In an era of pointing fingers, prophets redirect us back to our own hearts

At a time of mounting global malaise, commotion and hostility, many around the world are looking for a reason to hold onto some hope for the future. This weekend, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke directly to anyone seeking something more.
“In a coming day, Jesus Christ will return to the earth as the millennial Messiah,” said President Russell M. Nelson in his concluding remarks Sunday afternoon — citing the Biblical prophecy found in Isaiah that “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
Latter-day Saints really do believe these days we live in are special. “The best is yet to come, my dear brothers and sisters, because the Savior is coming again!” the centenarian prophet said. “Today, I call upon you to rededicate your lives to Jesus Christ.”
Speaking Saturday evening, Elder Jorge M. Alvarado, General Authority Seventy, bounded to the pulpit with palpable energy. What was this Puerto Rico-born leader so excited to share?
“My friends, repentance is joy!” he said, going on to quote apostles President Jeffrey R. Holland and Elder Gerrit W. Gong as saying “no matter where we are or what we have done, there is no point of no return” and “it is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”
That’s not a message likely to win many election campaigns or to generate a viral social media following. But in a world that still often insists upon depicting repentance as discouraging and shaming, one legacy of President Nelson will be helping more people “discover the joy of daily repentance.”
The idea that God cares that much about our personal learning, growth and the everyday details of our lives, however, may still be a new idea to some more accustomed to modernized depictions of a Jesus focused on making everyone feel validated. Remarking on a “tendency to simplify, sometimes even trivialize, our image” of Christ, President Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, referred to some who have “reduced his righteousness to mere prudishness, his justice to mere anger, his mercy to mere permissiveness” — which simplistic portrayals, he said, tend to “conveniently ignore teachings we find uncomfortable.”
“No matter what, I live my own truth or I do what works for me” is something more people are declaring, said Elder Ulisses Soares, native of Brazil. Rather than courageous “authenticity,” this apostle recalled the ancient apostle Paul’s description of those who “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.”
“He has my heart, and I hope to do whatever he would have me do and become,” shared Sister Kristin M. Yee, second counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, after describing the iterative process of creating a painting of the Savior. “Repenting allows us to feel God’s love, and to know and love him in ways we would never otherwise know.”
“The sons of God have been ordained to stand in place of the Son of God,” taught President Emily Belle Freeman, Young Women general president, before recounting a moment from early church history through the eyes of Emma Smith. “The work of God was everywhere around her. … Did she also wonder about her place in the plan, her purpose in his kingdom, and her potential in the eyes of God?”
Joseph Smith’s wife Emma experienced her own manifestation of divine power, President Freeman said, along with personalized reassurance about her essential participation in the work taking place. “Through his divine power, God would heal her heart, enlarge her capacity, and transform her into the version of herself he knew she could become.”
“We all have access to the gift of God’s power every time we partake of the sacrament. Every time we cross the threshold of a temple,” she concluded.
President Nelson said this even more directly. “Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find him in the temple. You will feel his mercy. You will find answers to your most vexing questions.”
“All are invited to this path,” said President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, “for he invites all to come unto him ‘black and white, bond and free, male and female … and all are alike unto God.’”
Yet in a time when many have become convinced that their highest happiness comes from following current passions and appetites, many insist that turning away from religious commitments offers new liberation. President Oaks compares this to a child who asks his father to cut a string to a kite so it could “rise higher.”
“Don’t trade everything for nothing. Don’t let the world change you when you were born to change the world,” said Brother Bradley R. Wilcox, first counselor in the Young Men general presidency.
“To whom or to what will I give my life?” is “the most crucial question we each must answer,” according to President Nelson.
“Oh, (humankind), how cleverly you defend yourselves from all that might do you good,” says Aslan in C.S. Lewis’s writings. Referencing this, Sister Yee said, “Let us not defend ourselves from the good that God desires to bless us with. From the love and mercy that he desires us to feel. From the light and knowledge he desires to bestow upon us. From the healing that he so readily offers us and knows that we so desperately need.”
“He can heal the ‘waste places’ of your soul,” she witnessed, “the places made dry, harsh, and desolate by sin and sorrow, and ‘make (your) wilderness like Eden.’”
This may feel abstract, until witnessed in the real-life experience of believers. For instance, Elder Gong recounted the story of one young woman was was “in a dark place,” recalling, “I felt like God wasn’t there for me.” But after being encouraged to read Alma 36, she was “overcome with peace and love” and said: “I felt I was being given this big hug. I knew Heavenly Father saw me and knew exactly how I was feeling.”
Elder Gregorio E. Casillas of the Seventy described the personal impact of joining a local stake president in clothing and feeding a wheelchair bound man during a visit. And Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told the story of newly bereaved parents trying to wrap their minds around the aching loss of their teenage son, who were both awakened one morning with “indescribable peace and joy.”
“How is this possible?” the husband asked — before answering from his own experience: “The Lord does not leave us comfortless.”
“Holiness,” said Elder Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “invites us to infuse daily living with the sacred — to rejoice in daily bread, manna as it were amidst this world’s thistles and thorns.”
While saying “no” to “snarky cleverness at others’ expense” and “algorithms that monetize anger and polarization,” Elder Gong continued: “Holiness to the Lord says ‘yes’ to the sacred and reverent, ‘yes’ to our becoming our freest, happiest, most authentic best selves as we follow him in faith.”
Rather than mere anecdotes, these patterns are confirmed by an extensive body of scientific research showing that “religious believers are on average happier, healthier, and more fulfilled than those without spiritual commitment or connection,” said Elder Gong. “Happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, financial and material stability — on each measure, religious practitioners flourish. They enjoy better physical and mental health and greater life satisfaction across all ages and demographic groups.”
These fruits of faith are especially needed in our acrimonious atmosphere today. “There is much in public and personal discourse today that is malicious and mean-spirited,” said Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
“This is a time of many harsh and hurtful words in public communications and sometimes even in our families,” said President Oaks. “This atmosphere of enmity sometimes even paralyzes capacities for law-making on matters of importance.”
Jesus Christ is “the great Unifier,” suggested Elder David L. Buckner, a General Authority Seventy — “a clear, simple, and divine example we can look to for unity, love, and belonging.”
Building on his “revolutionary” teachings in the old world to “love your enemies” and “do good to them that hate you,” President Oaks highlighted the significance of the fact that Jesus prioritized early in his subsequent visit to the Americas, “(h)e that hath the spirit of contention is not of me … behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away.”
“True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers,” said President Nelson at last year’s April 2023 conference — with President Oaks adding this weekend, “We need to avoid contention and be peacemakers in all our communications. This does not mean to compromise our principles and priorities, but to cease harshly attacking others for theirs.”
Elder Andersen spoke of the “precious gift of hope” allowed to believers who anticipate a “glorious future” of “returning to our heavenly home and living forever in peace and happiness with our Heavenly Father, His Beloved Son, our faithful family and precious friends, and the righteous men and women of the earth from every continent and every century.”
“In the world,” he quoted the Savior as saying, “ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
“Each day is a new day filled with hope and possibilities because of Jesus Christ,” Sister Yee said. “Each day you and I can come to know, as Mother Eve proclaimed, ‘the joy of our redemption.’”
“There is no pain, no sickness, no injustice, no suffering, nothing that can darken our hope,” said Elder Anderson, “as we believe and hold tightly to our covenants with God in the house of the Lord. It is a house of light, a house of hope.”
“Brothers and sisters, now is the time for you, and for me, to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ,” reiterated President Nelson. “Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority” — reassuring listeners that “the best is yet to come as we fully turn our hearts and our lives to Jesus Christ.”