Hank Smith:                      00:00:00             Coming up in this episode on followHIM.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:00:03             When I was 16 years old, I was asked to play at a very peer reviewed, illustrious event that had a lot of gravitas to it. And I played a Fauré Élégie which is very challenging on the cello, emotionally, technically. And I didn’t play it super well. My dad, who was such a benevolent person, came up to me afterwards. I said, “Dad, how did I do?” He said…

Hank Smith:                      00:00:33             Hello, my friends. Welcome to another episode of followHIM. My name is Hank Smith. I’m your host. I’m here with my musical co-host, John Bytheway. John, you are musical. I don’t know about talented musically, but you are musical.

John Bytheway:               00:00:49             I play the CD player. I play the cassette player.

Hank Smith:                      00:00:56             You are musical. You play the banjo, you play the guitar. Oh, you are good. John, I can tell that you’re excited and I’m just as excited to have our guest with us, Steven Sharp Nelson. Steven, welcome to followHIM.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:01:11             I couldn’t be more happy to be here, boys.

Hank Smith:                      00:01:16             We’ve been talking for so long, I said we have got to hit record. We’ve got to get started because I want everyone to hear this.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:01:23             Don’t give them FOMO. We’ve had like an hour of the podcast that was unrecorded so far.

Hank Smith:                      00:01:28             Yes, unrecorded. We just failed to hit the record button. Let’s get underway so we can hear everything that Steven has to teach. John, we have three weeks on the Psalms. What do you think of?

John Bytheway:               00:01:41             English is the weirdest language, but a long time to learn that a Psalm is a song and music is just the soul. You’re way down there. When you read these, you’re hearing the innermost feelings of the Psalmist, which is just exciting to see because we have all had a soul voice speak sometimes.

Hank Smith:                      00:02:02             The language of God. The language of heaven, I think. Steven, what are we going to do today? You and I have been talking about this for a long time. It’s so exciting it’s finally here.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:02:12             Well, I first want to say condolences to the two of you. I’m sorry that we’ve reached the point where you’ve ran out of real guests and you’re resorting to cellists. It’s really sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel when, well, okay, we don’t have any more guests. Are there any cellists available?

Hank Smith:                      00:02:28             Yes. We don’t mind jumping the shark eventually.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:02:32             Yeah. I got to tell you too. So I have an agent that is over my touring, and then I have an agent for my keynotes, and I have an agent for the book I’m writing. But I tell you, every agent that I have ever hired or been a part of is trumped completely by the agent of all agents, which is my wife, Julie. She said, “You need to be on that followHIM podcast.” And I said, “Well, I don’t think they’d ever want me on that podcast.” So she just took matters in her own hands. What did she do, Hank? Did she just email you directly? Is that what happened?

Hank Smith:                      00:03:04             She emailed me and I said, “Yes, absolutely.”

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:03:07             She’s like, “My husband’s just sitting around doing nothing. Can you interview him, please?”

Hank Smith:                      00:03:11             Can something happen?

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:03:13             Yeah, something like that. She’s a giant fan, so am I. It’s so fun that she’s the connection here. That’s how this all happened. When she told me about it, I want to say something that relates to the Psalms, and I want to say something that’s so important to me. There’s this man in the music industry that is a hero of mine, and he passed away a little while ago. His name is Victor Borg. Do you brothers know who Victor Borg is?

John Bytheway:               00:03:39             Yes. Piano player, comedian, hilarious. To this day, hilarious. No expiration date on his comedy. It’s so funny.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:03:48             For those that don’t know, he’s this sweet Danish man that lived to his 90s and was entertaining until his 90s. And as a child, my father would take me to the symphony concert. This was ambitious for my father because I was an ADHD child. Sitting through an entire symphony concert was very challenging, to say the least. But as an ADHD child, I didn’t just watch the orchestra. I looked around and I really cataloged just about everybody that was there. And I noticed as I was going back that I would see mostly the same people that were there. Then my father took me to see Victor Borg. I watched Victor Borg. He didn’t start in with the most challenging classical piece you can imagine or the most esoteric classical piece you can imagine. He started in immediately with self-deprecating, relatable humor. I was so drawn in by this.

                                           00:04:43             He was so engaging. And then all of a sudden, he played a classical piece of music that I perhaps would’ve never fully appreciated or lost my attention span, but he showed me the majesty of classical music because he had opened my heart first. This is something I’ve learned time and time again in my life is you cannot really teach something important, especially the gospel of Jesus Christ. We learn in Doctrine and Covenants 42 is without the spirit, we can’t teach. But what that means to me, we can only love and appreciate it in front of someone and hope they pick up on it. I have learned that if you start with this thing of like, I’m going to elevate your life with this and I’m going to impose it upon you, rather than starting with this inclusive, affable, relatable way that Victor Borg had, you lose people too quickly.

                                           00:05:33             All that to say that Hank and John, I love you and I love that you are the Victor Borgs of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because you have shown that you invite people in first and have them sit at the table, serve them something to love. Then while they’re enjoying that, you say, “Hey, you probably haven’t ever tried this before. Try it.” They’re so excited because you already have loved them, welcomed them, and shown them something you knew they’d love. That to me is the best way to share the gospel of Jesus Christ is to love it so much in the Ammon way where it starts with love and service and then it just branches out from there so beautifully. Thank you for that example. I just wanted to start that off. This is going to be a very super silliest podcast at times because the three of us are jokers and we probably have a concomitant effect when it comes to that. So I just wanted to start with a serious point that I just love what you do, and I’m grateful that I get to even be with you today.

John Bytheway:               00:06:30             Thank you.

Hank Smith:                      00:06:32             How kind. How kind.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:06:35             What are we going to talk about today? Oh my goodness, I’m so excited about the Psalms. Yes. We’re going to be Psalm-mates by the time that this is over, you guys. This is going to be so good. We’re going to break this up into three sections, and I want to keep you engaged. First, we’re going to talk about the why. Why should we love the Psalms? Then we’re going to talk about the how to love the Psalms. Then we’re going to talk about the therefore what. Meaning, what do we do now that we love the Psalms? What does it mean for us? How do we become Psalmists ourselves? If we allow God to touch our personal experiences and infuse them with his spirit, our personal experiences are elevated to become our personal Psalms. The songs of our heart that we cannot sing. We cannot express other than simply to praise God. Or in some instances, the Psalms will show us, cry out in agony. The Psalms are the broadest range of human emotions ever offered to us in scripture.

Hank Smith:                      00:07:38             Steven, we are so, so happy that you are here. Our listeners, I don’t know if they feel happy yet, but they will. Now, John, there may be someone out there who doesn’t know who Steven is. And they don’t know that he’s about to become a big part of their life because all they have to do is maybe use YouTube and just listen. I don’t know how someone can be both a talented speaker and a talented musician, like top 1% in both, but he is. John, tell us about him.

John Bytheway:               00:08:06             This is what we know, Hank, about our friend, Steve. Steven Sharp Nelson loves to play the cello. He doesn’t love bios. Every bio seems to sound the same. You just put the words award-winning in front of everything. In true biofashion here it goes. Steven Sharp Nelson is an award-winning sort of guy. He’s an award-winning consumer of Thai food, sushi, and on very special occasions, kimchi, the pickled cabbage he fell in love with on his mission in Korea. Before his award-winning performances and content creation with The Piano Guys, Jon Schmidt is the piano player. And in honor of Jon, who’s a friend of mine since high school, I cut my hair so I could look a little bit more like my friend Jon Schmidt.

Hank Smith:                      00:08:49             You do! You do!

John Bytheway:               00:08:51             I thought I could suddenly play the piano like Jon, but nope. Before his award-winning performances and content creation with The Piano Guys. Hi, Jon. Steve is an award-winning failure at many startup businesses in venture capital. There were some successes as well, but the failures were the most valuable. That’s a good line. Steven has award-winning lactose intolerance. Which has won him critical acclaim for finding the best and worst dairy-free ice cream on the market. He’s an award-winning pickleball and street hockey player, an acclaimed writer of words in music, a purveyor of world-class dad humor.

                                           00:09:27             He can play America the Beautiful on the nose flute, which has yet to win any awards. The title awarded Steven that he treasures most is Daddy, which all four of his kids, ages 20 to 13, still call him sometimes even out of love. His greatest hero on earth is the truly award-winning woman, Julie Nelson. Thanks to her, his children have a chance in life. She is exceptional at everything except for her taste in men or man. Steven feels grateful that he’s just barely famous enough to make a living, but plenty obscure enough to have a life. And that life he has found is best lived when striving to follow the teachings of the example of his best friend and savior, Jesus Christ. That’s an award-winning bio right there.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:10:15             How ironic.

John Bytheway:               00:10:17             I just want to say, Hank, that I love watching Steve play because he has the most joyful countenance when he plays. You know that that music is coming from his soul. His family’s talented. I have a Christmas CD that his sister made. Plays the guitar. It’s beautiful. Tell your sister I listen to her every Christmas season.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:10:41             Everybody in my family’s talented musically. My father believed in agency. He gave us two choices as we were growing up. One was to play an instrument and eat, and the other was to not. Most of us chose to live. It was positive. And my father was a benevolent dictator, and you have to be that way if you expect your children to continue with instruments. He’s on the other side helping me and my children out every day. I just want to give a shout-out to him and my mother. I hope and strive to be an amalgam of my father who was an intellectual genius when it came to music. My mother, whose passion was so infectious, when she would sing, it would transport you to heaven. I will arrive to heaven and Jesus, after giving me a hug and being my advocate, will look at me and he’ll say, I gave you the best. What did you do with it? But I want to say thank you to my mother and my father who are both on the other side of the veil, died both prematurely, but taught me to love music, not by teaching me, but by loving it so much in front of me, I couldn’t help but pick up on it.

John Bytheway:               00:11:48             Wow. Beautiful.

Hank Smith:                      00:11:51             He’s as good as you hope, everyone. As you listen, you’re like, “Is there anyone this good?” He is.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:11:57             No, that’s not true.

Hank Smith:                      00:11:58             I’m going to read from the Come, Follow Me manual. The title of the lesson this week, The Lord is My Shepherd. We don’t know for certain who wrote the Psalms. Some are attributed to King David, but for most of them, the writers remain anonymous. Yet after reading the Psalms, we feel as if we know the hearts of the Psalmists, even if we don’t know their names. We do know that the Psalms were an important part of worship among the Israelites, and we know that the Savior quoted them often. In the Psalms, we get a window into the soul of God’s ancient people. We see how they felt about God, what they worried about, and how they found peace. As believers today, all over the world, we still use these words in our worship of God. It’s almost like the writers of the Psalms had a window into our souls because they expressed how we feel about God and what we worry about and how we find peace. So well written. All right, with that, Steven, we are excited to hand the reigns over to you and sit in the back of the carriage and try not to fall out.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:12:53             No, I want you involved in this. This is really important for me to involve you too. I love that revelation is scattered among us, and as we counsel together, we gather it. Let’s dig into the why. I am such a why guy. I think we live in a world that seeks the how and the what far before we seek the why, and it tends to lead to burnout. If we had time, I would dig into John and Hank, your reason for doing this podcast. When you give me an answer, I would ask you a follow-up why two or three times to really get down to where you are. Why should we love the Psalms? Well, first of all, and this was alluded to in the description. It was the people’s book. It was the people’s hymn book. They didn’t just read from it. They sang from it.

                                           00:13:39             I am in the middle of writing a Broadway musical. I have learned that there is a hierarchy of expression when you’re writing a Broadway musical. When a character is too emotional to express with words what he or she is feeling, it’s time for a song. Use music. Then when it’s too emotional to even sing, the character dances. Do you notice that in the Psalms? The Psalms is just that. You have some, what seems to be monologue. Then it elevates and transcends to something that’s musical. And then eventually it gets to dancing before the Lord. I love that there’s this hierarchy of expression. As you’re seeking to love the Psalms, it was the book that was the most memorized, quoted, sung, and ritualistically used among the people of Israel. Remember, not everybody has a book of scripture on their table or in their palm of their hand.

                                           00:14:36             It’s synagogue-based. If you have songs to memorize scriptures, which scriptures are you going to remember? Leviticus or Psalms? That’s why there was so much more memorization of the Psalms, and that’s why they flowed through their very lives. We have picked up on that. How many of our hymns do you think are based on the Psalms in the LDS hymn book? 71 of our hymns. Do you know the second most is Isaiah. Sorry, Isaiah. It’s only 30. The Psalms by number one position, but by double in comparison to the next book. Now, it doesn’t stop there. Let’s go to the New Testament. How many times are the Psalms referred to in the New Testament? Is the number one most quoted book in the New Testament. 116 times. Guess what number two is? Oh, Isaiah gets the silver medal again. 56 times. 56 times. So twice as much as the book of Isaiah.

                                           00:15:38             New Testament, Psalms are quoted. Do you see the majesty of this book? It’s crazy to think about. Why? Because it was the people’s book. Isn’t the Savior the epitome of the one by one minister? What book is he going to use? The one that everybody’s most familiar with. And that’s why he quoted the Psalms the most. Now, here’s what’s great about the Psalms though. Luckily for us. In comparison with the Old Testament, do you know how much more the Psalms lean into joy and delight? 2.5 more times more likely to come across the word joy or delight in the book of Psalms than the rest of the Old Testament combined. Why is this important? Because I believe we belong to the Church of Joy. The Hymn book of the Church of Joy is the Psalms. It’s proven itself in its literature. The proof is in the pudding.

                                           00:16:34             2.5 more times likely to come across joy and delight in the Book of Psalms. Isn’t that awesome? Isn’t that so fun? And then let’s go further. Okay. Number two, in my opinion, it is the best Bible book to build the kingdom and gather Israel. Why? Because it is so team Jesus. I am a big advocate of team Jesus. I’m very careful about ever trying to differentiate between our church and other churches. I leave that to the real professionals to do that. For me, I’m finding common ground. I’m trying to find connections between my fellow Jesus, Team Jesus members and me, regardless of their faith. I tell you, the shortest distance between me and someone else on Team Jesus is the Psalms. You ask what their favorite Psalm is, they’ll be able to quote it right away or at least refer to it. I could guarantee that.

                                           00:17:29             Isn’t that so fun that we’ve got this book that can be our connection with our fellow Jesus lovers out there that are members of other faiths? But it doesn’t stop at Christianity. It is studied by all Christian faiths. Remember, the Jewish faith studies the Psalms. And it is respected in Islam because the Quran refers to the Zabur, which is traditionally understood to be the Psalms given to David. That’s interesting. But then even beyond that, what about outside religious altogether, religion altogether? Sectarian scholars cite Psalms as immutable poetry. If you’re going to gather Israel and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the more you know Psalms, the better off you’re going to be. What a great book to be our lead when it comes to building the kingdom and gathering Israel.

Hank Smith:                      00:18:17             The Psalms and the hymns can become part of the way you think. They’re like good friends. You meet a terrible situation and they guide you through it. They help you navigate it. It becomes part of your vocabulary. Your spiritual vocabulary, your inner dialogue.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:18:34             The word I would use is repertoire. Because a musician can only perform and entertain and edify as far as he or she has repertoire. If the repertoire is shallow, then that’s only as far as you can go. So you’re absolutely right. It doesn’t become only part of the parlance of how you interact with others, but it’s your repertoire. So I’ll give you an example. I’m at a keynote and I’m talking about creativity. I bring up this person on the stage that has epitomized creativity in the industry in which I’m speaking. She’s nervous and she’s never done this before. We have this fun Q&A and fun interaction. And she emails me afterwards and she says, “I cried all that day because I worried about what I should have said and what I should not have said. Oh, I just berated myself.” Can I open up to some vulnerability here, John and Hank?

                                           00:19:25             I want some empathy from you for everybody, because I know you’re so good at this. How many of us have rehash browns for breakfast? We wake up and we eat for breakfast, rehash browns. We are rehashing something we said the day before or something that we said long ago or didn’t say. And we berate ourselves. We negate our progress. We stagnate over all of these instances of rehashing something. Tell me if that happens in your life. Give me a scenario where that happens and give me a scenario of how you deal with it. Because I think this is an important issue. We can just pause what we’re talking about right now, and I’m going to relate a Psalm to it. But I want to dig into what you do when rehash browns gets put in front of you.

Hank Smith:                      00:20:12             Well, I think before, I would just consume them and put even nasty ketchup on them. As I’ve gotten older, I start to see myself and others with more mercy, a little more gentler with myself. I’ll walk away from a conversation. Even my interactions with John, I think I offended John. That was horrible. Why would I say that? Or, you know, I’ll have a big social event and I’ll come home and be like, “Oh, man, did I mess everything up?” And now, as I’ve gotten older, I think I’m able to see the Lord pull that plate away from me and said, “No, no, no. Don’t do that.”

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:20:54             So it isn’t that he, that you try to add seasoning on top of it and just get it down. You can’t pull that plate away, can you? I haven’t been able to either.

Hank Smith:                      00:21:02             Yeah. I think the Lord can come in and say, “Don’t do that.”

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:21:05             That’s not on the menu. It’s not on the menu. Oh, I love that, Hank. This is so good.

John Bytheway:               00:21:10             I feel the same way as Hank. I shouldn’t have said that in the talk. I shouldn’t have said it this way. I shouldn’t have interacted with this person that way. Hank, in my age, I’m going to extend grace where I need it. That’s all I can do at that point because I have been given much grace. I too must give grace and not hold people accountable for them in their worst moments. And I hope people won’t hold me accountable in my worst moments. I always think, well, can I learn something? because I can’t keep eating this. Let me learn something. And it usually is exactly what you said, Hank.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:21:47             I like that there’s taking the plate away, there’s learning something. There’s importance of humility, I think, is a factor there. There’s importance of maybe correcting something in an extreme case. But typically, what I have experienced, and this has taken me a long time to learn, and this relates back to this story of this woman that berated herself after being on the stage. I have had, I don’t know how many thousands of experiences on the stage. And I have had such a large percentage of those that have come with a woulda, shoulda, coulda. I tell you one instance in particular that almost broke me. I woke up the next morning and the adversary was already elbow dropping me. I mean, this was WWF. He had gathered a tag team and they were tagging in and they were elbow dropping me. I was so suffocated by, You are the worst speaker.

                                           00:22:41             You have never made an impact. It was so bad. Where’s this coming from? This adversary knew that this is a chink in my armor, so he totally exploited it, which he will do with you too. Be aware of that and watch for it. Don’t be surprised by it. He was pouncing on me with more ferocity than I had seen in many instances. I remember the moment I was on my knees, and I wasn’t even on my knees on the floor, guys. I, all I could do is roll over in bed and get into the fetal position on my knees. In bed. Remember, prayer doesn’t only count when you’re on your knees in the right position. Remember that. Pray wherever you can, whenever you can. Don’t act like you have to be in a specific posture to do it. So I did my best to get in whatever I could.

                                           00:23:26             And I cried out. I said, “God, I can’t take this. It is too much.” Then I thought of Psalms 55:22. How this clarion call came to my head as music comes to us in moments when we need a balm. And it was cast your burdens on me. Cast your burdens on me. Do it. Throw them on me. Whatever you can do. And in that instance, I said, Jesus, take this from me. I’m casting it on you. And it was so cool, you guys. It didn’t go away entirely, but I felt a hundred times lighter. And instantaneously, I felt the power of Jesus Christ and his atoning grace come upon me and chase away my demons because they could not have power over me anymore because I cried out for Jesus. This is something I believe in. If you are stuck, and I’m speaking to you listening right now, if you are stuck in a situation where the adversary has you in a headlock, cry out for Jesus and cast it upon him.

                                           00:24:37             He has overcome it already, and so he can help you overcome it. I sensed Team Jesus in this woman. I just sensed it. And you know what? When you’re authentically yourself, people really admire and respect you for it. They don’t automatically get on guard. And I would say that we should be more authentic about this, even though it’s a little scarier here. I understand that. But I emailed her and I said, look, I told her this story and I said, Psalms 55:22 is my go-to, and I believe it works. I have never seen anything else work in my life. I am so excited. You know what came back? Her favorite Psalm and how excited she was that I had quoted the Psalms. And then I sent my favorite Psalm, another favorite. And then she said, and we’re now in a Psalm study group together. Thanks to the book of Psalms, we are building the kingdom of God together across religions. And I love it. It is so wonderful. Don’t underestimate the connecting power and the inclusive power of the Psalms.

Hank Smith:                      00:25:37             That is just so good. So wonderful. John, I could listen to Steven all day.

John Bytheway:               00:25:42             Yeah, me too.

Hank Smith:                      00:25:43             I’m like, just keep, just keep talking. It’s as good as his music.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:25:48             Let’s recap real quick. We’ve learned that it’s the hymn book of the people, and it still is for us today. It leans into joy and delight. We’ve learned that it’s the best book to build up the kingdom and gather Israel, which is a great why. And now we’re going to learn how to do that later. But the last why I want to tell you is the most important of all. What were Jesus’s last words as mortal on the earth? Where did they come from? They came from the Psalms. Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Then Psalms 31, Luke 23 quotes it, “Into thy hands, I commend my spirit.” David was speaking messianically, but he was also referring to his own personal life. And as people heard this quoted from the cross, how beautiful would it have been for them to hear the Psalms that they loved and have sung coming from their savior’s mouth at the time of his greatest suffering?

                                           00:26:46             What does that mean for the Psalms? How important can they be? It’s the number one quoted book by Jesus. Does that mean the Psalms were his favorite book? I could say Jesus was so good at connecting to people. He was the perfect example of it. So of course, he’s going to go to the hymn book of our heart to connect with us, right? Matthew 22, when he gets confronted about who is Christ? It’s the Son of David. He defends that very thing by using Psalms 110. Psalms 118, Hosanna, blessed be that cometh in the name of the Lord. His triumphal entry was the Psalms. Now, here’s the big one too. The last supper. What did they do before Gethsemane? It was Psalms 113 through 118 were the Halal Psalms. Those were typically really hymnbook central. Did you know Jesus loved the Psalms? Loved, loved, loved them, and quoted them as His very last words. Even beyond the grave in the resurrection. And the Psalms show up. 110 and 16, exalted on the right hand of God. Thou will not leave my soul in hell. So that’s the why.

Hank Smith:                      00:27:53             Incredible.

John Bytheway:               00:27:54             If you want an endorsement of the Psalms, you’ve got it from Steven. Now listen to the Savior. Luke 24:44. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses. There’s first five books, right? And in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. There you’ve got the Lord saying, You want to see me, you’ll see me in the Psalms. And I love that you brought out, he’s going to quote them a lot.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:28:32             I love it. Thank you, John. That is the capstone. And that’s exactly what I wanted to round off that with. Thank you. That is the scripture. Let’s move on to the how. We know why to fall in love with the Psalms and become a Psalm-mate. Sorry, that’s just dad humor coming out, right? Right? I want us to all be psalmates, but I want us to be psalmists. And what does that mean? The more we ingest the psalms and we make it part of our repertoire, part of our digestive system, part of the fleshy tables in our hearts, the more we do that, the more likely we are to be a psalmist ourselves in our own story. What does that mean? We’re more expressive in our relationship with God. We’re better about recording stories that are important to us. And we’re going to be better about being bolder in sharing our emotions relative to our testimonies because all of those are inherent in the Psalms.

                                           00:29:20             And as we ingest them, you are what you eat. We’re going to become a psalmist. How do we do that? Well, let’s get started. First of all, I want to tell you to not be overwhelmed because you already are a psalmist. I could quote so many different scriptures and hymns that you could complete or finish even just by virtue of the hymns. Remember, 71 hymns. Let’s talk about the Spirit of God. Let’s talk about Redeemer of Israel. If I were to cite some of the words in there, you would, High on the Mountaintop. You would already be able to finish a lot of those phrases. So you’re already well on your way of becoming a Psalmist. This is not a fresh start. This is just a continuance. This is just the second or third movement of our Psalmist symphony that we’re building right now together.

                                           00:30:06             And what beautiful melodies you will construct, and I will tell you that your Psalmist melodies are unique to you, and they are part of the work that God has for you to do. No one can write symphonic Psalmist melodies like you. I want you to really take that on. I’m going to say it again. Nobody can do the work that God has for you to do except you. He has given you unique gifts, unique personality traits, unique experiences, unique failures, and unique weaknesses that will make you strong in your work. The worst thing you can do is try to do somebody else’s work out of comparison because it looks more fun or more challenging or more praiseworthy or whatever it may be. Focus on your work and go to God and ask him to open up the majesty as a Psalmist would, to open up the majesty of this symphony that he is composing alongside of you.

                                           00:31:10             Now remember, your life is not a Benson Boone song that is three and a half minutes long, all equalized and limited, one emotion the whole time. We expect it sometimes to be a pop song. It isn’t. Your life is a grand symphony with largos and laments and ritardandos, accelerandos, and majestic cadences, but it’s a grand finish, but you cannot have that grand finish without the abysmal dissonance and the moments of absolute abject despondence. We have to have valleys for these peaks to work. I tell you, the symphony that God is writing with you, if you could step back and listen, wow, you would be so amazed. But remember, that symphony is your work and your work alone. So that’s why I want us to become psalmists. How do we turn our lives over to God? In this podcast I did recently, which was with Faith Matters, I talk about ADHD and why God loves your ADHD.

                                           00:32:10             I’d recommend that if you or someone you love is struggling to discover why it should be your superpower and why it’s misdiagnosed. Attention deficit is not attention deficit. It is attention abundant. Let’s talk about how making the Psalms personal can level up your faith and your joy in life. We’re going to walk through a Psalm highlight reel, and we’re going to come out the other side a Psalmist ourselves. Our experiences when touched by the hand of God can become our own personal parables and Psalms. As we strive to turn our life over to God, our stories can be raised to the divine. What I was going to say in this other podcast, Faith Matters, this is what’s coming back to me. I talked about turning our lives over to God, and there was a little bit of an irate comment. I’ve lived my life on YouTube for 15 years.

                                           00:32:56             Nothing can offend me anymore. I’ve heard it all. So I was not offended. He said, “You know, I can’t stand when people talk about turning their life over to God and they never explain how to do it.” I would love to talk about how to do it. I’m going to put a pin in that. I want you to want that later, okay? Suspense is a teaching tool. So we’re going to come back to that, but I would like to talk about how the path to turning your life over to God, if there’s anybody out there that wants some help with it. But first, let’s go baroque. Bach is considered the father of the Baroque period typically. Then we go into Classical, which is new and exciting and innovative, and that was Mozart, right? And then what happens? Romanticism comes onto the scene and Beethoven brings fire. Fire to music. Now, the instruments were even evolving as this was happening. Did you know that? In the Baroque period, we only had the harpsichord. The harpsichord had two variables, pluck or not pluck. That was it.

                                           00:33:57             So there was no emotion and no dynamics. Beethoven said, “We cannot merely practice our art.” What is your art? It could be anything from cooking to relationships, to service, to whatever. Don’t limit it to artistry. Artistry and creativity are related, but they’re not to be conflated. They’re different. He says, “We cannot just practice our art. We need to force our way into its secrets.” Oh, that is so good. That is so good. He said, “We need to force our way into its secrets, and then it will raise us to the divine.” Why is this? Because we are naturally creative beings. We are born creative. And as Picasso said, every child is an artist until they get handed a report card. Right? So we are born creative and we should always consider ourselves creative. I don’t want to ever hear words out of your mouth to say, I’m not a creative person. That is inaccurate. Dismantle that belief system right away. You are ultimately creative. Why? Because your heavenly parents are creative and you are their child. And I’ll prove this to you. John, I want to talk to you about this. You’re a painter. Aren’t you a painter?

John Bytheway:               00:35:09             I draw.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:35:10             What’s your medium?

John Bytheway:               00:35:12             My favorite is watercolor.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:35:14             Why is it your favorite?

John Bytheway:               00:35:15             Watercolor’s a challenge because like with an oil or acrylic, you can go over it and fix it. Watercolor, you got one shot. To do the sky or to do nothing and call it snow. It’s really fun with watercolor, but you go over it once and you don’t want to go over it again. It takes a little bit of planning and challenge.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:35:37             What happens when you’re engaged in that? Describe the feeling.

John Bytheway:               00:35:42             I lose track of time. My watercolors are not great, but I love when I read the creation story that even God could look back and say, “I looked and it was good.”

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:35:56             I love that too. That connects me to him. John, I love how you said you lose track of time. This is the proof in all of us that as we create, why do we lose track of time? Alma 41 helps us to understand this. In Alma 41, Alma gives us a little sidebar. He talks about the nature of God. And then he says, the nature of God is this, which is also the nature of happiness, by the way. Then he moves on and it’s like, hold on. Wait, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Pause, pause. What happened there?

                                           00:36:29             I mean, maybe ADHD. He was a little ADHD. Bless his heart. I love that because I’d love him even all the more. He’s like, “Oh, by the way, it’s this.” But then all of a sudden I’m like, holy cow, wait a minute. Does that mean when we’re aligned with our true nature, which is the nature of God, we forced our way into the secrets of the eternities, and we’ve aligned ourselves with our divine nature, which is the nature of God. Then we automatically align with the nature of happiness because it’s the same thing. Then I took that one step further and I said, okay, then if I’m creative, then do I align myself with my creative divine self, which is also the nature of our creative God? Why does this get proven? Because as we create, we lose track of time. C.S. Lewis says, we don’t belong in time.

                                           00:37:13             It’s not our natural habitat. We’re a fish out of water. God is not a being of time as we understand it here. This is why creativity is the most underutilized, underestimated treatment for our own burnout and mental illness. But it has a caveat. It cannot be creativity for the sake of being posted, graded, or sold. That is admirable, and it’s a wonderful pursuit. Not to negate that in your life, but if you want the true healing balm and burnout antidote and mental wellness treatment that comes from pure creativity, you need to be like John Bytheway, who’s watercoloring because he loses track of time and he loves it. It’s a wonderful pursuit. So this is the last thing I’d say to this as we become psalmists, but I want to stress this. If you feel burned out, if you feel that you’re doing the dance steps and not hearing the music in the gospel or in any aspect of your life, or if your child, especially your teenage daughter, who is thrust upon by all of the wiles of the devil has ever come up with, and bless her heart, she is struggling in a world that is meant for her to struggle in.

                                           00:38:31             If she is experiencing depression, try to see what you can do about encouraging pure creativity in her life. And in your case, in your own life. The only definition of that is creativity, not for the intent of being posted, graded, or sold. If you want to learn the piano, it’s fair game. But when you’re purely creative, it cannot be a should. It has to be a want. As you connect, and this could be a nature walk, that is creative without any headphones in. It could be as simple as finding a recipe you’ve always wanted to try. Guess what? You’ll be closer to God because you are being divine. It’s such a passion of mine to teach this as best I can, or at least to exhibit it in front of people. This is what’s happening on my face when I’m playing the cello. Two reasons.

                                           00:39:28             My daughter asked me, she’s watching my YouTube video. She’s six years old. She’s like, “Daddy, why do you always smile when you play the cello?” I say, “It’s because I’m thinking of you.” That was one of the reasons. But the other reason is this. When I was 16 years old, I was asked to play at a very peer reviewed, illustrious event that had a lot of gravitas to it. And I played a Fauré Élégie, which is very challenging on the cello, emotionally, technically. And I didn’t play it super well. My dad, who was such a benevolent person, came up to me afterwards. I said, “Dad, how did I do?” And he said, “My son, I felt like I was every part of every mistake you made.” And I said, “What do you mean?” He’s like, “I don’t want to disparage you, but every mistake was written on your face and you pulled me into it.

                                           00:40:24             Instead of being lifted, I felt pulled down with you.” Maybe that’s the illusion I’ll use. But from that moment on, I decided instead of grimacing and exhibiting my mistakes, which we often do in life, I will smile every time I make a mistake. And that’s why I smile a lot. It has elevated my performance. It has elevated my relationships, and it’s elevated my relationship with God and my relationship with myself. But I’ve also discovered that instead of dwelling on my weaknesses, I can transcend to another level and be in touch with the divine in me and be elevated to be with God as I’m performing and be co-creators with him in the performance of each of the notes that I’m playing. It’s this eternally significant experience that occurs because I become purely creative. All of a sudden, I’m not doing it for the fear of mistakes.

                                           00:41:22             I’m doing it to praise God. And I had this incredible moment that when I’m on the side of the stage, I always say a prayer before I go out. And we say a prayer before we perform as The Piano Guys. And the reference point of this is 2 Nephi 32:9. It’s the, we will pray that he will consecrate our performance. But what is the end result? It’s for the welfare of thy soul not to be graded, posted, or sold. So that’s critically to understand. This is what I’ve understood about my music is I can’t pray that I’m going to be really good. I can’t pray that I’m going to impress people because that’s not what 32:9 tells me to do. 32:9 is before you do anything unto the Lord, pray unto Him that He will consecrate thy performance for the welfare of thy soul. And by extension, the welfare of the souls that are around.

                                           00:42:09             I said, okay, if this audience is not into this performance, which by the way is really difficult, that’s the most difficult thing for a performer, is to feel like you’re pulling the audience along. It’s a miserable experience because it drains you rather than energizes you. But when you’re with an audience that’s with you and you’re feeling the Spirit together and there’s mutual edification, the fourth wall is down, you feel energized from the performance. It doesn’t happen every time. And if it did, then we’d lose the appreciation of it, of course. I pray, Heavenly Father, let me play to the one. If all the audience is not into it, but there’s one person out there that is touched and his heart opens or her heart opens and the Spirit can come in and do the heavy lifting. The Spirit can tell them things that I could never come up with, with my notes or my words that I will utter from the stage.

                                           00:42:55             Let me play to the one. Oh my goodness. And let me tell you what happened one day. I was so tired and I was saying the prayer out of rote, sort of like, okay, here we go. Let me say my prayer before I walk on the stage. Let me play to the one. And my heart was struggling. The Spirit said, tonight, I want you to play to the One. Not the one lowercase O, the One uppercase O. And all of a sudden, this was so cool. And I want you to experience this in your life. Brethren, when you speak next, I want you to try this. I want you to imagine Jesus sitting in the center of that hall where you are. And despite your mistakes or the silly things you say or the misquote that you have, wouldn’t he have the greatest smile on his face ever?

                                           00:43:48             Wouldn’t he love that you’re showing up and bearing testimony of him as imperfect as you are? My intent that night was to play to the One and praise God with my music. And that is what I have tried to do over and over again. And that’s why you see what you see on my face. It’s because Jesus has given me everything and I’m giving him a tiny bit back and just letting him have a little bit of cello music. All of a sudden, comparison falls away. All of a sudden, why are people paying so much money for my concert when Yo-Yo Ma’s next door and he’s way better than I am? That note I missed, if you’re a cellist out in the audience, you got to think, I can’t believe this guy is quote, world-class, which I’m not, but the world considers me okay, I can be in Carnegie Hall. Why is this guy, he’s making too many mistakes. All of that goes away. And I’m playing to the One.

Hank Smith:                      00:44:42             That’s beautiful. We have a little phrase we use here. Right John? Before we record, we try to remind ourselves we are here to bless. We are not here to impress. And just that focus changes the way you speak, changes what you’re thinking about as you teach, as you are going through the scriptures. We try to think of those who are hurting. Those who need some healing. That’s different than I wonder if I’m impressing everyone.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:45:12             My favorite calling in the church by far was when I got to serve in a YSA stake presidency. Because that’s my jam. Those are my people. I could be myself. I could be goofy. I could be energetic. I could be overbearing and oversharing, and they were forgiving of me. Oh, I was so at home and I miss it with all my heart. What I discovered was something very interesting. I would hear the phrase, “I’m going through the motions, but I’m not feeling anything. I’m not feeling revelation. I’m not feeling the Spirit.” Hank and John, you both have spoken to this so much. You’ve said far more things than I could ever speak on the subject. I will only give my personal experience. There’s a few ways that we need to answer this. First of all, is that I love that C.S. Lewis said that when we say this, we’re as a fish in water wondering where all the water is.

                                           00:46:02             We’re swimming around in it and we’re wondering, when do I see the water? And that’s what Elder Bednar said. You’re living in it. And I said, oh my goodness, if you had any idea how much the Spirit was guiding you already, if you had any idea, that was number one. We ask the question too often, is that me or the Spirit? I love that Elder Bednar says, stop worrying about it. And I love that Sister Eubank says, “Hey, guess what? It’s both.” I love that answer. Let’s take our focus off of the, is that me or the Spirit? And instead ask, “Is that me or the adversary?” Why aren’t we asking that more often? When awful self-doubt, crushing self-hate, and crushing negativity, and crushing negative self-talk hits us, why aren’t we asking, “Is that me or the adversary?” If you suffer from negative self-talk, stop asking, “Is that me or the Spirit?” And start asking, “Is that me or the adversary?” It’s a life changer.

                                           00:47:02             If you feel like you’re going through the motions and you’re not feeling it, can I say you’re not alone? It’s a very big club. Whether we admit it or not, we’ve all felt it. Many of us have felt it. And this is the one thing I would advise. If your expectations of the gospel and the church are based on what you’re going to get, you’re going to find yourself disappointed. If your expectations are based upon what you can give, you will always find happiness in the gospel of Jesus Christ. A testimony is not built in what you get. It’s what you give. So the next time you show up to a situation where you’re like, “Well, I hope I can get something out of this.” Can you flip the script and say, “What can I give?” If you’re feeling spiritual burnout, or if you’re feeling work burnout, or if you’re feeling family burnout, I promise there’s a way out.

                                           00:47:52             As you turn your life over to God, there is a way out. Part of that way is to connect with him through pure creativity. I’ll give you an example, and this is a painful one to share. So I’ve been at the Piano Guys about 15 years now. The Piano Guys started from a space of pure creativity. We were doing videos like Michael Meets Mozart, Cello Song, Cello Wars, Me and My Cello, Moonlight. These were videos that were, had been in my brain for decades. They wanted out. And I’d never thought once about them being graded, posted, or sold. I did them purely because of the joy of creation and the craft that’s in and of itself. I was focused on the process, not the end result, which, oh my goodness, that’s a road to perpetual energy rather than burnout. If it’s the opposite, you’re focused on the outcome instead of the process, burnout’s only around the corner. I was doing that. And then what happened? After eight years, nine years, we’re signed with Sony. And I start buying into the music industry’s greatest lie, which is you’re only as hot as your recent hit.

                                           00:49:11             And you have to sacrifice everything to make it successful. And this is maybe across other industries, but I experienced that firsthand. And it was nobody’s fault. I’m not pointing to malicious evil in somebody or something. It’s just the tradition and culture of the industry in which I’ve been working. And that is, you sacrifice everything to be graded, posted, or sold. And you bank your self-worth and value upon the result, not the process. And burnout was only a matter of time, and I became absolutely, completely burned out. Isn’t it ironic that I was living and swimming and saturated in the world of creativity, and yet I was the saddest, most despondent cellist on the earth? That doesn’t make sense. But this is the Halversonian contrary here that we have to observe. It’s this pull and push between creating something vocationally and creating something purely. They’re at odds.

                                           00:50:11             They can be at odds. They don’t need to be, but often they are. I found myself in a place of burnout. Why? Because YouTube was too hard to catch up with. The algorithm had changed. People weren’t watching our videos as much. The view count was way down. Social media had changed. Our likes count were way down. I was exhausting myself, trying to find the next great cover. And I was doing it why? So that I could be hotter than my last hit. And that was so burnout. So I had to actually take a completely big, giant step back. And I love my brothers in The Piano Guys. Al van der Beek, Paul Anderson, Jon Schmidt. Did they put their hands on their hips and say, hey, you’re committed to this. Don’t you dare back out. You know, don’t… No, no, no, no. They put their arms around me and they said, We got you.

                                           00:51:01             We got you, brother. Whatever you need. That is the true greatness of The Piano Guys is in its brotherhood, not its content. And I love my brothers. I love them. They supported me in this step back. I had to have complete cessation of what I’m doing, which does not make sense. Financially, it doesn’t make sense vocationally. But I was burned out and my family was struggling. I was spinning all the plates in my life and my family plate was wobbling. My faith plate was wobbling. My spirituality was in a slump. It was not a happy place to be. I was feeling great depression despite the fact that I was pushing productivity. Here I was, what do I do? I backed away. I got on my knees and I said, “God, please help me out.” And I listened. He brought to my mind something that I’ve wanted to do my whole life, which is to write a Broadway musical.

                                           00:51:54             It was the worst idea ever because I might as well try out for the NBA for heaven’s sakes. That’s how hard it is to get a hit Broadway musical. It’s about the same level, especially if you’ve seen me play basketball, which is deplorable. But I said, “Okay, God. Okay, I’ll do it.” And then what’s interesting about what happened next is in the silence. God didn’t say, Here’s how you build a ship, Nephi. Here’s the blueprints of a Broadway musical. He said, Steve, that sounds great. I love that idea. I was like, okay. Next day I’m like, how do I do it? Nothing. I’m so grateful we have loving heavenly parents that can back away. Let us struggle. Let us explore. Let us strive and build without their direct intervention at all times to become slothful servants. But this is what he did do, and this is what I will tell you. If you’re in a situation when you’re in burnout, Arthur Brooks, the great social scientist who was a former French horn player, by the way, it’s another reason why I love him, beautiful Catholic faith. I love his faith. I have holy envy for his faith. He says in his book, From Strength to Strength, which is very good if you’re struggling with this, he said, when our arc declines in life, which is inevitable, we often will try to artificially bend that arc up.

                                           00:53:18             And that’s where midlife crises come from. That’s where irrational decisions come from. We try to bend that arc up because we get afraid that that arc declining means we’re declining self or, and I can go way into this, which I won’t. But he said, instead of giving up altogether or trying to bend that arc up, he said, jump to a new arc that is related, but still on its way up. I love this though because instead of starting over altogether, which is discouragement in a package, and instead of sticking with what you have entirely, find something that’s related, but still on its way up. And I bet, John, you, and Hank, you probably have some stories in your life where you did this either intentionally or unintentionally. I love writing music. I love directing things. I love writing itself. I’ll jump to this new arc, which is on its way up at this point.

                                           00:54:06             And what’s happened has been beautiful. I have discovered my creativity again. Why? Because I am determined to enjoy the process, not look to the end result. And I have to rely upon God because I’m in a relatively new setting, even though it’s related. And I have to be humbled because I’m starting to do things that I’ve never done before, even though they are related. And then here’s the best part of all. As you go after this in your life, you were listening, I love you. As you’re going after this in your life, look for the packets. Elder Scott describes this term. He’s coined this phrase and I love it. He calls them packets of life, but think of them as physical packets that are dropped from heaven with a parachute, however you want to picture it. This is what I’ve found. When we go where the energy is, when we go after something that is not wrong, and it’s a green light, not a red light, which is typically how I operate, either you’re in commotion or you’re in motion, you decide.

                                           00:55:02             If you’re sitting still waiting for God to tell you what to do, you’re in commotion, not in motion. I find that revelation comes when I’m in motion, not in commotion. I often say, stop me prayers instead of start me prayers. That’s the difference. God, I’m going to do this. Stop me if it’s wrong. Rather than, Hey, God, I’m going to do this. Start me. And then nothing happens. So I’m in the process, I’m in motion. And he places a packet. This is the critical point. He places a packet just far enough away for me to exercise faith to look for it and to get to it. But not far enough away that I lose my way. Look for the packets that could be in a person, place, or a thing. And you look for it with intensity, with expectation, like you’re expecting miracles as President Nelson insists on.

                                           00:55:46             If you look for the packets, they will come. I’ll give you an example of one. I’m losing steam on the musical. I’m on an airplane. Who knows where I’m traveling? And this guy I haven’t seen for 15 years, he comes up to me, he says, “Steve, what are you doing right now in your life?” I’m like, “Oh, hey. Wow. Okay. Um,” and the Spirit says, “Tell him about the Broadway musical.” And I’m like, “I don’t want to tell him about that.” And the Spirit’s like, “I said tell him about it.” “Okay.” And I start telling him, “Oh, I’m writing a Broadway musical.” He’s like, “No way. You have to talk to my neighbor. He’s a seven-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer.” I’m like, “Wow, that’s coincidental. Cool. Thanks. I’ll write his name down, you know, write his number down.” Then the next day, I’ve forgotten it.

                                           00:56:27             And I’m sure in the floating table in heaven, they’re all like, “Okay, well, we’ve got dense Steven Sharp Nelson again. We tried, and he’s just tossed it aside. We give him one packet.” And then Jesus will say, “Try again.” I could just picture him saying that. All the angels are like, “Oh, man, this kid is so dense.” And Jesus says, “No, no, no, try again.” So the next day, you guys, I’m not kidding. The next day I have a piano recital in my house. My son’s teacher needs a location. I say, “Yeah, have it in my house.” This guy comes up to me after the recital and he says, “Hey, thanks so much for hosting this recital. You know, what do you do?” And I said, oh, you know, I’m a cellist of Piano Guys or, you know, I’m, I, whatever I say.

                                           00:57:11             I don’t say the Broadway musical thing like I usually don’t. And he says, “Oh, that’s really cool.” I said, “What do you do?” And he’s like, “Well, I produce Broadway musicals.” And I said, “Your name wouldn’t happen to be…” And then I say his name. And he’s like, “That’s exactly who I am. How did you know?” This was the guy that my friend from 15 years told me I should meet and talk to. In my house that was probably 30 miles away from his house at his child’s recital that happened to be my child’s recital. You can’t make this stuff up. So pray for packets and look for them. Go where the energy is. Don’t ask God to start you. Ask him to stop you if it’s not right. Go, go, go. Then look for the packets. And if you’re running out of steam, ask for another.

Hank Smith:                      00:57:54             John and I are just mesmerized. What do you want to do next?

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:57:58             Let’s mesmerize you some more. Okay. Are you ready to memorize the top five Psalms with me? Very easy. I promise these are ADHD friendly ways of memorizing where the top five Psalms are. Why? Well, we’ve already talked about the why. Now it’s the how. Let’s start with Psalms 46. This isn’t one of the top five Psalms, but maybe this is John Bytheway’s psalm in honor of his haircut. Psalm 69:4, they that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. It proves that John doesn’t have a lot of people that hate him.

Hank Smith:                      00:58:40             He doesn’t.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:58:41             Yeah.

Hank Smith:                      00:58:41              I don’t know if he has anybody.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:58:43             Top five hymns. Let’s start with 46, which is the most ironic way to start this podcast. 46 is this. I will read it and you already know it. Be still and know that I am God. This is such a good Psalm. Okay, how do we remember this? Well, you all know Be Still My Soul. You all know that hymn upon which this Psalm is based, right? I want you to remember, be still my soul is four words. Be still my soul, four words. Then what are the next ones? The Lord is on thy side. Four words, six words. It is Psalms 46. Psalms 46. Be still my soul. The Lord is on my side. Now you remember where Psalm, the be still and know that I am God. This is so profound. Before we even talk about this, is there a moment in your life when be still and know that I am God was relevant for you?

John Bytheway:               00:59:43             I can think of probably numerous times. I remember as a bishop reminding myself of President Hinckley that went through a time, “This is not your church. This is my church. I’ve got this.” And that happened to Alma. It’s not your church, this is my church, and I can hear that. Be still. I’ve got this. As you talked about you meeting that producer twice in a couple of days, God is playing this incredible game of five-dimensional chess all over the universe, and he just pulls it off flawlessly. We can be still and exhale and trust him. And one last thing, you brought up that those negative thoughts are coming from the adversary. Sometimes just going through the Savior’s titles, Deliverer, Redeemer, Advocate that you’ve used a couple of times. Think of those in your mind, and then think of what the book of Revelation says Satan means. He’s the accuser of the brethren. If you feel yourself accusing yourself, where is that coming from? Not the Deliverer, not the Advocate, not the Redeemer, not the Savior. He doesn’t act like that. Those help me during those times.

Hank Smith:                      01:01:05             This phrase comes to me not in words, but in experiences or insights that other people share. I’ll give you an example. John and I both are, and our whole team, we want this podcast to be good. Not for us, but because we want to help people. And there’s some anxiety there that can be healthy a little bit. But I think it was becoming overwhelming for me at a point where I thought, what if something goes wrong? What if we choose the wrong guest or we offend? Whatever it was. I had a lot of thoughts. I was a talk show host of, yeah, why don’t you sit down too and tell me what could go wrong? And anybody else want to tell me what could go wrong? Let’s fill the room.

John Bytheway:               01:01:46             What if my co-host gets a bad haircut?

Hank Smith:                      01:01:48             Yeah, yeah. What? That one actually didn’t cross my mind, but it will now. So we were interviewing Dallas Jenkins, and he shared an experience he had creating The Chosen where a family who didn’t speak English, I believe they were in China, they were watching The Chosen. The show is not in Chinese, and they were loving it. He said, “Do you think I could do that? Do you think as a filmmaker I could say, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to create a show that’s so good that someone could watch it in a different language and love it.” He said, “I can’t do that. Nobody can.” It became a very settling feeling to me of, “This isn’t up to you.”

Steven Sharp Nelson:     01:02:34             Dallas Jenkins, hero of mine, I’ve met him on several occasions. We’ve done collaborations with The Chosen, which by the way, Chosen is, I just want to be a second witness of Chosen and say that is, if you haven’t had that into your home, please invite that into your home. And my children, after watching it, said, “I want to be best friends with Jesus.” And that is the ultimate result that you want out of something. And if you haven’t partaken in that, get through the first couple episodes. It’s a little rough at the beginning, but it gets better and better and better and just so inspired. It’s a multi-faith influenced project that is completely inspired. I just want to emphasize that that’s such an important thing to add to your repertoire spiritually. I’m a big fan of Dallas. I love his principle that it’s not my job to multiply the loaves and fishes.

                                           01:03:18             I just bring the loaves and fishes. And I will say that there are some days, and I say this out of dad humor, but I want you to remember it as there are crummy days. There are crummy days where all you can bring is crumbs. And you know what? Jesus can multiply crumbs. So when The Chosen portrays the loaves and fishes, this boy whose name Telemachus comes. And I love his interaction with Jesus. He says, “It’s not much. That’s all I have.” How many times have I said that to Jesus? It’s not much. And you know what Jesus says back? He looks at him and he says, “No, no. I can do a lot with this.” This is the definition of The Piano Guys. It’s four dorky dads from Utah showing up. I mean, for heaven’s sakes, we make classically influenced music videos in nature, and somehow we’re surviving on the internet.

                                           01:04:17             I mean, who could have called that? That’s a miracle. We didn’t bring much, but Jesus said, “That’s good. I can do a lot with that.” And he could do that with all of us because when we find ourself in the work that he has for us to do, miracles happen. And magnification happens, and the two and the five become thousands. It’s pretty cool. Remember, be still my soul, four. And the Lord is on thy side as six. Psalm 46, be still and know that I am God. Now, if you want to read into this further, go to D&C 123:17, memorize that scripture. It is such an underrated scripture. And John can quote it verbatim. I know he can. Therefore, dearly beloved sisters and brothers, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power. All things that lie in our power, not outside. And then may we stand still. With what? The utmost assurance. To see the salvation of God and for his arm to be revealed. Make no mistake. Psalm 46 is about trust. Far more than it is about movement or not moving.

                                           01:05:23             If you cheerfully do all things that lie in your power, and cheerfully’s hard sometimes, but do your best. Cheerfully do all things that lie in your power, you may have the utmost assurance that his arm is going to be revealed. Let’s go to Psalm 91. This is really easy because it’s just 911. It’s really easy. 91 is the chapter, and one is the verse. 911, emergency plan. This is God’s protection Psalm. This is used so much, especially amongst our friends of other faiths. It is He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

                                           01:06:04             Now, before you start thinking of the shadow, sometimes the shadow has a negative connotation. We’re not thinking Bette Midler shadow. Like, must be so cold there in my shadow. Which is the funniest lyric ever, by the way. It’s not the coldness of the shadow. In Hebrew and in ancient Israel, to be in someone’s shadow was to be close to them and under their protection. Now, he that dwelleth in the secret place. What do you mean secret? It’s the Hebrew word satare, which is concealed or a sheltered place. But more so, remember how we in our faith, we love to change the word secret into what? Sacred. He that dwelleth in the sacred place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Is this not one of the coolest temple scriptures you’ve ever read?

Hank Smith:                      01:06:56             And if you’ve ever been out in the hot sun down by the Dead Sea or at a place called Masada or Qumran, you’re thinking a shadow would be really nice right now. So I can imagine if you’ve been out in the Jordanian desert, I can be under the shadow of God. It’s not only his protection, but perhaps comfort.

John Bytheway:               01:07:16             It’s a shadow by day and a pillar by night. It, the shadow is, is a refuge from the rays of the sun when it’s so bright in the desert. Yeah.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     01:07:25             We have to remember this was written pre-AC.

John Bytheway:               01:07:28             Pre-air conditioning.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     01:07:29             This was not AD, it was AC. So let’s talk about the temple a little bit. I’m taking President Nelson up on his challenge and his invitation rather, which was to go more instead of less. How am I doing? I’m a C-minus. I’m passing, but I could be better. And that’s just how it goes. But I will tell you about a couple instances that have proven what the temple is that I never understood prior to. The temple is about covenants, but we misunderstand the temple as being an obligatory perfunctory thing in order to covenant. We misunderstand it to be a place of covenants, and maybe even more so, appreciate it as a place of connection. Connection with Christ. I love this. I saw this on social media the other day. It said this girl was portraying a prayer. She’s modeling a prayer. She says, “God, I want to talk.” And God replies, “Okay, sounds great. Your house or mine?” And she goes, “Your house.”

                                           01:08:29             And I love that. I love thinking about it that way. God, we need to talk, your house or mine. Jesus wants to spend time with you there. I want to be best friends. I want you to trust me. I want you to have faith that I’ve overcome the world and that I can overcome anything that is trying to overwhelm you. When you feel overwhelmed, come to me because I’ve overcome it already. Let’s spend time together so that I can help you understand that. And I’ve had some instances in my life that have been so powerful. Try this. I go into the temple. Then one of my favorite things to do is wherever I choose to sit, wherever I end up sitting down, I grab the scriptures in front of me, and I go to the place that’s marked.

                                           01:09:08             I go to the place that has a ribbon in it, because I feel like anywhere angels can manipulate where a ribbon is in the scriptures, it’s the temple. And I read wherever that ribbon is. I’ve had so many cool experiences of direct, divine help coming from that page of the ribbon. So I’ll give you an example. So in my mission in Korea, my first experience speaking Korean was in front of the youth of the ward that I was in. And it wasn’t a very large group. It was just a few youth that were sitting around. Do you guys remember when you really tried to make a good impression? So I’m sitting down and I’ve done my best with Korean. And they’re going around and we’re introducing ourselves. And I’m like, “I’m not going to nail this. I’ve got to nail this. I got to nail this.” And it comes to me and I say, in Korean, “hi, my name is Elder Nelson.” I’m like, I got it. I got it so far.” Uh, and I’m like, What do I say? What do I say? And I have, uh, uh, two brothers and three sisters in my family. And if you’re not, you’re not watching YouTube, I have this smile on my face like, I got it. I nailed it. I totally nailed it. And everybody around me, it was like the most awkward reaction I’ve ever had. And then the person that ended up speaking next he was like, okay, that’s great. Okay, let’s go on to the next person. And so I go home, rehash browns, and then it comes to me. Guess what I had said? In Korean, the word sister and tree is almost the same thing, but to Korean, it doesn’t sound the same at all. In sister is nunat, and tree is namu. I said to them, in my family, I have two brothers and three trees. With no explanation whatsoever.

Hank Smith:                      01:10:55             With a big smile.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     01:10:56             Yeah, with a big smile. They’re like, “Okay, what are these Americans? Now they’re adopting trees. They’re so weird. Let’s move on.” You know? Why am I telling this story? It’s because for some reason, the adversary decided to pull that experience to my memory. And I’m laughing about it now, but you know what came back to? Was those feelings of inadequacy and embarrassment and humiliation. And I started to get this downward cycle that I am so dumb. I’ll never make an impact. I go to the temple. I go to the marker. And it’s Isaiah 61:3. Great scripture. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes, beautiful symbolism, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, and that they might be called trees of righteousness. The planting of the Lord that he might be glorified.

                                           01:11:52             And I felt God laugh. It is a beautiful sound to hear God laugh with you. And he said to me, Don’t worry about it. And I moved on and I’ve never looked back since without laughing. I just have faith that in the temple, God can connect with you and speak your language. What does Nephi say? In 2 Nephi 31:3, it says, God will speak to us according to our language. We can’t mistake that for being English. It is your language of the heart, which for me is music and humor. I’m so grateful for that. So I believe in the power of spending time with God in his temple. Psalm 91:1, 911, if you’re in emergency, go to the secret and the sacred place of the most High, and you will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. And that scorching sunlight that the world is pushing on you will be no more.