And Yet, We Believe

Talking about hope can go in so many different directions. We try to keep it away from a toxic positivity version as much as we can. Hope can be in specific things or more broad.

In this episode, we talk about the story from the Bible where Jesus joins two men on the road to Emmaus. Join us as we dive into what we can learn about hope from this story. 

We all have a bunch of different things that make up our identity—from our favorite sports teams to our preferred political party. The problem comes when those things get in the way of living a Christ-like life. If a part of our identity is making us hateful toward another group of people, then our priorities are mixed up.

Is change possible in the church? We may not have access to make official changes for the whole church, but we can absolutely advocate for change in our homes and wards. As Sister Becky Craven said, “Enduring to the end means changing to the end.” Change may be scary, but it is necessary as we work to build Zion here on earth.

Mercy might be the only thing that can heal our society. We talk in this episode about how showing mercy means recognizing and centering the human dignity in another person. It doesn’t mean excusing behavior, but it does mean seeking to understand even those who are wildly different from us.

What does it really mean to repent? And is that the same thing as being forgiven? In the Church we tend to teach repentance as being a transactional list of steps, when it may be more about just turning our hearts to God.

Receiving revelation can be messy. We always thought the leadership of the church received revelation as a complete and prepared package, possibly through a light-filled conduit directly from God. But we have recently learned that the process could look quite different. We also discuss what personal revelation looks like and how we may need to stretch beyond our current capabilities to figure out how we receive revelation.

We hear a lot about "traditional family values" around us in society today--but it doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. Are we loving our neighbor when their family looks different from ours? Are we trying to be as loving and inclusive as the Savior was?

"Lord, is it I?" Is there a more humbling and difficult question we are called to ask? In this episode, we get into some scriptures and some behavioral psychology, and we talk about the divided and difficult issues our American society is facing right now. How can we be peacemakers in the myriad of conversations happening online right now? We might need to start by asking, Lord, is it I?

This was a great and vulnerable conversation. We almost never hear about how patriarchy harms men, both in the Church and in society. But it's a real thing, showing up as suppressed and unprocessed emotions, worthiness anxiety, and in countless other ways. And this means even more to us, as the parents of four boys.

We all go through this process--order, disorder, reorder. But sometimes just knowing that it's a process, and that there's something that comes after the painful disorder, is enough to keep us pushing through.

Raise your hand if you feel like you are never doing quite enough at church? Unfortunately, we have adopted a culture of always needing to do "more."

More ministering.

More temple attendance.

More service.

More scripture reading.

Those can all be good things, but not if they make us overwhelmed or over-burdened. The gospel isn't a checklist that keeps growing into eternity.

In this episode, we talked about times from scripture and Church history when actions were attributed to God that don't jive with the idea of our Heavenly Parents loving all of Their children--and how to reconcile that.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into certainty.

Key takeaway: certainty is the opposite of faith!

We try hard for the things we post to be faith-promoting, even if we're talking about difficult things. There is space in this church for people who have questions and concerns, but still love the gospel.

That's us. Here is a top 5 from each of us on things we love about the gospel, even as question-having, deconstructing, finding-where-we-fit Latter-day Saints.

In this episode, we talk about living others "too much" but also why we feel a need to pass judgment on others. Why do we do this?! Is there a time or place where we have finally "arrived" and we get to judge others freely? Will any of us on earth ever get to cast that first stone?

We don't think that's how it works. Watch the video and let us know what you think!