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Sabbath Devotional :: Concentrated and Consecrated Grief Leads to Joy in Christ
Two years ago, I spoke in my ward’s Sacrament Meeting on Easter and one year ago, I shared that talk as a devotional with my MWEG sisters. For some reason, sharing an Easter message feels even more daunting this year! You each have access to thousands of beautiful essays, talks, poems, images, and meditations on Holy Week. What could I possibly add to that body of work by exceptional writers and artists? When I begin questioning the worth of my own thoughts like this, I find it best to return to the simplicity of my testimony and particular circumstances rather than seek for something grand. After completing that exercise over the past…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Alma and Agape
During my first couple of years of college, I worked at the campus bookstore café. I learned to make lattes I would never drink myself and I also discovered that deep cleaning was a soothing experience for me. The café manager Sharon (not her real name) was not a student at the university, but a middle-aged mom who worked full time to manage all the student workers and keep the place running. She could be quite difficult to work with and seemed to take pleasure in holding some sort of authority over us. She was inflexible, often demanding, and just not very fun to work for. I was a young…
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Sabbath Devotional :: A Bittersweet Year
“Life cannot be won. It can only be loved.” – Adam Miller, “Original Grace” I love new beginnings. I mark them at every interval I can — a new month, a new week, even a new day. A new year feels like the ultimate new beginning, and I am full of optimism and joy as I anticipate it. This carries over into January as I spend time evaluating my habits and routines, identifying which ones served me well in the past and which ones to jettison. I don’t make resolutions or set big goals – instead, I look for the little changes and adjustments I can make to improve my life. This…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Shared and Sacred Grief
“This is an impossible week that contains an impossible grief, but it is made bearable by the love and care of a community” I wrote those words during a week when I received some crushing news about someone my family cared deeply about. While I experienced deep personal grief at the news, the bulk of my sorrow came on behalf of those who were suffering much more than I. How could I lift their burden? I knew from experience that there was no way around feeling pain at such a loss, that the only way ahead was straight through it. What could I do to support them through this process?…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Musical Sighs, the Mercy of God, and Collective Redemption
Note: I gave this as a talk on Easter Sunday, but as I was working on it, I was also thinking about my MWEG sisters, so it was written for you as well. I made a few minor adjustments to turn it into a devotional, but it is mostly as I gave it two weeks ago in Omaha, Nebraska. Almost 300 years ago, on Good Friday 1727, in the town of Leipzig, Germany, there was a premiere performance of one of the greatest pieces of music ever written: “The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Evangelist Matthew.” The composer was Johann Sebastian Bach, a man whom we revere…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Peacemaking
I no longer feel overwhelmed with emotion when I think about a particular evening this past year, but I still remember the pain I felt. It was an unfamiliar feeling for me — one of deep betrayal and disappointment. Cruel, untrue things had been said about me because of my work with Mormon Women for Ethical Government. And it stung because the attacks were so personal. My closest friends comforted me, and I tried to shake it off because I had important work to do. But initially, I really struggled to put it in perspective. Through the power of prayer, I was very quickly able to soothe the stinging and…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Middle Space
It has been a week full of mourning with and holding space for the pain of people I love. I feel a strong call to sit with, listen, and try to carry some of their burden. It is sacred work to be able to fulfill baptismal covenants in this way, but it also means that I am a little bit weary, so I am bringing you a simple devotional this evening, filled with the words of others. I don’t feel particularly naturally skilled at mourning with those who mourn, other than being an introvert who is satisfied to listen while others talk. But I have learned over the years that…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Divine Complexity of Our Current Circumstances
The temperature here in Omaha has been hovering around 0 degrees for over a week now, often dipping into negative territory, with more frigid weather to come. And we keep getting new layers of snow laid on top of what came the day before, with barely enough time to chip away at them. It kind of feels like we will never be able to go outside again. Even when I am inside, I can feel the never-ending chill of the ice that seems like it is trying to break its way into my home. I have cold toes, cold fingers, and, if I am being honest, a cold heart at…
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MWEG Member Op-Ed :: ‘Joe Biden asked me to pray for America. I said yes because I value the truth.’
“On Thursday morning, I shared both my faith and my love for this country and its citizens as a participant in the National Inaugural Prayer Service. As I’m not a pastor or a priest, you may wonder how a mother from the Midwest ended up on the program for a presidential inaugural event.” Click here for the full text of this USA Today opinion piece written by MWEG member and leader Emma Petty Addams.
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Sabbath Devotional :: In the Bleak Midwinter
I have always been able to express my testimony best through music. So, this year, the MWEG Christmas devotional comes to you from my living room piano. The tune for Rossetti’s poem was written by Gustav Holst and then arranged by Wendy Lynn Stevens. As I prepared this piece for my MWEG sisters, I felt both the bleakness of this moment in time and the celebration of the miracle of the Christ Child. May you feel the warmth of these words and this music as you ponder His birth. Please know I am also holding space in my heart for your grief. I pray that you can hear both in…
