No Coincidences

Tag: faith

Faith and Signs

3 Nephi chapter 2 is a fascinating and important part of the Book of Mormon. It’s especially important to our day. There’s a chance our moment in history could be parallel to this time in the Book of Mormon record.

The start of chapter 2 tells us that despite many signs, wonders, and prophesied events coming about, the people continued to harden their hearts and scoff at the idea of a being like Jesus Christ, the Son of God, ever visiting them.

Verse 8 reads:

“Now the Nephites began to reckon their time from this period when the sign was given, or from the coming of Christ; therefore, nine years had passed away.”

There are two important points I want to make here.

First, many miraculous signs happened. This resulted in an extremely short-lived conversion.

3 Nephi 1:22 in part reads:

“the more part of the people did believe, and were converted unto the Lord.”

A mere 3 years (3 years!) and we have 3 Nephi 2:1:

“the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from heaven, insomuch that they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds..”

We see here how an outward sign can have a bolstering effect on faith, but ultimately signs create temporary faith. The people didn’t do the necessary work to grow, strengthen, and develop their faith. Within 3 years those signs were a distant memory. Their day to day deeds and thoughts were what shaped them. Those who continued to pray, look for Christ, and study the words of the prophets looked forward to a miraculous day. Those who saw a sign and only momentarily changed their thinking or habits soon fell back into their disbelieving and hard-hearted ways.

Terrance Szink says, “the conversion was the result of an outward sign and required no work on the part of the people. They had seen the sign but, for the most part, they did not sustain their faith.”

Faith must be practiced daily. If not, it will die like a flower without water. We are entering a time just like this time in the Book of Mormon. We are entering a time when signs will become common. Miraculous events will happen around us. How many around us will harden their hearts and not see what is right in front of them?

There will come a time when Biblical prophesies will start to be more obvious. There are already signs around us that have been prophesied for centuries. These signs will become more obvious. This will only temporarily make people look to God, if it does at all. Soon people will scoff at believers. People will speak of science and coincidence. Many will say Christ is not coming because He doesn’t come in their expected timing. Christ will come exactly when He intends to.

The second point I want to make is more just an interesting thought.

How funny is it that a vast majority of the people in the Book of Mormon quickly forgot the signs they’d seen? Yet, as a whole, the people changed how they kept track of time. They started to speak of years in terms of the time since the sign appeared. How ironic is that? These people that didn’t believe the sign still acknowledged it was important enough that they changed how they tracked time.

It’s reminiscent of today. As a society we use the year 2020 as the time since Christ’s birth. Yet, how many people among us today don’t even believe in Jesus Christ? How many don’t believe He was the Son of God? He was important enough for us to mark our calendar by Him but not important enough to actually believe in Him.

I believe many will have to answer for this hypocrisy one day. The signs of Christ are obvious. The impact He had on the world are so profound, and yet many still deny. One day we will all have to stand before God and either accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, or reject Him. I hope on that day our hearts are not hardened and we don’t deny the grace and love that will be right before us.

November 20, 2020
The Glory of the Sun

I recently finished a book that was so packed with wisdom I couldn’t come close to taking it all in. Every page provided a new insight. Every thought was provoking. It is amazing to walk through the minds of men and women so in touch with the spirit or some form of knowledge I don’t yet have. It’s my favorite part of reading. From reading his words and thoughts I could feel his closeness to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and therefore come closer to them myself.

The name of the book was The glory of the sun which refers to 1 Corinthians 15:41:

“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.”

Doctrine and Covenants 76:70 reads:

“These are they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical.”

Sterling W. Sill, author of this book, was a general authority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was asked to share a series of gospel messages each week for a year over the radio. The series was called “Sunday Evening from Temple Square.” Those 52 addresses were put into this book. It’s amazing to see that so many unique and powerful messages can come from one individual.

Sterling W. Sill

Every message was so good, I could randomly turn to a page and share an important thought. There was one in particular I found pertinent to our current moment in history.

Elder Sill shared his messages at the height of the cold war so there is an emphasis of freedom and liberty throughout.

In one of his addresses titled “Five grains of Corn” Elder Sill reviewed the custom of Thanksgiving. Elder Sill pointed out that Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday. It is a day we give thanks to our ancestors who bravely came here and suffered through much hunger, affliction, and death. He reminded me that during Thanksgiving we give “deep gratitude.. for the rich productivity of American soil.”

I believe it is important for us to remember the blessed nation we are fortunate to live in. The United States of America is a chosen land. One thought Elder Sill presented was the idea that we live more lavishly and comfortably today than any king in history. He pointed out that if we had to live as King Solomon, even in all the glory of his palace and kingdom, it would be a great hardship to us.

What a thought! The average person in America lives with more comfort than any historical king! How blessed we are and how often we take for granted this great nation we live in. It truly is a promised land.

What has always separated America from any other nation is our freedom – the freedom that gives us the ability to worship our God however we please. If you look at the short history of the United States it becomes quickly apparent what separates us. It is the freedom we enjoy, particularly religious freedom. It saddens me that as a nation we are turning from the God who has so blessed us. It is part of the agency God has given us, the freedom this nation is founded on, that currently allows so many to turn from God.

This paragraph from the book rings so familiar to our current landscape that I will quote it in whole. Elder Sill says:

“In the United States we have just gone through a great political election to decide who would represent us in the governing councils of our country for the next four years. We have been sharply divided on issues and people. We have settled the matter by an appeal to the ballot box. No blood was shed, no life was in danger, no one had any thought of trying to liquidate his opponent. No one even pounded with his shoe or threatened to throw it at anyone. Now all Americans will settle down and give full support to the government that they, under God, have created. Now we will all unite in building a greater America and help to carry out our divine mission to promote freedom, justice, and happiness in the world.”

Election day is tomorrow. It is my sincere prayer that we as a nation can unite and support whoever wins this election. It is my prayer that there is no bloodshed, danger, threats, or pounding of feat.

The final and important point Elder Sill gives in this message is about our faith in God that I have already mentioned. Specifically, the devotion to His Son, Jesus Christ.

The Mayflower Compact, written by those coming to settle a new America reads, “We whose names are underwritten have undertaken for the glory of God to establish in Virginia the first colony for the advancement of the Christian faith.”

The New England Federation Compact Agreement reads similarly, “We all have come into these parts of America with one and the same end, namely to advance the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I hope we can remember our Thanksgiving for this promised land. I hope we can remember the freedoms and liberties we enjoy, and how great it is to be a part of the democratic process. Finally, I hope we can remember who it is our ancestors came to America to serve, who’s kingdom they wished to establish.

“America was established as a kind of laboratory or experiment station to show what would happen to any people who cared and dared to follow Jesus Christ.” – Elder Sill.

How blessed our ancestors were and how blessed we’ve been as we’ve looked to Jesus Christ. I hope that can continue.

November 2, 2020
How did I get here?

What is my goal in writing this blog?

Hopefully to uplift someone, anyone. Believer, nonbeliever. Member of the Church of Jesus Christ, member of any church, member of no church. I’d like to teach people who know nothing about this faith some of what I believe. I’d like to share with members of my faith the things that have impacted my testimony.

Recently a new motivation has emerged. With a daughter on the way I realize one day she can read all this. Whether or not anyone reads any of this. One day my daughter might.

Right now, I’m posting individual posts that are unrelated to each other. Mostly my thoughts and musings. As I post more, I plan on categorizing posts into certain sections. If someone could come to this page and read a quick one to two-page entry and leave slightly uplifted, that’s my ultimate goal. Most of my writing I hope to be somewhat thought provoking. Just things I’ve thought about or ideas and concepts that have really impacted me and changed the way I’ve looked at life.

I hope for this to be informational. I was greatly impacted by the writing of a man, John Pontius. As I read more, I’m impacted by the writings of many people who took the time to put thoughts on paper. Maybe something I write one day will help someone. I also hope to discuss what I feel makes the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ special. I hope for people not of my faith to read, and maybe have something stirred in their souls. Something that reminds them of where they came from, and maybe have a desire to learn more about Christ’s Church and what makes it so important.

As I write I’ll share a lot about me. I wanted a section to describe, briefly, who I am and how I got here.

Anybody reading on my page will immediately notice the strong religious theme. It’s what I think about most. For a portion of my life, it was not this way.

About me:

I was born in Payson, Utah in 1990. I moved to St. George, Utah when I was ~5. I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada when I was ~9. I lived in three houses from ages 9 to 18 in Las Vegas. We moved a lot and that was always difficult for me while growing up.

Payson, Utah

St. George, Utah

Las Vegas, Nevada

In 2009 I moved to Arizona to go to Arizona State University. I decided early on I didn’t want to go to UNLV (University of Nevada Las Vegas) or UNR (University of Nevada Reno). I wanted to get out of Nevada, I wanted a fresh start. I had no family in Arizona. Las Vegas wasn’t far, but I would be completely on my own.

I still remember when I was driving to Arizona for orientation with my mom. She got sick on the way and we stopped. I think we were in Boulder City, about an hour into the drive. I took her to the emergency room. My dad drove there to be with my mom. I had to be at orientation the next morning. I drove to Arizona by myself. It was the first time I’d driven that kind of distance alone and was symbolic of me becoming independent.

I went to ASU for five semesters. I studied construction management. I always did well in high school with minimal effort. I’m one of those obnoxious individuals who brags about never studying in high school. Boy did I learn my lesson once I got to college. My grades, with zero work ethic and desire, quickly reflected my effort. It didn’t help that I soon realized I wasn’t interested in what I was studying. Construction management can be interesting, but it wasn’t for me. There’s only so much I could take learning about the strength of concrete.

Like if you get the reference

My junior year I officially dropped out of college with (of course) the intention of going back and finishing once I found my passion. I say “of course” because that’s what we all say. During school I found that I was much more interested in parties, poker, and basketball than I was in learning about safety standards of construction sites. When I stopped going to school I continued to live on campus and enjoy college life, minus the higher education part. I spent a full year couch surfing. I’m sheepish to admit now, but I look back fondly on that year. It was a year spent staying up until 5am, waking up at 1pm, sneaking into the student rec center to play basketball, getting food, finding a party, rinse/repeat. It may sound like a pathetic use of time but it’s something I think I needed to experience.

If my daughter ever reads this – not everyone needs to experience this. That’s part of why I’m writing. To show that I made mistakes and lived life a certain way. Ultimately, I can’t regret it because it eventually got me to where I am today. I have learned through my own experiences where true happiness exists. True happiness comes from serving others, giving yourself to something bigger than yourself. True happiness comes from loving others. I had to go a round-about way to learn what’s important in life. Not everyone has to make things as difficult as I made things for myself.

During my time couch surfing, I was working odd jobs here and there to have enough money for food and extra-curricular activities. I went to Utah near the end of this adventure for some “soul searching.” After “finding myself,” or not finding myself, I ended up back in Arizona working as a helpdesk tech for two companies. I went with one of those companies 3 years later when they switched offices and took over as the Systems Administrator. I now (as of 2020) work for a managed services provider supporting various companies with their technology needs.

As I write this blurb about my journey and my past, many thoughts come to mind of what I learned along the way. I might refer back to this when I need a topic to write about. Like my lack of desire studying something I wasn’t passionate about or the years spent partying and what that taught me about what I want out of life.

Faith-wise, I started falling away from the church, due to my choices, when I was 16. I always had a testimony of this restored church, of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and Jesus Christ. That never changed. Despite my many mistakes and many wrong decisions, I always knew it was true. When I went to ASU I lost contact with the church completely. It amazes me to look back and realize I didn’t even know where the church building/institute building/anything related to the church was on campus. It’s like I’d lost connection with that part of me.

Throughout the years I’d attempt half-heartedly to return to church. It never stuck. I was completely inactive from about 18-25. Seven long years of inactivity.

As of this year, 2020, I’ve been back at church for four years and never been happier. I hope to express through my writing the joy the gospel has brought me and share some of my experiences that can maybe help others. That’s the hope. I’ve felt drawn to writing these entries so if one person is helped it’s a major win.

And if all these hopes fail, I’ll at least be able to look back on everything I’ve written. One day I can show my daughter and she can know I always believed. She can see it wasn’t always easy. She can see life has ups and downs, but it will work out. Have faith. That makes this worth writing.

August 13, 2020
Greyhound
I don’t intend to start reviewing movies, but I thought this was worth it for a few reasons:
1. Seems to be getting some hype as Apple TV’s shake up to the streaming game.
2. I enjoy historical movies more and more as I get older and more boring.
3. Tom
4. Hanks
5. Faith element
6. Bad Germans
Tom Hanks is the captain now, right where he belongs.

I’m not going to do research into the truth of this movie or the historical accuracy, it was good, I liked it, leave it at that. I may get the book and read it at some point.

Midway through I said to Beth, I can already hear the navy nerds, “That is NOT how that happens!”

Doesn’t matter. It felt real to me. It felt like I was on a Destroyer, it felt suspenseful, it was a good movie. Also, it had Tom Hanks. Does anybody truly dislike Tom Hanks? If you do, please let me know.

My favorite part of the whole movie, and I truly don’t mean this as an insult to the movie, the runtime. A short, blissful, 1 hour and 30 minutes. Beth and I have high hopes that the trend of 2 hour plus movies will go extinct and we can get back to a less ridiculous 70-90 minute timeline.

Do you ever think back to why we (my generation) loved original Disney movies so much? They were never much longer than an hour. As it should be.

Another refreshing part of this movie was the faith element. I don’t remember the last time I saw a movie that depicted a strong man who relied on faith. Tom Hanks’s character is clearly depicted as a man of faith.

Maybe that’s why I loved the movie so much. In some small way I felt myself taken back to a time where the world didn’t shun God so aggressively. In fact, that was a time where faith was all people had as the world was at war and people had true fear about what future their children would grow up in.

There was the added element of bad Germans. Life is rarely as simplified as movies make it, but the man of faith vs cliché heartless German bad guys made it even easier to root for the good guys.

If you like Tom Hanks check out this movie.

If you liked Dunkirk, this was very different, but obviously has the similar sea-themed war movie dynamic. I really liked it. It kept me engaged throughout. It was suspenseful, very enjoyable.

Did I mention it was 90 minutes? So, if you do hate it, go watch a one hour episode of anything else stupid that you can stream and then realize, ‘huh, at least I feel like I learned something about an important part of our history instead of about a meth-head who likes tigers.’ Let some good stuff get in your system every once in a while. This movie was good stuff.
July 23, 2020
My Coincidences

Have you ever noticed how easily we forget? It’s a cliché statement on human nature – “humans have short memories,” but It’s so true. Have you ever walked into work on Monday and been asked what you did over the weekend… and not be able to think of anything? Sometimes it takes me 5-10 minutes to think of what I did 1 and 2 DAYS ago, never mind years.

Soon after I came back to church, I started keeping track of “coincidences” that I experienced. It was my way of taking note of God’s daily influence in my life. It’s a list of those answered prayers, small moments that seemed significant, things just working out. I keep this list so I never forget God’s hand in my daily life. I’ll fluctuate in how good I am at keeping the list. Sometimes I’ll go weeks or months without adding anything.

If I’m going to name my blog nocoincidences I gotta back it up with some data.

My entries go back to 2016. Four years of “coincidences.” 101 total entries.

I’ve found it extremely helpful to look back on and remember how blessed I’ve been. Even when things are hard, God is there. I would recommend this practice to anyone.

My experiences vary from something I study before church being mentioned that day in someone’s talk, that always makes me pay attention; to the postcard I received the day I was wondering where to go to church. There are tons of small moments that can become big moments.

Reading back through them I realize most of them I can’t explain. It was something I felt or something only I could appreciate. Kind of like faith. Even if you’re explaining faith to someone else with faith, your experience with faith will always be unique. My “coincidences” as I call them are mine, and extremely personal.

One thing I notice as I read through these notes is even today, I don’t know the significance. That night I felt a weird feeling as I was going to bed and decided to check the kitchen only to notice I left the oven on. Was the house going to burn down? I don’t know. What I do know is the feeling I had to go back to the kitchen was distinct, and obvious. God knows what would have happened, that’s enough for me.

There are many moments at work. Moments of frustration, anxiety, worry. Then I pray and it somehow works out. The answer I’ve been staring at jumps out at me, someone calls and helps, I’m given more time, a boss shows sympathy. These blessings come in many ways. If I’m not looking for them, I would miss them every time.

Look for the blessings in your life. If you don’t look for them it’s easy to feel alone or like things never work out. Write down all the blessings in your life, everything you’re grateful for. Look at all the moments that just work out and realize you’re being watched. Look at all your “coincidences” and appreciate them. I have 101 coincidences I’ve written down in 4 years. 101. It will be so amazing to one day stand before my Father in Heaven. He will laugh jovially at my 101 remembrances and He will open my Book of Life and show me the countless, infinite times His hand was with me. That will be a good day.

May 16, 2020