Tag: faith
From Hope to Despair and Back Again: The Mysterious Power of Complaining
I have newfound respect for the marvelous power of complaining after an instructive experience in which I feel blessed and instructed by the hand of the Lord. Or call it…
Halvor and Hannah Ronning: Inspiring Missionaries to China
One of my favorite books on China portrays Chinese history in the past 120 years through the experiences of a remarkable family. The book, China Mission: A Personal History from…
Getting Nuclear with Doubt: Lessons from a Sixth-Grade Nerd
When I was in sixth grade, our teacher taught a science section on the nature of the atom. In our classroom we had a physical model with some wooden balls…
Trivial Miracles and Petty Prayer: How the Accuser Teaches a Man Not to Pray
Sometimes we create our own barriers to spiritual experiences. Many people, including some Latter-day Saints, struggle with the notion that God would or could answer individual prayers, especially those dealing…
Lawyers With Souls: Sang-Ick Han and Unexpected Help in Law School
I apologize for once quipping that the “Chicken Soup” book, Chicken Soup for the Lawyer’s Soul, was pulled from the press once the publisher realized that lawyers actually don’t have…
A Fellowship of Doubters
Terryl L. Givens’ “Letter to a Doubter” at the Mormon Interpreter is definitely worth a read, especially if you are struggling with the very normal and frequently healthy process of…
Faith, Reason, and the Resurrection
Based on a talk given in Hangzhou, China, on Easter Sunday, 2013. Fairly close to the original talk, but with added material, particularly in the last section. The discussion of…
When Evidence Isn’t
“The Effect of Prayer on God’s Attitude Toward Mankind” is a mathematical analysis of prayer’s impact that was written not by some crackpot, but by a Nobel Prize Winner, James…
“Eye Hath Not Seen”: Understanding the LDS Testimony
For those who want to understand the things of God and eternity only through the lenses attached to their own eyeballs, who can only believe what they can see, I…
Dealing with Our Personal Dissent
For many Latter-day Saints, there will be times when we disagree with a Church leader or even with a Church policy. First, we must understand that this is natural and…
