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.