I’ve been pondering a scripture that many might find a peculiar scripture to study. I think value can be taken from almost any scripture.
1 Nephi 18:23 reads:
“And it came to pass that after we had sailed for the space of many days we did arrive at the promised land; and we went forth upon the land, and did pitch our tents, and we did call it the promised land.”
“The Rapture,” the “Second Coming,” the “Millennium,” the “End of Times,” it comes in many different terms. There’s a belief in a lot of Christianity that the end will come overnight, Christ will appear, and the millennium will be ushered in.
From what I’ve read and studied and what modern revelation tells us, this will not be the case. There will be a long, drawn out period of famine, war, disease, fires, earthquakes, and other natural disasters that will go on for some time before Christ returns.
Check out that list. War. Disease. Fire. Sound familiar?
The fall of society and of God’s chosen land (United States of America) will come before the Millennium is ushered in. The faith of the saints, the believers of Christ, will be tested in serious and tragic ways. There will be much suffering. If your foundation and faith in Christ is not firm before it comes you could find yourself asking, “Why is God letting this happen?”
We’ve always known this was going to happen. The scriptures have talked about our day since the beginning of time. Now we’re seeing it happen.
Back to 1 Nephi 18:23 (with some emphasis added):
“And it came to pass that after we had sailed for the space of many days we did arrive at the promised land; and we went forth upon the land, and did pitch our tents, and we did call it the promised land.”
Many estimates put that “space of many days” that Lehi and his family sailed as at least 1-2 years. That’s 1-2 years on a cramped boat sailing across the ocean. After many days they finally arrived at the promised land.
I believe this will be similar to how Christ’s coming will approach us. We will spend many days being tossed about by the winds and waves. We will be required to endure a lot of suffering before we can arrive at the promised land.
As things get more difficult, I pray that each of us individually considers how strong our faith in Christ truly is. It’s easy today to casually say, “I believe in Jesus Christ.” But what about when it’s hard? What about when your life is in jeopardy because of that belief? Will you still profess Him who will never turn His back on you?
Finally, while things are scary in our world, and only getting scarier, it’s important to remember Romans 8:35-39:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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, UtahSt. George, UtahLas 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.
Let’s take a quick trip through history. Bear with me on the history recap, I swear it will be brief.
The Revolutionary War started in 1775.
Some rag-tag colonists decided to stand up to and fight for independence from the greatest power in the world. I’ll say that again, a group of mostly untrained men decided to take on the greatest military force on earth at that time. Louder for those in the back, a group of settlers stood up to THE world superpower.
Can you believe how truly insane that was? Just that they revolted was crazy. Surely that got smashed into submission…right? WRONG!
They won! Independence. How? Tons of stories from that time point to divine intervention. We can save those for another day.
244 years ago, July 4, 1776 The Declaration of Independence was signed.
1777 The Articles of Confederation were written. This would be the first constitution of the United States.
1787 The Constitution we have today was written.
1791 the Bill of Rights was written for the United States.
Amendment I of that Bill of Rights:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
1805 The Prophet Joseph Smith was born.
1820 God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith.
1827 Joseph Smith received the golden plates.
1830 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Christ’s restored church was re-established on the earth.
Fourteen short years after the Bill of Rights was established and set forth the freedom of religion in this choice nation a prophet was born. 29 years after the established freedom of religion Heavenly Father appeared to His prophet. Four short decades after the Bill of Rights was ratified Christ’s Church was restored.
Think about that for a moment. Human history spanning thousands of years. Yet, somehow, within 15 years of a free nation set forth the guidelines for free religion, a boy was born who 15 years later would claim visitation from God the Father. He would establish a church from meager means. Within 200 years that church would have millions of members across the globe.
Talk about all the coincidences.
It was less than 40 years after freedom of religion was established in the United States of America that the Church of Jesus Christ was organized.
What spectacular timing.
I know there aren’t coincidences in God’s plan. I know he reared up and prepared inspired, God-loving, intelligent men to establish this great nation. Men who desired freedom above all else. I know that soon after they did their part in establishing this free country it was finally time in God’s plan to establish His Church. There had to be a place for the Church to be restored first. There was nowhere else in the world the Church of Jesus Christ could have been established.
God works in miraculous and spectacular ways for His purposes.
I know the exact timing of Joseph Smith’s birth and the exact timing of the freedom of the United States were no coincidence. They were planned out long ago.
On this Fourth of July I’m grateful to our founding fathers.
I’m grateful to Joseph Smith.
More than anything I’m grateful to God for His perfect plan.
I’m grateful for a country where I can worship whom, how, and where I please. I’m grateful that I can pray in private or public. I’m grateful to be born in a country free. I’m grateful that I’ve never been truly persecuted for my religious beliefs. We live in a special country. We live in a country founded on true principles: freedom, liberty, and equality. I know it took some time for those principles to be truly established and I know we’re still working on some of those principles. But the principles are there. There are still parts of the world, many parts of the world, where freedom, liberty, and equality are not even considered.
The most important principle of all that this nation was founded on: faith and belief in God.
I know right now America is in a predicament. We have turned from God. God gave us this great nation and helped its establishment. Now we spit on Him and marvel at our own great strength and power. We’re American! THE Global Superpower. Doesn’t that sound familiar. We know what happens to global superpowers that rely on their own strength.
If we don’t humble ourselves and confess to whom we owe all, God in Heaven, He will take back His land. We are only as strong and powerful as our faith in God allows. Like England during the Revolutionary War we will fall if our pride is not removed. We must return to God. He founded this country and it will continue to degrade until we return to the source of all strength. It’s time to repent.
I love this country. I hope we can return to our principles and be better. I hope we can love God and keep Him here with us.
I’ve tried to think if there’s something I can write right now. There’s nothing I can write that will change the world. That’s desperately what I’d like to do. Maybe I could write something that makes a tiny difference. A friend of mine who is in a better position to speak on the pain being experienced by so many said in a video that it helps when we speak up. So, I’m speaking up.
I’ve tried to decide if there’s something I can write for my black brothers and sisters.
Let me start there. I’m not saying African American. No one calls me Finnish-American. I am American. My brothers and sisters aren’t African American. Few of my friends have ever been to Africa. They’re as American as I am.
I’m going to give a personal anecdote that taught me something. Before you read, know going in, this is not me giving a commentary about how discrimination happens to white people too or to share that we are all discriminated against. Please get to my point at the end of the story.
One early evening a couple years ago Beth and I left my condo to go get food. I took a right turn a bit hastily through a red light, I didn’t yield as I should have. I saw the police officer behind me. He followed me briefly and pulled me over. He came to my window. He was a young, white, male officer. Couldn’t have been older than 30. He approached my window and asked for license and registration. I handed it to him.
He took my information back to his vehicle. He came back and discussed why he pulled me over. I knew why.
He was not being pleasant. He was not kind. He seemed angry at the inconvenience of having to pull me over. He proceeded to tell me that recently someone was killed at a crosswalk because someone like me didn’t yield. I apologized and said I understood. I made a mistake and shouldn’t drive like that through crosswalks. To this day I think about it almost every time I approach a red light. I should have been more cautious.
The officer was very…unkind. I don’t know how else to describe it. His tone, his demeanor, his stance, everything was aggressive. Then he looked in at Beth and told her to give him her license. She told him she didn’t have her license since she wasn’t driving. This is where the whole situation turned. He got really angry. He told her she was required to provide her identification, and not in a nice way. Beth said that wasn’t true. She didn’t say it in a nasty way, just stated that wasn’t true and anyways she didn’t have her license on her.
He then continued by saying that he didn’t know if we had just stolen this car and he needed her license to verify that, and that she was required to provide it. He had my license and registration for my car in his hands so he knew the car wasn’t stolen. I politely stated I lived just down the street and we could get her license if it was necessary. But now he was being nasty and Beth was upset. He started aggressively telling her, basically, that she was dumb for thinking she didn’t need her license when she left the house.
He got out a pen and paper and took down her information and looked her up. He then told us he had bigger criminals to catch and to get out of here. He didn’t give me a ticket, just told us to leave. He told us we wasted his time because he wanted to catch criminals.
For those wondering – I’ve since checked the legality of leaving your home without identification. “It is absolutely not illegal to walk around on the street without ID in the United States of America. Under the 4th Amendment of the Constitution you are secure from unreasonable searches and providing your identification is a form of search.”
I left that interaction feeling uncomfortable. Beth was extremely upset. I felt uneasy. I felt a little abused. I felt like a man took an opportunity from a position of power to make me feel small, to insult my girlfriend, to show his power.
I’ve told this story to lead to one big, important point:
At no point in that interaction did I ever fear for my life or fear for the safety of my (then) girlfriend. It was uncomfortable. That was it. I never felt truly threatened. I’ve since thought what it would be like to be in that situation, to feel everything I felt that day, with the added feeling that my life might be in danger. I’ll likely never know what that feels like.
I know there are good cops everywhere. I know only some are bad. Let’s get that completely out of the way. That is not what this is about.
That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about fear and oppression. I don’t fear like that. Why? Why do some of my brothers and sisters have to fear?
The title of this post is White Privilege. I want to say something I think I’ve realized far too late. Saying white people have white privilege isn’t an insult to white people. I am white. There may have been a time when I heard “white privilege” and took offense to this phrase. Not anymore. It’s time we accept that we’ve been given a leg up compared to so many others. White privilege isn’t a personal attack on me. It’s a fact. We have to stop taking these statements of fact as an insult. They’re not. They’re facts.
I’m sorry. I know these words don’t change anything. I know things need to change. I’m sorry I don’t know how to help change it. I’m sorry I don’t know how to bring more love into the hearts of every person here. I’m sorry there are people that hate. I’m sorry there are people who discriminate. I’m sorry there are people that kill. I’m sorry there are people without empathy when a man is begging for air. I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t change anything.
I love my black brothers and sisters. I’m sorry you have to fear. It’s not right.
I’d like to share two things a friend of mine shared, two ways we can start to make a small difference.
Stop saying the N word. Don’t say it. Ever.
Don’t let the little comments slide by. When you hear racist remarks or comments, speak up. Say something.
All I can do is speak up, say my part. I know it’s not much. I love you. Many more people love you than you realize. There is more good in the world than we’re lead to believe. I have to believe that. I have to hold on to that. I know that doesn’t change the world. All I can do is hope. Hope that love will eventually prevail. Hope that discrimination and hate will end. Maybe it won’t in this life. Or maybe we can still change. Maybe we can still make a difference.
_________________________
These are some links, videos, music that I’ve viewed recently that have impacted me. Please listen and read:
President Nelson Calls for Repentance in Statement on Racism:
I want to write about what I learned when I struggled with something at church. I apologize for not going into specifics because I don’t want that to be the point. I want to write about what I learned from my struggle. To be clear, it was not a faith crisis. It was a policy/decision that I struggled with. I think almost all of us can relate to this for some topic, to some extent.
The first thing I learned is that God will speak peace to us, if we need it and if we can accept it. In my case I was questioning something and asking myself, “was that right?” I was pretty worked up about it. I was upset and confused. At some point, I stopped thinking about it. At the time I didn’t realize what was happening. I somehow moved on. I came to a feeling of peace about it. Initially, I attributed it to my general lack of caring about things I can’t control. But then it worked itself out, or God worked it out, and I look back and realize He spoke peace to me. I can almost hear Him, “Peace, my son. Don’t you know my hand is in these things? Don’t you know I will care for my children? Have faith.”
I believe God blessed and helped me. I believe the Holy Ghost spoke peace to my soul. I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t even question it. Maybe I showed a fraction of faith and God rewarded me with peace. I more think He loves me and gave me that peace because I needed it. Either way it became a non-issue for me. Things would work out.
But, no matter our faults or potential mistakes, God will make things happen the way they need to happen.
I learned an important lesson. Despite how I think things should go or how I think things should be done, God has an order to His church. Decisions are made by those in authority. End of story. Satan ended up where he was because he fought God’s authority.
This gets me into the second thing I learned.
Throughout history, there have been things that are hard for people to understand. This has happened since before the restoration of the gospel. For the entirety of human history, and especially Christ’s Church, there have been aspects of it that man couldn’t understand, comprehend, or sometimes accept. We fall into this recency bias where we think we’re the only ones who struggle with church policy. In Adam’s day, his children had issues with “church policy.” In Moses’s day the Israelites disagreed with him often. In Joseph Smith’s day and up to right now with Russell M. Nelson, there are policies that we don’t understand. This isn’t unique to me. This is constant throughout the history of man.
In my opinion, it is okay to question. The restoration started with a question. We must be careful with doubt. Doubt can be a part of faith; in fact, it is a part of faith. If there weren’t some small part of doubt, it wouldn’t be faith. It would be something known. What we must be sure of is that our faith is stronger than our doubt.
The third thing I’ve always known but have learned to truly appreciate is that our testimony must be based on something sure. If our testimony is based on Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon, it will all work out.
My testimony is built on something much bigger than any policy.
My testimony is built on Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith being a prophet of God, and the Book of Mormon being an inspired and true translation of an ancient book, given to us by God’s hand. I know these things because I’ve prayed about them. I know these things because I’ve felt them. Some recent archaeological discovery is not going to dissuade me from the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I won’t let some recent finding by society make me doubt things of God.
I refuse to let my testimony of the important things be shaken by a policy. We must do our best not to get hung up on a moment. I can’t fully comprehend eternity but I still try to put things into an eternal perspective. The bigger picture is that God guides this church. It doesn’t mean our issues, doubts, and questions will be resolved today, next week, next month, or even in this life. But it will get resolved. I know that. And if you’re experiencing a faith crisis I would suggest praying. Don’t always ask for your question to get answered or for it to be “resolved” by your definition. Ask for peace. And then be willing to accept that peace and move on. That’s important. You will receive peace. But if you dwell and dwell and dwell on the doubt the peace will leave, Satan will win back his portion. Have faith that your question will be answered at some point and move forward. I know that’s easier said than done in many instances.
There are so many things I don’t understand. Faith comes with the hope that I’ll one day understand.
I think that’s the lesson to take from this. God is watching. He loves us. Things will work the way they need to. When we get ourselves worked up, worried, concerned, frustrated, even angry, He can speak peace to our souls if we seek it. He can speak peace to our souls even if we don’t know how desperately we need it.
I’ll end with a quote I heard from a recent meditation:
“If we can accept that life has changed even though it’s hard, if we can surrender to the fact that all we can do is move on then we won’t experience the same level of stress we would have had we resisted our circumstances. And if we can remind ourselves that this pain we’re feeling will change, that it will soften… we’ll heal and feel joy again much sooner. So, in times when there’s nothing that we can do to change our circumstances, in times we feel stressed and uncertain and overwhelmed, the most kind and compassionate thing we can do for ourselves is to surrender to what is.”
I would add, surrender to God. If we surrender to Him, He will take care of us.
No Coincidences 