The joy of coming back to Church

I was overwhelmed by the sweetness, peace and love bursting out of these stories of faith restoration. It's some of the most beautiful writing I've ever had the privilege of creating.

Years ago, I was involved in a larger project with BYU-I professors Sarah and Eric d’Evegnee, where we gathered personal accounts of people coming back to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - trying to appreciate common themes of their experiences. More recently, I’ve enjoyed again this last year the chance to review and write for Deseret News about the growing number of stories published from people finding their faith renewed in the restored gospel - coming back to life stronger than ever.

Especially in combination, the mural created by these stories reminds me of a priceless work of art - as beautiful as the great conversions of Alma and Paul in scripture. As I hope you can see in these three articles below, the joy, peace and love in these stories just overflows.

But what about those who don’t feel so much joy, peace and love in their attempts to worship God? In the weeks ahead, I’ll be interviewing people about how past trauma can impact any of our ability to feel love, peace and joy in any part of life - making it difficult to experience the richness of anything (marriage, parenting, work, meditation, worship or life as a whole).

That’s good news, actually. And recognizing it can be really encouraging, since past trauma can be healed. And when it does, the rest of our lives can change too. More on that soon! For now, whether or not you currently identify as a person of faith, I’m hoping you take something encouraging away from this three-part series:

#1. Exploring the stories of ex-ex-Latter-day Saints

#2. Coming back to church after working through history questions

#3. Coming back to church while reconciling faith and sexuality