Starting to get it

Different passages will stand out to me when reading the scriptures.

On repeated reading, there will be different ones, but something in the phrasing or where you were in your life when reading or something makes it stand out. 

There are other passages that I first noticed because someone else shared them in a talk or lesson or conversation, but it meant something to them. Then the next time I happen to read there, that will stand out. There are verses that I still associate with certain people because they were so much a part of that impression.

Then there other times when people will mention how great some certain part is. They will use superlative words, and I remember that this part means a lot to them, but I'm not seeing it.

That tends to make me feel a little bit guilty, but also maybe a little bit skeptical of that guilt; is it really that great? Or are you just being a little bit too holy?

Anyway, one of those sections was Alma Chapter 5.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/alma/5?lang=eng  

I knew there were people who found it really meaningful, but I found it long. 

Alma has been going around to different cities trying to call people who are members to repentance. He gets different responses so says different things, but the one verse that started coming back to me was 26:

And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

There were two factors that brought it to mind.

One is that we know a lot of people from church that are no longer going. There are wide and varied reasons, but that feels like a loss.

One specifically was deeply influenced by the loss of a child. That wasn't the only reason, but she is not sure about the possibility of seeing that child again, which was pretty heartbreaking. 

The other factor was recently watching Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Movie.

In it you have one priest who is building up a kind of cult-like devotion through exclusion, and as well as one who is trying to get people to focus on the sustenance of daily bread, and the love is in the Gospel. 

There are a lot of interesting ideas (and a fair amount of weirdness and maybe it could have stood some tighter editing, but that's also a trend nowadays).

Somehow, in thinking about that issue where there is sustenance in faith and love -- which I feel -- and how hate and exclusion drives that out -- which I see all around -- that's when I started thinking about verse 26.

I ask that no one focus too much on whom I might have in mind; there are so many, with different reasons and who are at different places.

(And I don't want a repeat of this situation: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/12/my-facebook-post-blows-up-series.html) 

But as someone who is comforted and directed by faith (and a faith that is built in my church, despite being aware of its flaws), that loss saddens me. 

I also know that it can come back, if an opening is left.

I should note that my thought was also one verse out of sixty-two; there is a lot more in there.

I should add that the reason Alma was going around preaching was that there was starting to be wealth inequality and that the haves were looking down on and abusing the have-nots. Sound familiar? 

Those things also connect. Part of being able to feel it again is having felt it before. Relying on your riches can prevent it and envy is a problem. I liked that it said "envy" instead of "pride", because that made it more obvious that it was a barrier to relationships with other people. It was enmity.

The concepts connect, but we are assembling it one piece at a time.  

That is why I keep reading.