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Sabbath Devotional :: Deep Waters
Water has always been powerful imagery for me. There have been times in my life when I have felt like these words from David could be my own: “Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.” (Psalms 69:1-2) During the most difficult times of my life, one word that has often come to mind to describe my experience has been the word “drowning.” The feelings of helplessness, suffocating, crushing weight pressing down on my chest, sinking deeper and deeper as waves of heartache, grief, or despair…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Where is Our Focus?
“The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the FOCUS of our lives.” — President Russell M. Nelson There are so many things swirling around in my life right now. We have gone through moving into a new home we have built over the last five months. We were without internet or cable for the first week. (It’s so much fun hot spotting off your cell phone during election week!) Unpacking, acclimating to the area, and attending a new ward. Having people in and out of your home amidst this COVID pandemic add to the challenge. We had a tithing settlement…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Healer’s Art
“If you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.” (C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy) This may not be the message that any of us want to hear right now, but I believe that it is perhaps the most important one I can offer. Simply put, having done one hard thing, it may be time for us to do another and harder and better one. We must each commit to transition from warriors to healers. So how can we “learn the healer’s art” and truly accelerate the return to health that we are all in desperate need…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Hope
As we near the end of this election season, I know many of us are feeling stressed, anxious, and just plain tired. Right now, it feels as if we’ve been sprinting for quite some time and can see the finish line, but we don’t quite know what lies on the other side. For the most part, I’m able to keep the stress and anxiety at bay in a few ways — taking positive action and making time for the things that nourish my soul. A few nights ago, though, I found it catching up to me, and I prayed that the Lord would calm my anxious heart and soothe my…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Anxiety: The Power of “Palms Up, Palms Open”
The clock is ticking. As we approach the single digit days before the election, I find my stomach clenching, my hands curling into tight little balls, my brows furrowed. I’ve started having flash backs to November 8th, 2016. Something in me broke that day. As a mildly left-of-center Midwesterner who had a son working for the 44th President, I felt like a stranger in a strange land in my very own USA. I was flummoxed by the choice of so many of my fellow citizens, and even among a majority of my sister and brother Saints. I still hold to the Church’s proclaimed stance as non-partisan and international, but an…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Christ-Centered Leadership: Examples from First Nephi
When our son TJ was a young child, my husband and I visited my graduate school mentor. As he watched our son totter around his office energetically, he said to me, “Lisa, you’re a psychologist now, trained in personality theory and behavior. Let’s see you control that child!” My mentor was, of course, teasing. But he was also reminding me that children come with the developing ability to act for themselves; and we, as parents, have the opportunity to help nurture their ability to make good choices. In our capacity as leaders, and in our roles as parents, we are constantly faced with decisions about encouraging or restricting the agency…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Let God Prevail
When I was a young mother in the midst of some extraordinary challenges, I was often given “glimpses” of my future as I prayed. My oldest son had needs that completely consumed the two of us and I put my career as a professional musician on hold to care for him. I don’t think that most of us will need to make such a dramatic choice, but I did not see any other way forward at the time. My son needed me more than I needed my music and I had a clear sense that the work I was doing with him was noble and good. When I prayed I…
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Sabbath Devotional :: How to Move a Mountain
This week we are blessed with a special musical devotional from Cherie Call (see video above). Cherie’s song, “How to Move a Mountain,” is a favorite of mine. I first heard it several years ago during an especially difficult time in my life. The message resonated deeply with me then and has stayed with me. I believe the message is especially relevant to each of us right now: in the work we are doing in MWEG, in the broad challenges we face as society, and in the very personal mountains that we each face in our individual lives. A note from Cherie: After the 2016 election I was worried for…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Broken
Jesus Christ invites us to “come unto [him] with a broken heart and a contrite spirit” (3 Nephi 12:19). What does it mean to have a “broken heart”? I once heard a teacher point out that we use the word “broken” to describe the process of taming a horse and training it to be ridden. Knowing that the Lord would like us to be someone who “putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Perfect Brightness — Light of the World
I have been thinking a lot about light. This is probably because I have been experiencing a lot of darkness. During this time when the world feels so strange and unsettled, when there are so many uncertainties, I often feel a heavy weight on my chest. The landscape of our current situation appears bleak and dreary. Dark. And so I think about light. I visualize light. I ponder light. I look for light. I seek after a “perfect brightness of hope” (2 Nephi 31:20). That phrase is in my thoughts, my prayers, my meditations, my heart — every day. I can’t say that I fully comprehend that “perfect brightness.” But…
