Spiritual Insights...and other stuff

I've been robbed. Someone out there, someone who’s totally miserable, has it out for me. And I know exactly who it is. Do you believe in little people? I do. They get up in the middle of the night and use some kind of thieving contraption to sap all my energy so when I wake up, I’m pooped--completely divested of my vivacity. All that’s left is a semi-liquid-like slop, which, upon hearing the alarm, clumsily spills out of bed onto the floor into a puddle of exhaustion.   I have attempted staying up all night, waiting for them to show up so I can laugh in their puny, little faces while I squish them, but they're too small to see so my efforts to stop them fail every time. I get out of bed in the morning only to find that they've made off with my energy yet again! It is MOST disconcerting, and I only hope I can find a way to exterminate these pests entirely, though I am surviving.  Things used to be worse, you know. If it weren't for some things I learned, they pr...

Amulek describes the atonement as " an  infinite  and  eternal   sacrifice" ( Alma 34:10). Nephi adds that it is "infinite for all mankind " (2 Nephi 25:16; emphasis added). Let's not get too theoretical here, but I think we will agree - and you mathematicians know well - that there are multiple levels of infinity. The level or kind of infinity that really caught my attention this week was mentioned in a segment written by Tad R. Callister on the BYU Religious Study Center's website under "Teaching the atonement." He writes that the atonement is "Infinite in time, both prospectively and retroactively," meaning that it redeems all mankind who lived before it was performed and all those who would live after it was performed. My question is, how could the atonement redeem all the people who lived before it even happened?  To back up Elder Callister, I'll share two scriptures. First, Jarom 1:11 said that the prophets taught the people ...

While exploring the wild recesses of YouTube this afternoon, I found myself funkily entranced by a 1982 Oliver Cheatham song called, "Everybody Wants To Be The Boss." Though written more than three decades ago, the song still seems to reflect contemporary society - we all wanna be top dog. Everyone seems to be gunning for president, CEO, supervisor - the list goes on. But what does it mean to be the boss? What are the responsibilities of being a leader? As it turns out, Ammon, a character in the Book of Mormon, is the one who answered this question for me. In the passage I was reading, Ammon and his homies were about to split up to go to different Lamanite cities to preach the word of God. It began with, " Now Ammon being the chief among them, or rather he did administer unto them" ( Alma 17:18 ). So Ammon was head honcho, and he "administered" unto them? Sounds to me like administration, like some kind of business venue. A dab peculiar for the BCs, if y...

While studying this week, I found a peculiar passage in Helaman chapter six referring to "the Lamb," which set me on quite the mental adventure. It all started when the Lamanites were preaching vigorously to convert the wicked Nephites, which they achieved. Many Nephites became "humble followers of God and the Lamb." ¹ Who's the Lamb? I looked to the New Testament to answer that question: when Jesus went to John the Baptist to get baptized, John sees Him and says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." ² So, Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the Lamb. In this post, I wanna focus more on His role as the Lamb and how we can more deeply understand this metaphor. Before I get into it, I found John's testimony of Jesus to be highly fascinating. He said, "Behold the Lamb of God." If we interpret that "of" to mean possession or some other association, Jesus is God's Lamb. I think we can agree on that. ...

Lately, I've been reading the Book of Mormon backwards. Moroni 10:33 to 1 Nephi 1:1. I don't know what brought me to do it, perhaps I needed to add little seasoning to my study. (I decided to read the individual verses the normal way, fyi. Reading every word backwards seemed ill-advised.) In today's reading, a few verses in Helaman 7 caught my attention. Nephi is on his tower calling Zarahemla to repentance. He bemoans their wicked state and asks, "Why has [God] forsaken you?" He subsequently answers this question himself: It is because ye have hardened your hearts; yea, ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd; yea, ye have provoked him to anger against you.¹ Nephi declares that the "good shepherd" is angry at the people of Zarahemla, who, by metaphorical implication, are His "sheep." Who is the good shepherd? Jesus Himself said, "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep ."² Diving into the metaphor, we find these...

What happens to you when you're hungry? I usually start losing focus on whatever I'm doing, maybe get a headache. I try to eat before I get too frustrated, but sometimes circumstances don't allow it. While reading my scriptures this week, I found all kinds of ways people reacted to hunger and it was rather intriguing, so I decided to make a list. First, I read about when Giddianhi got hungry in 3 Nephi 4. He went and laid siege on all the Nephites to try and murder them and steal their food. Here's what Mormon's abridgement of that says: 4 Therefore, there was no chance for the robbers to plunder and to obtain food, save it were to come up in open battle against the Nephites; That is what I call, "extreme hanger." Turns out it didn't work so well for Giddianhi and his gangsters: they were all slaughtered or imprisoned. None escaped. But still, I went ahead and wrote on my list: try to kill someone for their food Then I read about the widow ...

Have you ever tried explaining something to somebody and they just don't get it? You try saying it slowly, reordering the words, maybe in exasperation you try a different language, and they STILL don't understand. Things are warming up, and before you know it, you are practically livid and on the verge of exploding into conniptions because they can't comprehend this one thing. Finally, you say it as plainly and simply - and as loudly - as you can, and voila - they understand. I imagine our Heavenly Father and the Savior sometimes feel this way about us. Remember the time when Christ visited the Nephites after his resurrection? He commanded them to do away with contention and specifically admonished them that there be "no disputations among [them] concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been" (3 Nephi 11:28). They weren't understanding. There had been prophet after prophet teaching them the doctrine of Christ and they still didn't get...