#Deepen your understanding of Doctrine and Covenants

[mindfulldsliving]

Understanding Doctrine and Covenants Section 1: Hearken to the Lord’s Voice

Doctrine and Covenants Section 1 isn’t just an introduction—it’s the Lord’s own preface to revelations meant for our day. This section calls us to “hearken,” emphasizing the urgency of listening to His words. It’s a reminder that His voice pierces confusion, offering guidance and promises of peace. As we explore this preface, we’ll uncover its modern relevance and the eternal blessings that come…

[educationalguideraustralia]

Discovering Biblical Theology: How Tracing God’s Story Brings the Bible to Life

Have you ever wondered how the Bible fits together as one big story? With 66 books written by dozens of authors over centuries, it can sometimes feel like a collection of disconnected events. That’s where Biblical Theology comes in—it helps us connect the dots and see the Bible as one unfolding story of God’s relationship with humanity.

What is Biblical Theology? Tracing God's Story from Genesis to Revelation

Biblical Theology is the approach that follows how God reveals Himself throughout Scripture, starting in Genesis and building all the way to Revelation. Instead of organising biblical truths by topics, like salvation or prayer, Biblical Theology focuses on how these themes develop over time. It respects the historical and literary setting of each book and helps us read the Bible the way it was written—as a divine narrative.

When we practise Biblical Theology, we follow the storyline of Scripture as it unfolds. We begin to see how God’s promises, covenants, and plans for redemption gradually take shape through the lives of real people in real places.

Key Features of Biblical Theology: More Than Just History

Here are some key characteristics that make Biblical Theology unique and powerful:

Historical Development: This approach recognises that God didn’t reveal everything at once. His message was shared gradually through different eras, each building on what came before.

Narrative Focus: Instead of isolating verses, Biblical Theology follows overarching themes like covenant, kingdom, creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, threaded from the Old to the New Testament.

Author-Centred: Every biblical writer contributes their own voice and insights. Biblical Theology pays attention to each author's unique emphasis and how it fits into the big picture.

Contextual Understanding: It takes historical and cultural settings seriously. Understanding the context helps us grasp what God was saying to His people then—and what it means for us now.

This method isn’t about cherry-picking verses to support a doctrine. It’s about honouring the flow of Scripture and discovering how every part fits into God’s redemptive plan.

Final Takeaway

Is Biblical Theology just for Bible college students? Absolutely not! It’s for anyone who wants to read the Bible with clarity and purpose. When you view Scripture as a single, unified story, it deepens your understanding and builds your faith.

You start to see how the promises to Abraham connect to Jesus, and how the story of Israel points to the Church. You realise that your own story is part of this bigger narrative—and that changes how you live and trust God today.

So next time you open your Bible, ask yourself: Where does this passage fit in the grand story of redemption? That’s the heart of Biblical Theology—and it’s a journey worth taking.

[lds365]

This is the last in my series of articles about key Church history sites. As you study the Doctrine and Covenants in #ComeFollowMe this year, it can be enriching to better understand the places where sacred events occurred.

[rucbarthatbowtiesarecooldw]

Saturday Morning Session

Elder Jeffrey R Holland

- Those blessed with sight will recognize that, despite everything else these Conference traditions may offer us, it will have little to no meaning unless we find Jesus at the center of them.

- We must find Jesus in the center of the commotion.

- We must begin to see over all else the meaning of Jesus in the temple.

- Commotion, confusion, crowds, even contention, there’s plenty of all that in the world (so we don’t need to add to that)

- He’s not only passing by, but He’s coming to us, stopping by us, and staying with us.

Elder Terence M Vinson

- There is futility in prioritizing things of the world over the things of God.

- When you play your hardest and give your all your enjoyment of the game is greater.

- Haggai 1:3-7

- Joy is not fleeting pleasure or temporary happiness, it is being accepted by the Lord.

- it is not our success’ that matter but the fact that we are trying that matters to the Lord - our sacrifices and efforts that matter to the Lord.

- What should our attitude be as true disciples of Jesus Christ?

- God is not known for showering praise on the lukewarm.

- Consider your ways.

Elder Stephen W Owen

- In order to shift through the married of voices Learn to receive revelation

- Deliberately take time each day to disconnect with the world and connect with the Lord (to heaven)

- Realigning gospel topics with come follow me

- high love + high expectations

- Focus on nuroushing the children and youth - they need more time, not less.

Elder D Todd Christofferson

- The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives, and everything to do with the focus of our lives.

- So if i change the focus of my life towards him I will be filled with more joy?

- We can feel joy regardless or because of what is happening in our lives

- Joy of the saints denotes the joy of becoming Christlike

- Joy of the saints is enduring.

- god sees with true perspective and he shares that perspective with us through the commandments.

- God dwells in eternity and does not see the way we do

- (In turning our ways to him) It is by binding ourselves to God that our trials and sorrows (hardship) are turned to joy

- “There was nowhere to turn so i turned to the lord” - follow his example, when there is nowhere to turn and your heart is filled with the sorrows of the world.

- The joy set before us is the joy of assisting the Savior in His work of redeemption

- The ultimate joy of the saints comes in knowning that the Savior pleads our cause.

Sister Michelle Craig

1. be intentional about creating time and space to pay attention to the lords voice.

- As you spend this time his voice will become clearer and more recognizable to you.

- Satan tries to keep us from this quiet places

2. act without delay

- When you receive promptings and then act with intention the lord can use you.

3. get your errand from the lord

- Always on an errand from Heavenly Father

- If its that important I want to help you

- The lord sends help to those who do his will

4. believe and trust

- Each of us has a different mission to perform and sometimes the spirit calls to us in another way.

- You have unique missions to perform in life and will receive unique instructions to fulfill them.

- No matter who you are or what you’re dealing with you are invited to the lords table.

- Do we miss or dismiss promptings from the Lord because they come in a way that is different from the way we expected?

Elder Dale G Renlund

- Seeking and doing the will of the Fath er becomes a cadence for daily life

- Being converted unto the lord starts with being committed unto god and then (acting on the revelation we receive)

- Faith deepens as we act in ways that bring us closer to Him

- For our faith to grow, we must choose faith-building actions.

- The only way faith grows is for an individual to act in faith - but we cannot grow someone else’s faith or depend on someone else’s to strengthen our own.

- Covenants anchor us to the Savior and propel us upon the path that leads us home.

- Choose the harder right rather than the easier wrong.

- The covenant path was never easy

- how do we anchor ourselves to the Savior and remain faithful?

- Each week partake of the sacrament and make a covenant to link our identity’s to the saviors, always remember him, and take his name upon us.

- Making these commitments each week anchors us to the savior.

- You will become more like the savior as you love him, adore him, and following him.

- Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, making covenants with a real intent to keep them will change your life forever.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks

- You are worried about the wrong things. You should be worried about weather you will get there. Concentrate on that.

- “When we ask ourselves what we know about the spirit world from the standard works. The answer is not as ch as we often think”

- some repentance is possible there - still no procrastination!!!

- All in the spirit world are under some for of bondage.

- The righteous under bondage without their bodies

- The wicked bound/captive/cast into outer darkness with weeping, wailing, knashing of teeth because they did not repent.

- The righteous converted souls have to wait for us to do their work in this world so they can move forwards

- These personal spiritual experiences are not to be understood or taught as official doctrine of the church

- The official doctrine is taught by all fifteen members of the first presidency and twelve apostles. It is not hidden in one paragraph in one quote of one talk. THEY ALL AGREE UPON AND SPEAK THE DOCTRINE.

1. God loves and understands all His children

- Our only sure reliance is to trust in the Lord and his love for His children.

2. trust in the lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all they ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. - Proverbs 3:5-6; see also 2 Nephi 4:28-30, 33-35

- He saves all the works of His hands

- Let us not teach as official doctrine what does not meet the standards of official doctrine.

[patfster]

The Call

When we received our mission call and it was for 23 months, I had a very difficult time thinking of being gone for that long, particularly because of my grandchildren. Missing out on that much time in their lives was very hard for me. Sister Kirkham, the MTC president’s wife, called me and said, I just feel like I need to share a scripture with you from Doctrine and Covenants, section 31:5 “Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore your family shall live.” She said this scripture gave her a lot of peace, while they served a three-year mission, when her husband was a Mission President in the Mexico. She promised me that there would be blessings that would pour out upon our family. I told her about our experience with Jonathan, and how I promised Heavenly Father, I would do anything to if we could have our boy back. 22 months is nothing compared to having Jonathan with us.

Before President Dixon set us apart, he spoke about the compensatory blessings that our family would receive because of our service, this calmed my heart. This is my greatest wish is that our children will be blessed because of our service.

The statements that touched my heart most were:

1.We bless you that you will be able to know and understand that these wonderful children and grandchildren of yours are in the Lord’s hands that he will bless them and protect them and that all things will work out in accordance with His will. We bless you with the peace to know that this mission that you are serving, will have a tremendous impact, not only upon the people that you serve in Mexico, and the missionaries, but also on your family. Whether those blessings are seen or unseen, it will be difficult to measure and calculate of this great mission that you will serve.

2. We bless you that you will be able to see the missionaries through the eyes of the Savior, that you will be able to love them and care deeply about them. Especially those that are less prepared, or those that are struggling, those that are either emotionally or physically overwhelmed by the experience. And we bless you that you will be filled with compassion for those and remember what the Savior did and how he always aligned himself with those who were less fortunate and in need and you will find them.

3. This will be a wonderful time for you two to bond in new ways. We bless you that you will have the Christlike attributes that are necessary to both deepen your marriage and serve in the way that the Lord would want.

4. We bless you to use you study time wisely that this can be a time that the scriptures come alive for you, even in greater measure, that you will be able to learn and study on your own and with your companion, you and Tracy can gain great new insight, but more than insight that you will receive revelation and power when you pray in the morning. When you study your scriptures that will be a time when revelation will flow whether it is on the topic that you are reading in the text or the fact that you are seeking the word of God will open up the windows of heaven for you will be able to learn and that you will be guided every step of the way on your mission. We promise as you do this, you will be entitled to hear him and to have the spirit of revelation, you will have promptings. We bless you with the courage to follow those promptings because they will lead you to great intersections with people and that when you open. Your mouth it will be filled with the words of the Lord.

It brought more peace to my uncertain soul when Jonny and Aaron played, “Be Still My Soul.” My soul really needed it!

Dinner with family at Brick Oven after our setting apart.

[alecsrandomthoughts]

The tension of Grace and Truth.

WINTER 2016

How Should Christians Respond to Gay Friends or Family Members?

Caleb Kaltenbach (M.A. ’07) is an alumnus of Biola’s Talbot School of Theology, lead pastor of a large church in Simi Valley, Calif., and a married father of two. He’s also an emerging voice in the discussion of how Christians should engage the LGBT community. That’s because Kaltenbach has an insider perspective, having been raised by a dad and mom who divorced and independently came out of the closet as a gay man and a lesbian. Raised in the midst of LGBT parties and pride parades, Kaltenbach became a Christian and a pastor as a young adult. Today, he manages the tension of holding to the traditional biblical teaching on sexuality while loving his gay parents.

Kaltenbach’s unique story is detailed in his new book Messy Grace: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others Without Sacrificing Conviction and landed him on the front page of the New York Times in June. Biola Magazine reached out to him to talk about his book and his perspective on how Christians can better navigate the complexities of this issue with truth and grace.

In your book you say that it’s time for Christians to own the issue of homosexuality. What do you mean by this? How would you like to see this play out?

Christians can own this issue by caring enough to get to know the whole person. If you think that identifying as LGBT is mainly about sex — that’s shallow. The theology of “whom we have sex with” might be black and white, but the person and related experiences aren’t. Once my mom told me that she and her partner hadn’t been intimate in years. I asked why she still called herself a lesbian. Her response was that she had a community filled with friends, acceptance, a cause and deep feelings. It reminded me that people have depth. Care enough about a person not to reduce them to their sexual orientation. If someone who is LGBT says that it’s not mainly about sex, why immediately throw the “homosexuality verses” their way? Talk about holy living down the road. Perhaps Christians can own this issue by being kind and making a new friend.

You challenge Christians to stop avoiding or merely “tolerating” LGBT people, but to engage in meaningful relationships with them. What should that look like?

The more Christians stop treating people in the LGBT community as “evangelistic projects” or “those people,” the more meaningful relationships will develop. Here’s the secret to engage in meaningful relationships with anyone: Treat people like actual people. Embrace the tension by developing friendships over meals, coffee and more. Engage in conversations. Try to understand who they are as a person (experiences, hopes, dreams, fears, etc.). Don’t seek to “fix” anyone, but point to Christ. Here’s a hard truth I came to learn over the years: It’s never been my job to change someone’s sexual attraction. God didn’t call me to “restore” LGBT people to a straight orientation. It’s not even my job to change lives. It’s God’s job. He has great experience in the “life change department.” My responsibility is to love people, make friends and journey with them.

You write that one definition of love is holding the tension of grace and truth. What do you mean by this and who do you think models this sort of love well?

The uncomfortable feeling in the tension of grace and truth is love. and God as well. However, love never harms. A theological conviction should never be a catalyst to treat someone poorly. We can accept the person without approving of their choice to be in (or pursue) a same-sex relationship. Love people, but remember what the Bible teaches. Deepen your relationships, but hold firm to conviction. Never give up on the person or Scripture. Love never takes sides. Love has no exception clause. I see this love lived out by some parents of gay teenagers. These parents love their kids no matter what and nothing about their relationship changes. They thank the teen for trusting them with this part of their life. At the same time, they hold true to what Scripture says not only about sexuality, but also about loving others.

What happens if our “love” is not accepted at all because we still hold to truth? What would you say to an LGBT person who argues that “acceptance but not approval” is not actually love? Isn’t that the direction society is moving, that anything short of full approval is actually bigotry?

To the LGBT person: Be careful taking a hardline stance on something that isn’t your foundational identity. Your main identity shouldn’t be defined by your sexual orientation; rather God should define it. People are entitled to their beliefs. Many examined Scripture, believe that sexual intimacy is for a man and woman in marriage, and aren’t homophobic or hateful. If these people are loved ones (being loving towards you) why shut them out? Don’t distance yourself because they don’t agree with you or the kind of relationship you might have. Don’t treat others who disagree with you the way you wouldn’t like to be treated. They might be intolerant in your mind for not agreeing with you. However, are they treating you poorly? Do they love you less? Do they not value you anymore? Don’t become intolerant by not giving them margin to have different views.

How should and how shouldn’t Christians respond if someone in their life or church community confides in them about same sex attraction?

Christians make too many mistakes when someone comes out to them. They try to advise counseling. At some point, they will throw out Bible verses concerning homosexuality or marriage. Some Christians try to “relate” and often compare same-sex attraction to other sins like murder, theft, etc. Emotions like depression and anger will usually set in. Unfortunately, these are all the wrong things to do. Everyone needs counseling, the person coming out probably knows how you interpret the Bible regarding sexuality, and they don’t want to be compared to Hannibal Lecter or Gordon Gekko. This is a moment to listen and affirm your love for them. Think of it this way: The people coming out to you have chosen to share a very intimate and personal part of their life because you are someone they value. You can never get this moment back, and responding the wrong way is devastating.

How should a Christian respond if invited to a same-sex marriage ceremony? Is attending a gay wedding a tacit affirmation of the sacredness of the vows being exchanged?

Attending may put you in a difficult position as one who believes marriage is for a man and woman. However, you’ll have influence in your relationship with the married person. Fear shouldn’t keep you from a situation where others disagree with you. There might be a chance to share your faith with others at the wedding. Later, when the newlywed has a season of doubt or turmoil, you might be the person they turn to (giving you the chance to share Jesus). But there are also reasons why you may not want to attend. Hurt feelings may result, but God created marriage for him and the couple. You need to stand for truth, and this might be one of those times. In the end, the couple might recognize and remember your integrity. Either option could carry relational difficulty, doctrinal tension or emotional baggage. My advice: Pray about it and represent Jesus well with your decision.

If celibacy is the only option for a same-sex-attracted Christian who wants to remain biblically faithful (you argue this in the book), what can the church do to better minister to these people? Can we just casually tell them “no sex for you!” and leave it at that?

Some argue the Bible doesn’t address same-sex loving monogamous relationships, so it’s fine. However, all passages dealing with homosexuality agree that same-sex intimacy isn’t God’s design — monogamous or not. Sexual intimacy is from God for a man and woman in the covenant of marriage. Outside of marriage, there shouldn’t be any expression of sexuality. Our sex-obsessed culture makes celibacy out to be cruel, when it’s a blessing. There’s more focus on God, freedom in life, acknowledgement of attraction while still holding to biblical convictions. Intimacy isn’t only sexual; it is also experienced through lifelong friendships, supporting causes and family. The church must create an atmosphere of relational opportunities for single people. For example, if a single person is sick, hospitalized, or needs help — the church should support them through small groups, funds and other ways. Celibacy is a sacrifice for Jesus, and the church needs to prepare for that sacrifice.

What are some ways local churches can better minister to the LGBT community?

Allow people to “belong before they believe.” If you’re going to ask people not to identify with the LGBT community, you’d better have another community ready for them! Give people margin for God to work in their lives. Healing and spiritual heart surgery takes time. Help people to feel safe about admitting struggle without fear of backlash. Create an environment where it’s OK for teenagers to ask questions and be authentic. Train youth leaders to listen and ask the right questions. Create support for parents of gay teenagers. Spend time with LGBT people outside and inside your church (they are there). Listen, ask questions and learn. Don’t allow church policies to hinder needed conversations.

Caleb Kaltenbach (M.A. ’07) is the lead pastor at Discovery Church in Simi Valley, Calif., and the author of Messy Grace: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others Without Sacrificing Conviction.

[apostateangela]

Death and Consequences

Religion provides answers to the hard questions:

Who am I?

Where did I come from?

Why am I here?

Is there anybody out there?

Where am I going after I die?

As humans we struggle with our worth and connections in this world.

I am no stranger to self-loathing and loneliness.

Some of those feelings have been fertilized by the Mormon cultural and theological structure as well as my abusive husband.

But I do not think I would have been exempt from them without those influences.

I believe I would have still struggled with my worth and my place in the universe.

Most people seem to.

The LDS church has fairly beautiful answers to these questions, like most ecclesiastical faiths.

I am a child of God.

I lived with him before I was born.

There is a plan created by God and His son Jesus Christ whereby I can learn, grow, and find happiness in this life and go to live with Him in the next.

God is out there and cares about me individually and I can pray to Him and receive comfort, help, and answers in the midst of this brutal, lonely life.

Life does not end.

When I die there is something else, an extensive afterlife where I can live for eternity with my loved ones.

So even though I struggled with the parameters of the church, these carefully constructed, multilayered answers to life’s impossible questions created more of a comfort and stability than I realized.

In fact, they were my gravity.

Now that I no longer subscribe to these parameters, I find myself both adrift and bereft.

You can survive adrift fairly well.

The creation of new gravity lies in meeting your needs with something other than God.

I am lonely?

I make friends.

I take lovers.

I go get my nails done so someone will hold my hand.

I wonder about my purpose here on earth?

I create purpose by pouring myself into my career as a teacher and try to make a difference in the lives of young people.

I write and paint so as to leave a mark of some significance on this planet.

I seek to love people and animals and places in hopes of that large and powerful love doing both.

I try not to worry about the past, pre earth or otherwise.

My future exists in hours and days and sometimes weeks and months.

My mind rarely considers eternity.

Until it sucker-punches me out of nowhere.

Death does that:

Death sneaks up on you.

Death is ugly.

Death is brutal.

Death doesn’t play fair.

Death is Eternity’s thug, pack of thugs really.

There is no end to their creativity and pain.

Religious answers seek to leash these hellhounds, or at least muzzle and blind them so as to provide some kind of extension that cancels out an end.

It’s a distraction really; the more details created the more high def the distractive picture.

Mormons paint a multileveled detailed version of the afterlife.

There are 6 different places you can go after you die.

With so many places, the belief deepens--distracting from the grief--at least some of the time.

Here’s what Mormon’s believe:

After death your spirit/soul goes to a kind of way station (named Spiritual Prison and Spiritual Paradise) to wait for Christ’s second coming and the following final judgement.

A basic Heaven and Hell scenario.

After the apocalypse and its fallout, the final judgement happens and you go to one of four places according to your actions during your mortal life:

Celestial Kingdom: Basically Heaven (there’s even tiers within this kingdom based on marriage and such)

Terrestrial Kingdom: Not a bad place. For basically good people who didn’t know any better than to be a Mormon and make the covenants.

Telestial Kingdom: Basically Hell, but like earth now--I imagine complete even with the Trump administration. No fire and brimstone bullshit. But it’s for certain commandment breakers: sorcerers, whoremongers, and adulterers. (sex and lies mostly)

Outer Darkness: Real Hell. Here you are forever cut off from God and anyone else you loved. It’s reserved for the Sons of Perdition and really evil murderous people. (I’m one of those, remember? Denying God anyway)

I only provide this brief outline to help you understand the layers and details that help Mormons in the processing of life and death. There’s so much more doctrine and symbology here, but it doesn’t really hold relevance to this post.

I’d come to some kind of peace in my shedding of the Mormon structure. I admittedly entered into perdition as I believe most of the principles of the LDS church to be oppressive, misogynistic, and harmful as evidenced by my own experience and it was important to write about it all. This public writing is an action against their God.

But for the most part my place in eternity doesn’t trip me up anymore.

What will come will come.

For me.

Then, the Dogs of Death came on and took someone from me that I loved deeply.

And I am undone, spinning in the savage vertigo that this depth of grief brings.

My friend, my mentor, my sister; my partner in teaching and philosophy and memory and poetry and quilting was gone.

She was full of light and the most beautiful person I have ever known.

Grace filled every molecule of her.

Cancer came and snuffed her out; little by little for years, and then suddenly altogether.

The pain I felt at her death was that of oblivion.

It was a different pain.

It was as if I had been shot full of holes and my hands had been cut off.

Even the pain I felt when my own grandmother had taken her own life did not compare to THIS pain.

Because THIS time, I was alone without any answers.

All I wanted was God’s hand to hold and a place for her to go so that I could clutch the possibility that I would see her again.

But there was nothing.

I sought it.

I knelt prostrate on the floor of the spare bedroom in my friend’s house, pounding my actual fists on the floor, crying out to God.

But to no avail.

I reached out with everything within me, like I’d been taught all my life, trying to find what I wanted so desperately.

Nothing.

I wanted nothing more than to go back to my constructed belief.

But there is no going back, at least for me.

For weeks after her death, even until now, I’ve asked myself the questions:

What did this mean?

Is there really no one there?

Is death really the end?

Is there really nothing else?

Ultimately, I can’t accept that.

Not because of the religious answers constructed for me.

But because of my actual experiences with the spiritual and metaphysical.

As well as the experiences of others whom I trust as both intelligent and reliable.

The new pain I felt at the death of my dear friend has caused me to begin a search for answers that resonate within me. Answers that I can construct FOR MYSELF, instead of those that others construct for me.

It is sure to be a lifelong search whose answers will only be truly realized at my own death.

Therefore, I am in no hurry.

It is too hard to rush to this kind of thing.

Beyond the fact that I shall never really and completely know unless I die,

the very process of searching hurts.

Every time I approach a potential piece of information, I have to dig up my pain and hold it in my ghostly severed hand saying, “What do I do with this?”

The experience is much like poking that beating question with a stick; it doesn’t accomplish much and is painful anyway.

But sometimes the stick is electrified, and the question does something interesting--reacting to the shock. That reaction then becomes information gathered and filed away in my brain and heart.

One such moment recently came in the form of a poem, my best and most loved language:

Pass On

by Michael Lee

When searching for the lost remember 8 things.

1.

We are vessels. We are circuit boards

swallowing the electricity of life upon birth.

It wheels through us creating every moment,

the pulse of a story, the soft hums of labor and love.

In our last moment it will come rushing

from our chests and be given back to the wind.

When we die. We go everywhere.

2.

Newton said energy is neither created nor destroyed.

In the halls of my middle school I can still hear

my friend Stephen singing his favorite song.

In the gymnasium I can still hear

the way he dribbled that basketball like it was a mallet

and the earth was a xylophone.

With an ear to the Atlantic I can hear

the Titanic’s band playing her to sleep,

Music. Wind. Music. Wind.

3.

The day my grandfather passed away there was the strongest wind,

I could feel his gentle hands blowing away from me.

I knew then they were off to find someone

who needed them more than I did.

On average 1.8 people on earth die every second.

There is always a gust of wind somewhere.

4.

The day Stephen was murdered

everything that made us love him rushed from his knife wounds

as though his chest were an auditorium

his life an audience leaving single file.

Every ounce of him has been

wrapping around this world in a windstorm

I have been looking for him for 9 years.

5.

Our bodies are nothing more than hosts to a collection of brilliant things.

When someone dies I do not weep over polaroids or belongings,

I begin to look for the lightning that has left them,

I feel out the strongest breeze and take off running.

6.

After 9 years I found Stephen.

I passed a basketball court in Boston

the point guard dribbled like he had a stadium roaring in his palms

Wilt Chamberlain pumping in his feet,

his hands flashing like x-rays,

a cross-over, a wrap-around

rewinding, turn-tables cracking open,

camera-men turn flash bulbs to fireworks.

Seven games and he never missed a shot,

his hands were luminous.

Pulsing. Pulsing.

I asked him how long he’d been playing,

he said nine 9 years

7.

The theory of six degrees of separation

was never meant to show how many people we can find,

it was a set of directions for how to find the people we have lost.

I found your voice Stephen,

found it in a young boy in Michigan who was always singing,

his lungs flapping like sails

I found your smile in Australia,

a young girl’s teeth shining like the opera house in your neck,

I saw your one true love come to life on the asphalt of Boston.

8.

We are not created or destroyed,

we are constantly transferred, shifted and renewed.

Everything we are is given to us.

Death does not come when a body is too exhausted to live

Death comes, because the brilliance inside us can only be contained for so long.

We do not die. We pass on, pass on the lightning burning through our throats.

when you leave me I will not cry for you

I will run into the strongest wind I can find

and welcome you home.

-----

Besides the crying part, this is where I am right now.

My first answer about Death lies here:

seeing my dear friend... in the faces, words, and voices of students she has touched, in the smile of a woman with a book in her hand at our coffee shop, in the kind touch of the nail technician who uses her eyes instead of language, and even in the handwriting of a well-crafted note of encouragement.

I feel her in the wind, ruffling my hair and invading my senses with the rich smell of baked beans simmering on the stove, with the perfect taste of an Almond Joy bar, and with the amber glow of an interesting and well crafted beer.

Add to that my desire to honor her belief.

My friend saw God everywhere.

She was an authentic believer, not a constructed one.

She had as many icons as her small corner shine could hold.

She sought God her whole life.

She herself, within many organized structures and outside of them.

We talked of it many times.

I wish she were still here to be my spiritual sounding board.

But she is not, at least not in the same way that she was anyway.

Her absence is both catalyst and quicksand, as I’ve already explained.

However, something I know well is that pain is usually required for growth.

So I will engage.

In my quest for the Collective Divine, I have much work to do: reading and listening and watching and traveling.

But like my darling friend, I feel God everywhere:

in beauty and tragedy, light and darkness, joy and sorrow.

I always liked the Mormon idea that we could become Gods someday,

it was my take on evolution.

And maybe this is how it will be; our energy rushing out of us EVERYWHERE to join the electric and become godlike.

My contained human mind and heart wants it to be more like it was when those I love were alive, whole and organized and accessible.

But if, after I die, I go out to join them in the wind and in everything around me, maybe that desire will be left behind with my body.

I don’t know.

The most painful part is not the unknown, but the known and lost.

It is the missing.

It is the wanting.

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Understanding the Restoration of the Fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Access following Resources for personal study: Come Follow Me: Doctrine and Covenants 2025 – December 30 – January 5, 2025 Doctrine and Covenants Online Be sure to download the PDF that is at the end of this article for personal study and resource for this week’s Come Follow Me What does it mean to live in a world where the heavens are open, and truth is restored? For Latter-day Saints, the…

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Several historic Church history sites in Utah have been preserved by the Church for visitors to enjoy either in person or virtually. Learn more about them in your #ComeFollowMe study of the Doctrine and Covenants.

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Learn about the Church history sites in Wyoming that you can enjoy either in person or virtually.

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Learn about Church history sites in Iowa and Nebraska as part of your #ComeFollowMe study.

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Learn about Church history sites in Illinois as part of your #ComeFollowMe study.

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This is one in a series of articles about key #Church #history sites.

Several historic Church history sites in Missouri have been preserved by the Church for visitors to enjoy either in person or virtually.

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Visitor’s Guide to Church History Sites in Ohio. Great supplement to your #ComeFollowMe study this year.

Learn about #Kirtland Temple, historic town of Kirtland, Newel K. Whitney Store, Joseph & Emma home, etc.

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Visitor’s Guide to Church History Sites in Vermont: Joseph Smith Birthplace. Great supplement to your #ComeFollowMe study this year

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This guide to Church History Sites in New York and Pennsylvania can help you learn about the places where many of the events fundamental to the organization of the Church occurred:

The Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, Priesthood Restoration Site, Whitmer Farm, and Grandin Building all tell a story of faith, perseverance, and hope. They have been preserved by the Church for visitors to enjoy either in person or virtually.