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Sabbath Devotional :: The Artifice of Fear
“God hath not given us the spirit of fear.” ~2 Timothy 1:7 “Perfect love casteth out fear.” ~ 1 John 4:18 Fear is a frequently invoked motivating force in our world today. Parents use it, marketers use it, and friends use it. It has been used for generations. On the lighthearted end, we have the phrase and culture of “fear of missing out.” On the darker side, we have politicians and forces who use fear to “other” and dehumanize, to divide and stir up conflict intentionally. Fear-motivated anything can lead to bad results; fear-motivated politics can lead to particularly horrific results, especially when coupled with violent rhetoric. History proves that.…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Blessed are the Peacemakers
I have been thinking of the Savior’s assurance in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” This is a remarkable promise that we will always have and be able to feel peace, as we draw near to the Savior and His teachings. In the verse prior, the Lord speaks about the Holy Ghost and its influence and this is another way we can experience the Savior’s peace. As I pondered on this verse, I considered what it means for the Savior to give versus…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Such a Time as This
As we leap and march into a new month, the calendar can feel a little unpredictable — Easter is early, and when does Fast Sunday fit in with General Conference? March is an opportunity not just to celebrate spring or Pi Day, but to celebrate strong women. There is International Women’s Day this coming week, and we’ll honor the founding of the Relief Society in Nauvoo with a church-wide female broadcast on March 17. This month, I am also thinking about Esther. When I put the MWEG conference on my calendar for March 23, I noted that that Saturday was Purim Eve, her holiday. Like Easter, the Jewish holiday of…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Rituals, Invitations, and Ordinances
A few months ago, my husband and I received a startling message from a friend with a chronic illness. They requested that we visit them that day or the next, for about 45 minutes, without children. We prepared our hearts for whatever we might hear. The suspense was weighty; even through pleasantries and catching up, our hearts were heavy until our friends announced that they’d invited us over to tell us that they’d gotten engaged! They hand-delivered a beautiful invitation and asked us to be part of their special day. That wedding, and another significant family wedding around the same time, sent me back to my time as an ethnomusicology…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Fruits of the Spirit
“Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! . . . Who justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” (2 Nephi 15:20, 23) A speaker recently quoted that passage in my sacrament meeting. I started contemplating how we often extol bad behaviors if we believe it makes us or “our side” achieve something desirable and I was drawn to these verses in Galatians: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; . . . Idolatry, . . . hatred,…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Hope
Retaining hope is no easy matter, no light thing, no half-hearted wish-making. It is love in action. It is showing up again and again. Hope is not immune to sorrow or disappointment nor setbacks or defeat. Hope has never been the easy way out. It is the harder path but a necessary one. Hope requires a deep commitment to love and justice. Hope requires steadfastness and the ability to weather storms. Hope permeates movements even when people know their efforts may seem futile and may not yield the desired fruits. Those who retain hope even in the most hopeless of situations know that such efforts are necessary if we are…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Tender Mercies
For much of the last week, I got about 5 hours of sleep a night due to a couple of intense weeks in my grad program. On Friday, we had a planned site visit to study the location where we’ll be designing projects for class throughout the semester, and I had volunteered to drive several classmates for the morning visit before our full day of class. I usually utilize public transit or walk to and from school, but due to the nature of some of my assignments, I had previously run a couple of errands further afield during the week and noticed the tire pressure light had come on in…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Making Ready
A long, long time ago (in the early 1990s), my friend told me that she thought the environmentalist movement was unnecessary because when Jesus comes back, the earth will be renewed and all will be well. Recently, my husband and I were talking with a group of strangers when the conversation turned to the lamentable state of politics in America. One woman commented that it’s all so hopeless, but she finds peace knowing that when Jesus returns, all will be made right. I have heard other such statements from believing and faithful members of our church. They are good people who find themselves in a difficult situation. They know that…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Loaves and (Gold)Fishes
Abbie is officially a nursery graduate! I could gush for a good long while about how my last baby is growing up way too fast, but I want to take a little different direction with this post today.For the last 28 months, when I’ve dropped Abbie off at nursery, probably half of the time she has been the ONLY child there. Our ward is small and just doesn’t have very many kids her age. So for over two years, two wonderful nursery workers were often tasked with caring for a single child. My child.Did I sometimes feel a twinge of guilt knowing that two adults were missing out on class…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Danger of a Single Story
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of my favorite thinkers, and one of her most well-known pieces is a talk she gave called “The Danger of a Single Story.” She discussed how powerful stories are — how they influence identity and belief systems, how we see the world, and how they help us learn empathy. She also warned us against the danger of a single story: “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” I think about this all the time. What stories am I telling about me? About my…
