• Finding Peace

    The Healing Power of Mourning

    In a recent Latter-day Contemplation podcast that I co-hosted with Riley Risto and Christopher Hurtado, we talked at length about self-mourning and mourning with those who mourn as a means of healing ourselves and our country. (Actually, Riley and Christopher spoke at length and I had the good sense to just listen.) The rest of this article is in no small part a compilation of several notes taken from that podcast. There are many more excellent points in the podcast that are not in this article, and there are many other points in the article that are not in the podcast. I suggest that you read this and listen to…

  • Finding God

    Finding Peace in Divine Clouds

    Over the last several years I have undergone many transitions, evolutions, and transformations in my discipleship and relationship with God. Joseph Smith once famously stated that, I am like a huge, rough stone rolling down from a high mountain; and the only polishing I get is when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else, striking with accelerated force against religious bigotry, … Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty (TPJS, p. 304). While I have certainly not run into religious bigotry and suffered the torment of mobs and violence that Joseph Smith (and the early Saints) endured,…

  • Come Follow Me

    Doctrine and Covenants 1: An Ancient Treatise Pattern?

    A few years ago, during the summer months as I was preparing to teach the Old Testament for early morning seminary, I happened across a podcast that was a beginner’s guide to the Old Testament. The podcast is called Discovering the Old Testament by Sheldon Greaves. It has since become one of my favorite beginner podcasts and one that I suggest for anyone wanting to get a good sampling of Old Testament studies. Each episode is short (only approx. 20 minutes in length) and Greaves keeps the conversation rolling along in his rather hypnotic voice. He has a way of going just deep enough to make a newcomer feel a…