-
Sabbath Devotional :: Twinned
I loved the emphasis on Palm Sunday and Holy Week in General Conference this year. Easter is too much to take in on a single Sunday! In most liturgical calendars, the anticipation of the resurrection begins many weeks before Easter (at the start of Lent) and the celebration of Easter continues until Pentecost, so this Sunday is the Third Sunday of Easter. The stories of Jesus’s appearances to his friends after the resurrection are some of my very favorites. Mary in the garden, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and Doubting Thomas. It is perhaps unsurprising that the slightly hard-hearted child of a physicist should be a bit of a skeptic,…
-
Sabbath Devotional :: Suffer the Children
My brother and I served missions at the same time, even overlapping our MTC stay. I served in Australia: a wealthy country with established peace and safety. Jacob served in a different part of the world where he was exposed to extreme poverty and to regular violence. One of his first letters home included this little description titled “Kids.” It hurts me. Every time I see one searching through the garbage, it hurts me. I walk through town and they greet me in English — children no more than nine. They want to talk to me, touch me, a mzungu. “Pesa?” they ask, only knowing that I represent a wealth…
-
Sabbath Devotional :: Easter Devotional
As I listened to Conference, one of the talks that resonated with me the most was Elder Juan Uceda’s. (The Lord Jesus Christ Teaches Us to Minister) In his talk, he referenced the parables in Luke 15 of the lost sheep, silver, and the prodigal son. He said: It appears that the Lord is teaching one unique lesson with three stories—stories that present different numbers: 100 sheep, 10 coins, and 2 sons. The key number in each of these stories, however, is the number one. And a lesson we might take from that number is that you might be an undershepherd for [many people], but you always, always minister to them, care for…
-
Sabbath Devotional :: Proving Contraries and Trusting in the Lord
When I was around middle-school-age, I had the opportunity to attend a sleep-away church camp during summer, which I loved. It was a beautiful little Lutheran church camp situated in a forested area outside my hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. The camp had horses and cabins, teepees, platform tents, a pool, trails by the Platte River, and lots of hiking, singing, crafts, and outdoor activities — very comparable to a Young Women’s camp. This particular camp also had a team-building ropes course with various obstacles that campers would have to overcome with the help of their fellow campers, and team building became one of my favorite parts of camp. Probably the…
-
Sabbath Devotional :: On FOMB, Open Doors, and Fleshy Tables
You’ve probably heard of (and experienced) FOMO–Fear of Missing Out. Sometimes I suffer from FOMO, but more often these days I experience FOMB–Fear of Missing the Boat. It may be a mid-life crisis symptom, but like a PMS emotional meltdown, I think the feelings are still real! Maybe you can relate? I worry that when I get to the end of my life I’ll realize I was chasing the wrong unicorns, that I really had no idea what life was all about, that I missed all the best opportunities to become my best self and do good things in the world. So I overthink, overdo, overextend, and end up overtired,…
-
Sabbath Devotional :: Creative Periods of the Soul
Do any of you ever have a weird ache of spiritual homesickness that reminds you that you are actually from (and hopefully returning to) a better place? Or that your place of true belonging is somewhere much much better than this? I have felt this again lately, and it is characterized by two opposing thoughts. First, I am grateful for the inspiration that out there somewhere are celestial relationships and communities that are infinitely better than this hot mess we are currently wallowing in. Second, I can feel some despair that we seem to be moving so very slowly toward those relationships and communities. Usually I sit with this a…
-
Sabbath Devotional :: As I Have Loved You
My favorite parable is the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15:11-32) I love the story of redemption and love. I never tire of reading this popular parable which is overflowing with lessons for me. Naturally, I usually focus on the prodigal son but there are two simple exchanges between the father and the older son that have helped me learn more about the love Christ offers us and the love he expects from us. The prodigal was not only whole-heartedly welcomed home with hugs and kisses, but celebrated with the best robe, a ring, shoes, fatted calf, music, and dancing. Perhaps it was the celebration and not the welcome that bothered the…
-
Sabbath Devotional :: Roses in the Hurricane
Many of us are in the thick of state legislative sessions, and if that’s not largely exhausting and disheartening, I don’t know what is. I’m a big proponent of celebrating every win, no matter how small, and that practice keeps me grounded and moving forward. And there are always wins however small they may be. But if celebrating those small wins is perhaps comparable to stopping and smelling the roses, then some days leave me feeling like I looked up from smelling the roses and realized I was staring down the eye of a major storm like a hurricane or tornado. Then, if I’m not careful, the roses that once…
-
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…
-
Sabbath Devotional :: Three Kinds of Wards
I’ve always found it rather awkward to have to explain the terminology of “wards” and “stakes” to my friends of different faiths. But it’s worth thinking about the connotations that are at least dimly present in the word “ward.” The usage of the term in the Church is left over from a time when civic and religious government were seamless in “Mormon Country,” and the church “ward” simply corresponded with political and administrative districts. I suspect (hope!) MWEGers are more aware than most of the political wards they live in. The other context in which we most often use the word “ward” is, of course, in referring to divisions within…
