “even less than the dust of the earth.”  Because they saw their own nothingness and their sinful and fallen nature, they were in a position to see the greatness of God and cry out as Alma said “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.”

Now when they did this, they were filled with joy.  It says of King Benjamin’s people that “the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, having peace of conscience.” And Alma’s says “he could remember his pains no more, and he was harrowed up by the memory of his sins no more.  And oh what joy and what marvelous light I did behold (he says), yea, my soul was filled with joy as was exceeding as was my pain…there could be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.”

Atypical?  Or essential? What I have come to feel is that Alma is not unique.  No matter how big or small we perceive our sins to be, we all are hardened, we are all fallen and we are all lost and must perish except it be through the Atonement of Christ which is expedient should be made (Alma 34:9).  In short, we are all Alma.  We are all the people of King Benjamin and we are all in desperate need and must cry out to the Lord: “O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified.”  We must all have this experience of having our nature changed from our carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, In short, we must be born again. 

When I looked at my own experiences, I could not honestly say that I had really experienced this change or even recognized that I needed it.  I have had to ask as did Alma of the members of the church in Zarahemla, “have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?” Alma 5:14. 

Although for me, the experience so far has been a process instead of a one time event, I must say that I have felt Him changing me-changing my heart.  As I have come to God and admitted my true nothingness before Him and my complete need to “rely wholly upon the merits of Him who is mighty to save,” (2 Nephi 31:19) I have felt Him FREEING me of my own carnal and fallen and sinful nature and giving me new life.  I still feel like I am in the middle of this change and I have had to truly “humble myself to the dust” in order to be open to Him, but there is a growing hope in me that this change is real and that He can and will truly make me a new creature in Him. 2 Corinithians 5:17

This rebirth is individual and can happen at different times and ways for each of us, but there is a need for all once we have been reborn to continue in Him and not lose the life He has given us.  if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the songof redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?   

Once we have come to the tree of life and tasted of the fruit which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which fills our souls with exceedingly great joy (Alma 32 and 1 Nephi 8), do we stay or do are we ashamed of being seen as fanatic or over the top?  Do we wander off into forbidden paths and become lost or are we continually being filled with the love of God? 

To me, those who stay and “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ” are His true disciples. 

Which brings me to my 2^nd and final point…How do we stay?  How do we continually LIVE in Christ?  As King Lamoni’s father did, we must “give away all our sins to know Him.” (Alma 22)

The story of the Rich Young Ruler has always-if not haunted me-at least gnawed at me-because of how like him I sometimes feel.  When he asks the Savior what he should do to inherit eternal life, the Savior tells him if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments..  He says All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?  And then the Savior says:

Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he went away sorrowful: for he was very rich. ( Luke 18 and Matthew 19)

I sorrow too when I think of what he missed out on.  How could he have chosen riches over Christ?  But when I ask the Savior “what lack I yet?” I feel Him telling me the same thing and at times I know I have gone away sorrowful just as this young man because it feels too hard.   

What are we unwilling to give up for Christ?  It does not have to be physical riches.  Anything that takes our heart and our mind away from Him will do.  Is it sports, crafts, a hobby, or work, entertainment, social involvement, food, education, praise, or accumulation of stuff?  Facebook, pinterest, texting, or ice cream, or any personal comfort?  Could it be our to do lists or our desire for control, a clean house, our children, our spouse, our dreams, hopes, and desires to have it the way we want it or to be self reliant or masters of our own selves?  None of these things including riches are inherently evil, but when they keep us from total commitment and focus on Christ, they become a problem. 

This has been hard doctrine for me.  Until we give our “riches” to Him, we are limiting the relationship He wants to have with us.   Can it be said of us that we have kept the commandments from our youth up but reserved from Him our hearts?

If we have not yet given Him our all-our very lives, we are missing blessings…blessings that He says are “even more than if you should obtain treasures of the earth and corruptibleness to the extent thereof” (D&C 19:38) ALL that the earth could provide would not compare to the blessings of the abundant life He provides.  But until we give everything to Him, we are not completely free.

The exceedingly great joy Alma and the people of King Benjamin spoke of is available to each of us through the abundant life of Christ.  I do not believe the Savior will limit how close we can come to Him or how much we can know Him.  It is possible for us to experience a deep, personal and living relationship with Him that transcends this life and brings “peace which passeth all understanding.” If we are willing to give Him our all, He will give us His all and we will experience a free and abundant life. 

Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will. D&C 88

I do not believe these experiences are only for prophets or other people.  I believe Christ wants to give each of us all that He has (D&C 88).  I believe He is telling each of us that there is more-He wants to give us more.

When I was in graduate school there was a sculpture of Christ at the Mesa AZ visitors center that I would go to regularly.  Christ was walking on the water and it looked as if He was inviting me toward Him.  The waves around Him were large and ominous, but in His eyes there was a confidence and even an assurance that He could be trusted with my life.  I knew that He knew that the waves could not hurt me if I would come to Him.  His invitation was to keep my eye fixed on Him and not to look away no matter how high or dangerous the waves.  I think that is still His invitation to all of us-to look unto Him in every thought-to doubt not, fear not.  (D&C 6)

He means what He says.  I believe in Christ.  I believe Christ.  I am grateful that He would give all so that we could have all and find real and eternal life In Him.  I want to give Him my life.  He is my Savior and I rejoice with the rest of you this Easter that He is not here, but is Risen.

Hug Your Favorite Evangelical Today

Thanks Jacob for pointing out this great song that echos my own prayers.

Praise God — all that's dead inside can be reborn!

The divide between LDS and evangelical or Catholic brothers and sisters who love and need Jesus Christ is so very unnecessary, and not pleasing to the Lord who asks us to simply LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

There is so much greatly inspiring material coming from followers of Christ around the world now and over the last two millennia that can strengthen understanding and faith--my tether to the Church in my time of pain and crisis has actually completely been the result of evangelical authors.

And, since the human brain edits out information that it hears often rather than taking up more memory space (which is why time seems shorter as you get older), it helps those of us used to any preaching tradition to hear the Good News of Christ in language that is not always in the same cadence and vocabulary we've heard all our lives.

(So go ahead and praise the Lord Jesus, you saints!  We were lost and are found!)

Let us avoid the irony of echoing 2 Ne 29, not about the Bible, but about our own cannon of latter-day doctrine:

“A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be anymore Bible.” To them, the Lord responded: “What do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the [Jewish prophets], and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto [them]?” (2 Ne. 29:3–4.)

Do we remember the travails and the labors and the pains of the early Christians, the Martyrs, so many God-fearing Catholic Saints, the reaching reformers who all sincerely sought and wrote about God--or was it all only a mechanism to set the stage for restoration?  All those lives were simply the opening act to the real show--which of course, stars us?

Do the words of restoration make the words of reformation useless? Not at all.

Do we remember the travails and the labors and pains of our other Christ-loving (or simply God-loving, or peace-loving or love-loving) brothers and sisters around us today who are praying, receiving knowledge and revelation, being called of God to their own ministries and good works and writings of the Good News?  Or are all their lives again, simply extras in the great blockbuster of restoration--which of course, stars us also.

BROTHER BRIGHAM SAYS NO.

While it may seem to some appropriating and convenient, Brigham Young argues that all Truth is Mormonism.  I like that, because I want to belong to a Church that loves all truth, wherever it is found.  Behold my favorite Mormon quote of all time:

“Mormonism,” so-called, embraces every principle pertaining to life and salvation, for time and eternity. No matter who has it. If the infidel has got truth it belongs to “Mormonism.” The truth and sound doctrine possessed by the sectarian world, and they have a great deal, all belong to this Church. As for their morality, many of them are, morally, just as good as we are. All that is good, lovely, and praiseworthy belongs to this Church and Kingdom. “Mormonism” includes all truth. There is no truth but what belongs to the Gospel. It is life, eternal life; it is bliss; it is the fulness of all things in the gods and in the eternities of the gods (DBY, 3, emphasis added).

Marjorie Thompson says, "I suspect that in times like ours, part of the new work of the Spirit among us is the labor of reclaiming timeless truths from the rich heritage of our historic tradition."  She adds further, "I suspect what we are witnessing today may be close to the significance of the Great Awakening in the eighteenth century."  (Reference: Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life)

Consider that--Resurrection, Reformation, Restoration ... Revival!

Christ needs a unified people, and we will need to become one before He comes.  He needs all of us, any of us, willing to live for Him, to no longer have "any manner of -ites [the divides we humans put between us]; but [be] in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.  (4 Ne 1:17)

Let's let our hearts, and our global community of Christ—be reborn!

Open Letter to Doubting Missionary

Somehow an email got passed along to me from a mom asking for prayers for her son who was on a mission and had encountered anti-Mormon material for the first time and was seriously doubting his foundations.  She asked if we felt inspired to write him a note of testimony to do so.  To my surprise, I did feel compelled to write this stranger to try to offer what had been helpful since I had suffered my own testimony blows.

Might as well share it for anyone else in the same situation if it can offer any comfort.

Hello, I'm not sure how I got your mom's note asking for prayers of support for you, and I don't think you are in my ward and maybe not even my stake, but I feel like I should write. It seems you might be experiencing something I ran into myself several months ago and I felt impressed to offer some thoughts from someone a few steps ahead of you in a similar unsettling situation.

My name is Valerie, and I am a 42-year-old married mother of four, a lifelong member who has always had great faith and a solid testimony.  It may not seem we would have much in common, but faith is a universal thing, as is a crisis of faith.

For me, it was a good friend from BYU that looked me up on Facebook and I found out that while he is still active to some extent, he is the founder of a rather large and busy blog that brought up all kinds of questions for me about the church. I was already in a very difficult place of trial and upheaval when I read several things on there and it turned everything upside down. It was so sudden. It was like I was one day safely and happily in my secure place of faith and it all made perfect sense, and he somehow shoved me out of it, and the next day I was looking in from the outside through a thick window of glass. I suddenly had no foundation, I went to look for my testimony and couldn't find it.

I was flailing and scared.

The well-meaning advice to just keep going and moving through the motions and it would all work out, it wasn't working for me. When I prayed, I didn't feel an answer forthcoming. Those who are close to me became afraid; it started to affect my relationships.  It was like I couldn't understand the language anymore, even though it was my native tongue.  The discrepancy between what I felt before and after was painful and sometimes I wanted to just avoid it and hide and not deal with it—the convenient “Sunday headache.”  Yet all this time I had been praying, fasting, and going to the temple constantly--could so much darkness result from so much effort?  I thought storms like this could only happen if I did something wrong.

So I'm writing to give you a few thoughts that have been anchors to me at a time where I felt like my foundation disappeared and things felt very turbulent.

If you imagine that your belief structure is comprised of a tower of blocks on a table, moments like this feel like the table has been tipped over, and when you set your table back up, you're not sure what you can safely put on it.

On the other hand, we all have gaps in our perception and none of us have completely solid foundations. This clean slate might even allow for a new opportunity to build it consciously as an adult, and carefully to avoid putting things back on the table that should never have been there--the fluff, the family baggage, cultural elements.

When you stand looking at your empty table, you may feel compelled to hurry and find the box that says “the church is true” as fast as possible and put it on the table. But that can't happen first. It is not the first block. Others might disagree with me on this, but I think recognizing this could help you to make sure you're asking the right question when you pray.

The purpose of the church is to lead people to Christ, it's the purpose of most churches. The church is not Christ himself, it is a structure by which we learn about him and come to him. Again, many churches try to do this, most of them well meaning. All our religion and devotion and our ordinances and rituals, are designed  to point us to a direct and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

One thing that can get in the way is when kids get testimonies of the church before they get a testimony of Christ. Their conduit to God is through the church. So in a moment of a crisis of faith in the truthfulness of the church, it's hard to reach out to God, because all of the previous connection has been done through the church. But what do you ask investigators to do when they're wondering about the church? They reach out directly to God. And sometimes the first step is for them to realize there is a God to pray to. This is the universal truth, that there is a loving God working patiently with you and who has gone before you and knows and feels everything you think and feel, even your fears and doubts, and understands perfectly. This is your anchor and is an easier first block.  

When doubt comes in, especially when church=God, it is common for that doubt to come into everything you believe—is there a God at all?  Even with everything that has happened in my life that has shown me over and over God's personal hand in my life, as my faith in the church wavered, even my faith in God would sometimes take a beating, and the darkness of confusion and fear can even overshadow any direct experience we have had with God and make us question our own perceptions.

Remember Moses, when he looks at Satan and fears, he looks into hell. Fear is the enemy.  Read about the New Testament Christ—he is always preaching a doctrine against fear.  Doubt creates fear and darkness, but at the same time, you don’t want to blindly believe things that aren’t true.  How do you eliminate the dangers of fear while still determining what facts you can rely on?  There is no fear in love, which is why Christ preaches love of God and man.  You need to first access God’s love.

For me, the thing I see that saves us in moments of doubt is that we can take the hand of God, and he will patiently walk us through whatever needs to be walked through to understand whatever he wants us to understand. And it might take longer than you would like, but he, the Savior, is not the one who condemns, especially not for your doubt.  No, he is always your advocate.  He is near you—he is brow to brow with you in prayer, he feels everything you feel.  And while this may seem crazy, his plan for you cannot be derailed if you are looking to him.  It is even possible he allowed this crisis of faith purely as an essential way to connect you more firmly to him as the author and finisher of our faith.  I have felt that may be the case for me, at least.

Do you see in the Scriptures how often when Christ comes across someone who needs him, he will ask them first if they will believe what he has to say, or do what he asks them to do? He asks this before he does the miracle or performs the act requested.

If Christ were to ask you now, "if I tell you what is true, or if I simply ask you to do something--even something that doesn't seem to make sense, like putting mud on your eyes or washing seven times in a river--will you do what I ask you to do? Will you cling to the doubt or the fear, or will you trust me?”  He may be waiting for your answer before he gives you his.

That answer can be a key for you. If your faith in the church takes a beating, will you still do what God himself asks you to do?  Will you take his hand in the sudden darkness and not demand to see every step, or throw your hands up in despair that you can no longer see?

What I have learned over the past several months as I have prayed for my faith to magically be restored and my understanding to be quickened again, is that it hasn't worked that way. I have begged to be either safely brought back inside the room where it all made perfect sense, OR be allowed to throw the whole thing away. The Lord has not given me either. But he has gently talked to me and asked for things. He has reminded me that my loyalty is to him. He is reminded me of the times he has showed me his love. He has reminded me that I can trust him, the creator of all. He has reminded me that the first principle of the gospel of faith—and faith is not knowing.  Faith is trusting.  In our church, we always talk about knowing, and it is scary when you realize you’ve got to go back to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ instead.

And sometimes, when I think I want to ask if everything is true and please just restore my testimony, sometimes I feel like He is still working on the foundation, and probably this time making it stronger, and based on the fundamentals: Do I trust Jesus Christ? Will I be loyal to him?

I look on what I have come to know about God, his amazing power and love and compassion, and I don't believe there's anyone in this world, in our church or out of it, who can call upon him and not have him answer. And even in my most doubtful moments, I knew that even if this entire church was founded on lies, that the God I knew would happily take 15 million people who wanted to serve him and would still bring things about to his purposes. I joked with my husband, "even if this wasn't his church to start out with, God would never turn down 15 million volunteers." I say this jokingly, but there's some truth to the idea that wherever people want to serve Him, he will accept it and make it his. Including you, there on your mission.  He has the power to transcend even the most baffling of human weaknesses.

This is a very good thing, since our church, as well as any other organization involving human beings, is rife with them. How can something with real flaws be of God? It's a question we could ask about the entire earth, about each other, about ourselves. But I see that he will work with anything willing to work with him.

So, if I were to offer any advice, it is to be firmly and faithfully loyal to your Savior, Jesus Christ. Trust him, trust that if you put him first, you will not be led astray. No matter what crazy story, true or false, you might hear about the church, nothing can separate you from the love of God, Paul says so.  If the Lord's hand is ready to hold and guide you through whatever you need to know, you don't need to feel you have no foundation.

It's too easy to throw it all away -everything our ancestors sacrificed so much for.  I was so close to just bagging it all.  It would be so much easier in some ways. It got to a point where I almost did not want it to be true. Some things were too painful and too hard. But I tried to stay loyal to Christ himself, and I put my hand in his, first and foremost, and I feel okay.

But this isn't because he opened the heavens to give me a great vision about how 'it's all okay and everything is perfectly true just as I always thought it was.' I feel him asking me, "If I tell you, will you do what I ask? Do you trust me?"  

One day he says to me, "Keep paying your tithing,” and I think, “What does that mean?  If you want me to do that, then the church must be true, and this follows, and that follows . . .” and he tells me that tithing is a law of sacrifice to God that aligns our hearts to him and away from selfishness.  I have felt him asking me to keep the promises I have made to him.  I think, “Well, the church must be true then if you want me to keep my promises made in the church . . . “ and he says, "the words and promises you spoke are made to me, and your obligation is to me."  

I can't back out on the promises to love and serve God, just because doubts have come up. 

I have also felt him telling me that he put me here for a reason, that I was born into this church, this time and this place and with these people and with this culture for a reason, because he wants me here. This is my place in the world.  And that makes sense, because we can stand as a witness of Christ in all things and all places.  Why not then here?  Why not in this church? If our whole mission on this earth is to feel and reflect the love of God (which I believe it is), then we can do that anywhere, with anyone.  And this is where he put me.

That is not to say it doesn't matter if we stay or if we go. It really does. I have felt him telling me that there are some opportunities and experiences He wants to give me here, things he wants me to participate in here, where he put me, that wouldn’t be available to me if I changed course midstream.

And as I have thought on it, I feel that the Lord really is doing something. I feel him really using this church to move forward a  greater purpose. 

I did have a pretty big reminder lately—several years ago I was folding laundry and watching Thomas Monson be sustained. As I stopped folding to sustain him, I felt an overwhelming and intense witness that he was called of God. I remember almost laughing and saying to the Lord, "This is a little bit of overkill, don't you think? I am in the boat, I don't really need you to hammer that home."

Famous last words. :-)

I hadn't even remembered this until recently as I struggled with these things, and the Lord brought it to my remembrance, gently reminding me that I told him it was overkill.  

There's something about this church. There's something he's doing with us that does matter. It could be all of it is fundamentally perfectly true, no matter what all the stories are. But regardless, I do feel him working with it, and I feel him asking me to stay and follow Christ and love God and neighbor here, in this church.

I keep imagining Peter on the water, how could he not look at the wind and the waves and the impossibility of walking on water—a foundation that seems completely not solid? This may be what you are feeling now. It seems an impossible walk—to walk in the darkness, by faith (the first principle). Where is the solid knowledge we so heartily profess over the pulpit? Who needs faith with that?  But now you find yourself on liquid ground.  What does Christ ask? Christ asks us to look at him and be not afraid, just look at him—keep focus on him. We will sink when we look at the waves in the wind—aka fear. 

But if your eyes are on Christ, you will be safe and you can walk this difficult, seemingly impossible walk.  A walk of faith.

Friend, be loyal to Christ. Trust him, even if it feels like your foundations are shaking and you're walking on something as unstable as water.  Look at him, and not the waves and you will not be led astray. 

Of course Christ is pleased with you desiring to teach people about him.  You don't need to worry that you're wasting your time or doing something he would not want you to do. His compassion and his love is what will save you, and telling others on your mission about his compassion and love will help save them. The church exists to bring people to Christ, if you're a missionary for this church, whatever its possible failings, you can still bring people to Christ.

I don't know if this was helpful in any way.  But I feel compelled to tell you that if you decide to push forward and keep your hand in the Lord's, and trust that he will teach you and lead you and give you clarity in his time, that there might be a time in the future where you look back and realize that you needed to have your table turned over so that your foundation could be built stronger for the things that might lie in front of you.  

Don’t tell the Lord what he needs to tell you and how.  Ask him what you need to know.

When he sees that you really are willing to do whatever he asks (and won’t go away sorrowing like the rich young man who couldn’t let go of something), when he sees that you will believe what he tells you, the answers will come, even if they take some time. 

I do feel for you Brother--the wind and waves are real, loud, and very scary. Keep your eye on the Savior, be honest in your prayers about how you are feeling, and when you are ready, tell the Lord you will do whatever he wants. You will be okay.

Your sister in Christ,

Valerie

Tasting the Gospel again for the very first time?

I'm adding my voice to this blog because it feels like a conversation of tremendous importance - perhaps not to disciples and Saints who are "doing fine"...but certainly to the rest of us who sometimes feel lost, despairing and often needing deep solace.  

For my wife and I, we have found some of that solace, not in seeking "outside of the gospel" for some other answer - but in turning towards the gospel with new eyes, as the Corn Flakes commercial used to say, "tasting it again for the very first time."  

For me, at least, approaching the "good news" via a different cultural lens and a fresh language has brought alive some of its deepest beauty.  Like Valerie, I've been struck by the language of other non-Mormon Christians (the many who are not at all interested in "cheap grace") - alongside the unique insights from the eastern contemplative traditions.  

And then other times it's just helpful to turn attention to our own native language in the Church - applying some gentle curiosity not to simply what the gospel is - but to how we narrate and frame it.  In the April 2014 Ensign, for instance, there's a lovely little piece raising questions about the "Bubble-gum machine" mentality we often have in approaching God [or as my evangelical friend would say, "God as a vending machine - functioning mostly to give us more "stuff" when we give him what he wants."]  Elsewhere, I've also raised questions about our almost algorithmic depictions of gospel promises - wondering what space that leaves for the intervention and mediation of Jesus Himself.  

In all this, surely more ennobling and faith-filled conversation is a GOOD thing?  In an age where the Church is being bombarded by people who are ready to "get it up to speed" (Affirmation, Ordain Women, etc.), of course, it can be knee-jerk easy to interpret anyone raising questions as a danger. Let's not do that!  In a Church that proclaims "continuing revelation" (including among its members), let's keep our minds and hearts wide-open for further light and knowledge - and never let them close.   

                                                                                                                                         -March 2014, Jacob Z. Hess, Ph.D.