I never did fall back asleep last night. My soul was in too much turmoil. So I decided to watch a movie to distract me. I think there was a little divine intervention at work because the movie I picked was exactly what I needed.
A friend reached out with a dilemma. He lives far away from the meeting place of his religious community. They use Zoom to broadcast their meetings for those who can't attend in-person. For many reasons, he avoids using proprietary software (software that is not free as in freedom), but he was seriously thinking about installing Zoom in this case. I can empathize with his dilemma. All of us have to make choices like this every day.
I don't know everything, but I know enough.
When a young Neil L. Anderson was preparing to serve his mission, he felt inadequate. He prayed: “Heavenly Father, how can I serve a mission when I know so little?” As he prayed, he had the impression: “You don’t know everything, but you know enough!”
Whenever I am struggling in body or in spirit, whenever I'm wrestling with confusion or doubts, I try to direct my thoughts to the plain and precious things I know about my faith, and how I came to know these things.
I think I first heard this song on a Christian radio station as I was driving one day. Scars in Heaven by Casting Crowns is a beautiful and comforting song for anyone who has lost a loved one.
It has become a tradition in my family to watch the 1994 version of Miracle on 34th Street around Thanksgiving. It’s one of the things we do to kick off the Christmas season. We watched it this evening.
Listening to one of my music playlists on random, I was reminded of the existence of a beautiful piece of music performed by the supremely talented Norwegian soprano Sissel.
A couple weeks ago I was perusing the #christian tag on Bandcamp and the first result that came up was an album called Future Foreverby Jonathan Ogden. I'd never heard of him or this album, but I gave the track One Day a listen and was hooked.
Today I had the opportunity to participate in a good Elders Quorum lesson and discussion about a talk by Elder D. Todd Christofferson called Our Relationship With God.
I was recently watching the film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and was struck by this observation:
Galadriel: Why the halfling? Gandalf: I don't know. Saruman believes that it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found it is the small things – everyday deeds of ordinary folk – that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.
A few days ago I was listening to the General Conference talk by Elder Jonathan S. Schmitt who spoke about the many names of Jesus Christ.