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Sabbath Devotional :: Peace Comes to Brood and Sit
This week, as horrors have unfolded in Israel and Gaza, I have been struck by how much the world pulls us to take sides, make statements, opine loudly. So many organizations have felt compelled to send me emails about their positions, or even explanations for why they do not yet have a position. This cacophony clangs against the cymbal crash of the news; the wars of words threaten to consume what is left of the world. I’ve asked myself amidst the din how I can make peace, and what “peace” can possibly mean on the lips of someone as removed from the depths of pain as I am, by geography…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Conference Sharing
I have been Covid-isolated all week, and haven’t had a chance to talk with anyone about General Conference. I would love to know what your favorite parts were. I’ve asked a few folks to start off the discussion. Please add your favorite quotes in the comments, and maybe a sentence or two about why they spoke to you. For me, predictably, the best part of conference was the Saturday afternoon choir, and especially the (ever so slightly daring!) arrangement of Jesus, Once of Humble Birth by Timothy Johnson. (Did you know you can find all the conference music in the music section of the church website?https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/…/conference-music…) Rachel Fisher Scholes “Religion…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Taking Baby Steps Beyond Self-Love
In his book “The Four Loves“, C.S. Lewis identifies the first love as “love of home, of the place we grew up in or the places, perhaps many, which have been our homes.” Lewis explains that “as the family offers us the first step beyond self-love, so this [love of home] offers us the first step beyond family selfishness.” I am intrigued by his description of home — and family — being the place where we take our first steps beyond self-love, beyond selfishness. We learn to love others at home and then we take that love out into our neighborhoods, communities, nation, and world. My daughter was born when…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Heaven
A few weeks ago, my mind wandered, and I started reflecting on what heaven looks like to me. This is what I quickly jotted down in my phone’s notes app, and I thought I would share it with all of you. My idea of heaven is brimming with personality, laughter, and smiles. It is occupied with people coming together and loving each other with a perfect love. It is marveling at the differences all of us have and bring to the table. It is seeing each other with perfect light and understanding. It is community. It is a place where everybody feels belonging on a deep and reverberating level. It…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Body of Christ
I wanted to share some thoughts I had this week as I read in the New Testament with the Come Follow Me readings. In 1 Corinthians 12 we read “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Cor. 12:25-26) I have been thinking about what it means to be a member of the body of Christ. This charge to care for others resonates deeply with my desire to routinely consider how I might be…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Come, Let Us Anew
Facebook makes me cry a lot this time of year. The month-long onslaught of back-to-school photos wrings my heart and wets my eyes. My nest has been empty for a while, but apparently still not long enough for the ache to go away. It isn’t exactly envy of my friends who still have their babies at home, although it is partly that. I don’t necessarily want to go back in time, although I think I would if the choice were offered. But those days were hard, and I don’t have any confidence I’d do any better a second time around. I’d just make different mistakes. I don’t think there is…
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Sabbath Devotional :: There is Beauty All Around
My favorite moment in the film “Babbette’s Feast” is at the beginning of the feast from the film’s name. The feast is being shared by the lowly parishioners of a tiny country church in 18th-century Denmark. The foods, prepared by the French immigrant maid, Babette, are utterly exotic and strange to the villagers, who have lived lives of uncompromising plainness. As they taste the first course of this real French meal, they look around the table, wondering if what everyone is tasting is as sublime as what they are tasting. As the courses follow, the villagers blink in disbelief, transfixed with the sensory delight of beautiful food, the likes of which they…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Literary Piano
An early typewriter, patented by Dr. Samuel Ward Francis in 1857, was nicknamed a literary piano. When I think about what could be created on a literary piano, it is certainly different from the document made by the monotone tapping of the word processors I know. Under the direction of Orson Pratt, my great-great-grandfather, John Davis, translated the Book of Mormon into Welsh. At that time, Dan Jones had done a great missionary work in Wales and there were thousands of converts, who were anxious to read the Book of Mormon in their native tongue. John Davis knew the urgency of getting the translation completed. Although his translation was accurate,…
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Sabbath Devotional :: God Help the Outcasts
This weekend I had the opportunity to see “The Hunchback of Notre Dame“. As it often does, the song “God Help the Outcasts” resonated deeply with me. For those less familiar with the musical, Esméralda (a French Roma girl) sings this song in the Notre Dame cathedral. As a French Roma girl, she has suffered much persecution, poverty, and misfortune. She finds herself there because she came to check on Quasimodo, who has been ill-treated. While there, she sings this song as a sort of prayer. She begins by saying she doesn’t know if he is listening or even there, but “Still I see your face and wonder, Were you once…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Journeys
I have been thinking a lot about journeys — both in a literal, physical sense as well as figurative sense, and including the many iterations and types of journeys that occur in the scriptures and Church history. Last week I departed from Utah as I made a cross-country move to Philadelphia. My driving route criss-crossed several of the historic routes taken by 19th Century settlers heading west, although my direction was the opposite. At my particular life juncture, my cross-country move is accompanied by assorted other major life changes and I am feeling somewhat emotionally and mentally taxed while navigating them. I have again and again been thinking back to…