John Bytheway:               00:00:01             Welcome to part two of Psalms with Brother Steven Sharp Nelson.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:00:04             Let’s go to 51. 51 is really critical. How do we remember Psalms 51? A very famous number for us is Area 51. Area 51 is where we keep things hidden, things we don’t want anybody to know about. What do we do with our sins? We hide them. We don’t want anybody to know about them. Area 51, we put our sins in Area 51. 51 is the beautiful Psalm of David. It’s the repentance Psalm. Have mercy upon me, oh God, according to thy loving kindness. John, you talked about Jesus’ titles. Is that not a great title? Loving kindness. My sin is ever before me, and I want to put it in Area 51, but it’s ever before me. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. If you are struggling with something to repent, rather than beating yourself up and berating yourself, will you open up Psalm 51 and read it aloud?

                                           00:01:13             And I bet tears will spring to your eyes because you’ll feel that God doesn’t seek to tear you down. He seeks to lift you up. His atonement is not chains, it’s wings. There’s a beautiful resolution. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. You’ll feel God’s love. I hope you feel God’s love. Pray until you do, but you’ll feel it. I think of times in my life when I’ve had Area 51 moments. I will share one with you. One of the worst times of my life, and I will never forget it, even though I feel like God has forgiven me for it. I will never forget it. I was in a very stressed time in my life. Work was stressful. My church calling was stressful. My health wasn’t very good. I wasn’t getting enough sleep. All of these are this comorbidity that we experienced is like what Elder Holland talks about in Like a Broken Vessel.

                                           00:02:10             He says often these things that are coming out are results of a concomitant effect is this cacophony of all of the things that we need to be addressing from a personal health standpoint. I was feeling all of that. Just from a history standpoint, I had a father that had a temper, but I saw him completely overcome that temper when he was ordained a patriarch, which was the last calling he wanted. He was ordained a patriarch and we had patriarchal blessings in the home. The atmosphere of our home changed. He never showed his temper again after that day. Now that may sound like, oh my gosh, that’s impossible. He did it. I was a boy with a major temper because of my ADHD. I couldn’t quite figure out why everybody looked fixed and I looked broken. I would lash out and I would crash out and I would rage quit.

                                           00:03:04             And I would do all these things that were so maddening to people because I was trying to come to grips with why I was broken, which I wasn’t, but I thought I was. I overcame my temper after I saw my dad do it. This sounds weird, but I did it in the MTC. I hope you enter the MTC prospective missionaries with a good attitude because I will tell you, I’ve never felt the Spirit on a larger scale ever in my life than I have felt it in the MTC. Where so many people are coming together with a desire to learn and grow and strive to be like Christ at the same time. When I played cello when I was young, it sounded so screechy and horrible and my dad almost gave up on me. But you know what moment kept him going? It’s when I played part of an ensemble.

                                           00:03:45             All of us, even though we were screechy and we were sounding dissonant, somehow all of us together sounded consonant and sounded harmonious. I think that tends to be what we do in the gospel too. We’re all struggling and making wrong notes, but when we come together, it somehow makes music. And that’s what the MTC was for me and that Spirit thrust the temper out of me and I overcame my temper. I thought I was good to go until I had children. The temper came back. When I was in this moment of absolute abject, what do you call it? Just at the low point. My daughter just pressed that very right button. And I yelled at her and I was rough with her. And I saw in her eyes fear at her father. And that was the day I overcame my temper in front of my children.

                                           00:04:37             And I read this Psalm, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. My sin, my temper is ever before me. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” And the Spirit inspired me to go into my daughter’s room. And she was sobbing. I crawled into bed next to her and I gave her a big hug and I said, “I’m so sorry. Will you please forgive me?” To this day, it’s one of the most beautiful moments of our relationship instead of one of the worst moments of our relationship. Thanks be to Jesus. If you find yourself in that situation, Psalms 51 can not only help you feel connected to Christ in your weakness, but can also engender promptings that can help you out of the hole you feel you’re in. For me, that time when I cradled my daughter and asked for forgiveness, and of course she forgave me because she’s Mosiah 3:19 already. She forgave me and said, “Oh, daddy, daddy, I forgive you.” And yeah, that was a powerful moment. I wanted to be vulnerable in front of you. And if you’ve ever had moments like that, I hope Psalms 51 at least can be something of comfort to you.

Hank Smith:                      00:05:52             Thank you for that, Steven. Yeah. I think everybody listening will say, “I’ve been there.”

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:05:58             Next, this is four of five. We’re almost there. You’re almost an official psalmist. You’re going to get a badge. 121. How do we remember 121? The Psalmist talks about one hill, two eyes, and one savior. One hill, two eyes, one savior. One, two, one. You can also think about it, you being one to one with the Savior. One, two, one. It’s a scripture for help. This is why it’s so important to memorize this one. I will lift up mine eyes. Two eyes. Unto the hills. By the way, NIV and every other translation uses mountain, which I think is significant. We could say one mountain. I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains from whence cometh my help. I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains from whence cometh my help. That’s such a cool trust scripture. I’ll tell you a quick story that typifies this for me.

                                           00:06:57             Anybody that says they love tour is lying through their teeth. I mean, tour is so hard. Yes, I love performing, but I don’t love touring. David Simone, our manager was also the Beach Boys manager. And I know John, you’re a big fan of The Beach Boys. So this is a guy that knows his stuff. I went to him one day, I’m like, “David, how do people do this? Like, how do people tour for decades of their life?” Basically, you get on a bus, you go to a venue, you sound check. That soundcheck sometimes has an audience. Then you play a show. Then you do a meet and greet afterwards where you’re talking to hundreds of people. Then you get on that same bus and go to the next city and do it over and over and over again. And he looks at me without a smile and he says, “Drugs.” And I was like, “Well, David, I’m not going to do that.” I mean, I said, “On a really rough day, I might do a Mountain Dew, but that’s as tough as I get.” He says, “Well, but you asked a question,” and he wasn’t joking.

                                           00:07:50             He says, “What happens is an artist innocently at first will take a little bit of a downer to get them to sleep because they’re feeling anticipation of tour and nervousness. Then when they get to the stage, they’re too tired. What do they do? They take an upper. Then they’re too high on that and the adrenaline of the show. So what do they do? They take two downers. That’s why it gets so horrible. My point was on tour, I was so tired. The tired I was feeling was the kind of tired that was right down to the marrow. I remember I was on the side of the stage, and we had committed as The Piano Guys that this wasn’t just touring. We wanted to make it a ministry where we would hope that people would bring in their heaviness to our show and leave lighter.

                                           00:08:33             Our effort was to help people feel the Spirit and let the Spirit do the hefty lifting. I was on the side of the stage, and I knew this was my ministry, and I was saying my prayer. All I wanted to do was I wanted to crawl into the fetal position in the darkest corner of that stage I could find and not talk to anybody ever again. Because I was so tired and fatigued and burned out of being on all the time. On for soundcheck, on for performance, on for meet and greet, over and over and over again, day after day, after day. And I was sitting on the side of the stage and I said, Heavenly Father, don’t make me go out there. I can’t do it. Just before I turned around to find that dark corner, I had the coolest moment. However God speaks to you, will you please not assume that how he speaks to me is the same he needs to speak to you?

                                           00:09:23             For me, again, he uses a little bit of humor, and it’s more of a voice that I can feel because I’m very dense and I need more obviousness than the little light hints. And he knows that. So I’m standing on the side of the stage just about to look for that dark corner. And I hear this voice and it says, “Oh, my dear son. When have I ever given you the impression that it’s all up to you? You just go out there. You put one foot in front of the other, and I’ll take care of the rest.” And I walked out on that stage and I sat down on that chair. And for the whole night, I felt floating six inches off that chair. Carried, strengthened, helped. From whence did my help come? The mountain, which is Jesus Christ. The mountain of the Lord is sometimes the mountain the Lord himself. He can move mountains and he can move himself and he can move me. It’s just so incredible to think about. We have this source of help, but when has he ever given you the impression that it’s all up to you? And if you are despondent at the side of whatever stage you’re on and you’re feeling to crawl into the fetal position, remember that he’s never said that it’s all up to you. You show up, you pray for his help, and he’ll help. He’ll come. He’ll come. Psalms 121.

Hank Smith:                      00:10:48             I love it. 121. It was one, two, one.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:10:52             Yep.

John Bytheway:               00:10:53             I love Sister Chieko Okazaki. She shared this in one of her books, and I was like, “Whoa, whoa, wait, wait, what?” I found the January 96 issue of Guideposts. And I found the story of Captain James Ray, who was shot down in May of 1966 in his F-105 Thunder Chief, which I happen to know exactly what that jet looks like because I’m just weird that way, but –

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:11:23              I love it.

John Bytheway:               00:11:24             He’s on the floor in a prison cell. He can only see out from under the door. This is what makes me weep. The guards are walking back and forth, and they can only communicate when the guards are at the far side. But somebody starts to whisper, introducing themselves and their names and their families. And then this voice, Bob Purcell, says, “Do you know any Bible verses?” Imagine this. He says, “I know the Lord’s prayer.” He says, “Everybody knows that. How about the 23rd Psalm?” Think of a prisoner reciting the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He prepareth the table before me in the presence of my enemies.” These Psalms are bringing him comfort. He said, “As the number of our prisoners grew, two of us shared a cell. My first cellmate was Larry Chesley, a Mormon from Idaho.”

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:12:23             Does it actually say that in there? That is so cool.

John Bytheway:               00:12:26             Yeah. He said, “Though we had a few differences of belief, our common denominators were the Bible and Jesus Christ, and we were able to share and write down a great deal of scripture. It became vital to our daily existence, often racked with dysentery, weakened by a diet of rice, thin cabbage, and pumpkin soup. Our physical lives shrunk within the prison walls. We spent 20 hours a day locked in cells. Those Bible verses became rays of light. Constant assurances of God’s love and care. We made ink from brick dust and water or precious drops of medicine. We wrote Bible verses on bits of toilet paper, slipped them to others, dropping them behind loose brick in the latrines. It was dangerous to do that. Communication was forbidden and anyone caught passing a note would be forced to stand with his arms against the wall for several days without sleep.

                                           00:13:21             One night, I lay with my ear pressed against the rough wooden wall of my cell to hear a thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. And somewhere, somebody was tapping in morse code. I-W-I-L-L-L-I-F-T-U-P. I would lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. It was these Psalms they were tapping out to each other in morse code, getting them through this time in prison. They were connecting to God that way. He scratched it on the floor with a broken piece of tile on the floor of his cell. I will lift up my eyes unto the hills. The thing that was just struck me is they weren’t asking this new prisoner of war, who won the World Series? They were saying, do you know any scriptures? The one thing they were begging for was an English Bible.

                                           00:14:30             One night, a guard brought in an English Bible and they started copying as fast as they could and comparing what they had remembered. And sensing they were gathering strength from this, they came and took it away. But he says this great line, this great paragraph, “From that, we learned a most important lesson. Bible verses on paper aren’t one iota as useful as scriptures burned into your mind where you can draw on them for guidance and comfort.”

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:15:00             Who would have more downcast eyes than a prisoner of war in a camp situation like that? How far up would he have to lift his eyes compared to you and me? That is the power of Jesus Christ. That is an incredible story and one that gives us some perspective as to our current situations. That’s beautiful. Thank you, John. The last Psalm is the easiest one because you already know it. It is Psalm 23. It’s the one that everybody knows. How do I remember it? You can remember it however you want. But 23 is significant to me, and this is why. I have insomnia. It can be debilitating at times. It is because of my overactive mind and my nervous system, which is a superpower, but it also is kryptonite for me. If you are like me, and heaven help you if you are, like I said, you often wake up at two or three in the morning.

                                           00:15:54             There is something about that time of two or three in the morning. I don’t know what it is. I find myself often awake at two or three in the morning. And this is what I’ve learned, that instead of counting sheep, you should talk to the Shepherd. Because if you’re waking up at two or three in the morning, I guarantee God has something to say. Whether you talk with him then, which sometimes we don’t want to because that’ll extend our insomnia, but you can, and I’ve done it many times. Or you ask him in the next morning when you’re doing your devotional with him, “What’s going on with this two to three wake-up? Can you tell me, as my shepherd, what I need to be doing or what I’m not doing or how I can help through this?” So remember Psalm 23. When you are waking up at two or three in the morning, two or three in the morning, remember Psalm 23.

                                           00:16:37             The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not count sheep. I shall not die. This is the valley and the shadow. I mean, this is the Psalm that everybody should memorize, and it’s so beautiful. I urge you to go into that and memorize as much as you can. But now you at least know where it is and you’ll remember it. Even in the middle of the night, I will say that Psalm 30:5 needs to be connected to it, please. If you’re waking up at two or three in the morning, this is a direct connection. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. If you are stuck, will you please remember the Satan’s favorite lie, the adversary’s favorite lie is it won’t ever get better. It will never improve. You are stuck. It is his favorite lie. Why? Because we become angels to a devil, like Jacob says in 2 Nephi 9. We’re stuck. We’re not progressing. We’re convinced that it’s never going to get better. But we believe in a gospel of good things to come.

                                           00:17:45             We believe in the high priest of good things to come, which is Jesus Christ. He said, fear not. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Come unto me, ye that are heavy laden. That labor in heavy laden. I will give you rest for my yoke is easy. My burden is light. Is it easy? Well, it’s a lot easier with him than without him. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. I’ve had times like that where the dark cloud is too cumulous for me to even hope past it and even to be grateful for it. Just utter the one-word prayer. Just say help over and over and over again. And then listen. He will come to your rescue because he is your shepherd and you will know his voice when it comes to you. I’ll tell you a funny story to lighten the mood because we’re getting a little too serious here. But you’re a Highland High grad, just like I am. Go rams. Did you ever have Julie Hewlett for humanities?

John Bytheway:               00:18:47             Absolutely I did.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:18:48             Oh, don’t you love Julie Hewlett?

John Bytheway:               00:18:50             I love Julie Hewlett. I had her for history. Well, she also taught boys glee or something.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:18:56             Yeah. Yeah. Right.

John Bytheway:               00:18:57             But I had her for American history, I think. Julie Hewlett was awesome. I loved her.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:19:02             I want to tell you something about creativity that relates to Julie Hewlett experience with Julie Hewlett. I’m going to preface that by saying this. If we do not exercise creativity in our life, it will find its way out one way or another. Creativity that’s not positively exercised becomes malignant. Let me say that again. Creativity not positively exercised becomes malignant. What do I mean by that? We start using our imagination and our creativity to make up false stories and to imagine the worst case scenario. We’ll build grand castle-like frameworks around the worst thing that could possibly happen. Why? Because that’s our creativity trying to get out. If we exercise it positively, our imagination creativity will have no room to create worst case scenarios that are just not possible. I had a friend of mine say the other day, I worry all the time, but 90% of the things I worry about never happen. Worrying works.

                                           00:20:05             Hold on. Wait a minute. Just remember that if you’re finding yourself overthinking and overanalyzing and building worst case scenarios and telling yourself stories of what somebody said behind your back, which they didn’t, it’s because you’re not exercising enough positive creativity. It’s a natural function of creativity trying to get out one way or another and becoming malignant. Why do I tell you that story? Why does it relate to Julie Hewlett? Well, Julie Hewlett was teaching humanities and she taught me this principle in a funny story. She’s pulling up slides. We’re doing art. You know, this is art history. You got to memorize all of these pieces of art. She pulls up this modern piece of art. And I’m not a huge fan of modern art. I think it has a place, but I think sometimes it’s about innovation rather than aestheticism.

                                           00:20:49             I’m seeing this and it’s this stark, roughly bucketed piece of canvas with splashes of red paint all over it. And it just looked like, you know, a toddler was busy at work. She looks down and she says, “This is called The Shepherd and His Sheep.” Then she analyzes it. And with her incredible prolific imagination, predigious imagination, she says, “You see in the top corner how this abstract representation of a splash could be the shepherd’s call.” And then she interprets the painting and all of us are like, “Wow, how are you seeing any of this?” And in the lower corner, you see the sheeps coming and we’re just like, “What?” She hits the slide, and the next slide comes up, and it’s a shepherd and three sheep.

                                           00:21:37             She had mislabeled the painting and had described this modern piece of artwork based upon the false title of Shepherd and His Sheep and spent a great deal of time doing it. And this is what we do in our life. We attach a label to something. We overthink it, overanalyze it, build worst case scenarios, and get to the point where we’re not, it’s no longer about art and creativity and joy. And it’s about getting caught in this mire, this absolute mire of overthinking. So if you’re caught in that cycle, remember the Shepherd and His sheep and how young David, when he was growing up, he wasn’t doing what his older brothers were doing. What was he doing? He was out tending the sheep. Can you imagine how pastoral his life must have been? How meditative, how simple, how clear it was, his purpose? Rather than being grandly out for other people’s approval in grand Israel, he was just tending the sheep.

                                           00:22:34             And that’s a beautiful way to look at life is, okay, maybe I just tend my sheep instead of trying to win over this grand thing that I’m making into a worst case scenario. Now we move on to Act three. We’re in the third act of our three-act play here on the followHIM podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, what’s the next contestant if you’re the game show host, prefrontal cortex like I am? What do we do with the Psalms? As we become Psalmists, part of that is recognizing and utilizing the power of music and writing words in our own life. Let’s talk about the power of music. Listening, learning, and lifting. We can listen, learn, and lift with the power of music. The first thing I want to do is open this up, and I want to ask you as the listener this question. I will ask you the question that I’m going to tell my story while you’re thinking. I’m going to use Psalms 126:5-6. This is a great Psalm. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

                                           00:23:42             I want to ask you this question. Where were you the first time music made you cry? Or if you’re not a crier at all, the first time music breathed life into you or picked you up and dusted you off or compelled you to live more fully? Where were you the first time that happened? If you can remember. Maybe you don’t remember the first time, but then just tell me about the first time you remember. And I’ll tell you my story. I was 11 years old. I was up in the second floor of our little home in the Sugarhouse area in Utah. My father, who was trying to encourage me to use my spare time for good, would incentivize me. He was a very smart father. He said, “Steve, I need your help. I have a record that needs to be converted to cassette.” Now, none of us understand that except for John in this podcast. But what I mean to say is it was older formats of audio that needed to be updated.

                                           00:24:42             So the record, I needed to convert to tape. And he said, I bet you’re a techie guy. You know, you could figure that out. And I said okay. And he said, “I’ll even pay you to do it,” because my dad was just good that way. I went upstairs and I remember this little chest of drawers that had these little, this opaquely off-white painted drawers that were sticky when I’d open them up. Inside one of those, I found a tape deck that I could plug an RCA cable into from our record player and play the record and hit record. You hit record and play at the same time. I pushed play and record and I placed the needle gingerly on that record and the scratches began.

                                           00:25:22             And what I heard next changed me forever. I heard the voice of an angel, a soprano, the likes of which I had never heard in my life. It was so transcendent, so effortless, as if it were upon the wisps of clouds. It lifted me to a new place. Tears sprung to my eyes for the first time in my life. Music had made me cry and my heart opened. As an 11-year-old struggling with the peak of our self-esteem junior high stage, yikes, I felt one with who I really am inside. That feeling has never left me since. I said, “What is this music?” I looked at the back of the record slip that the record had been in the jacket of the record. And it said the soprano listed the soprano as Lynne Sanders. Now you don’t know that name, my friends, but I did. That was my mother’s maiden name.

                                           00:26:34             I had never heard her sing. We discovered a brain tumor when I was two years old. It robbed her of her voice. And as a child, I wasn’t aware enough to ask my dad, hey, what did mom do before this brain tumor inhibited her? What was my dad doing? Can you believe that? That he found a way for me to connect not only with music to, but to my angel mother, who at the time I was recording from record to tape, was in bed, struggling, who is living the law of charity. And mom, in my scriptures, it says and charity, instead of and charity, it says, and mom suffereth long. And envieth not, and is not puffed up. Thinketh no evil. Hopeth all things. Beareth all things. Maybe you have someone in your life where you need to write their name above charity in Moroni 7:45. Maybe they’re suffering long. Why? Because my mother taught me a thousand sermons without uttering a word. That’s just who she was. And watching my dad take care of her was the finest instruction of spirituality I could ever have beyond scripture.

                                           00:27:43             Here I was having this moment of connection with the divine. As Beethoven talks about, I was raised to divine, facilitated by my mother’s voice, which was now from the dust, essentially. The dust of a dusty record. And I played that over and over and over again. And the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, but don’t make a mistake that you have to sing that song. You can be listening to somebody else’s song and it can be your prayer. It was my prayer that day. From that moment on, I committed to God that I would praise him with music as my mother so effortlessly had done. To this day, I’ll never forget that feeling. So my question for you is, when did the power of music find its way into your heart?

John Bytheway:               00:28:40             Oddly enough, it was the Beach Boys. You’re going to laugh?

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:28:47             No, I love this already.

John Bytheway:               00:28:48             There’s a song The Beach Boys sing called The Warmth of the Sun, and I had a break up and the lyric, I think, is the love of my life, she left me one day. I cried when she said, I don’t feel the same way. And then this line, Still, I have the warmth of the sun within me tonight. And suddenly, S-U-N was S-O-N.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:29:11             Wow.

John Bytheway:               00:29:12             I have the warmth of the Son. I had a page in my Franklin Day planner. This goes back to cassette tapes and LP records, that I would sometimes just turn to that page and read phrases from my patriarchal blessings and read phrases from hymns to buoy me up. And one of them said, What more can he say than to you, he hath said. And I remembered how many times in my blessing and that the Lord was saying, and I actually had on that page, Steven, be still and know that I am God. All flesh is in my hands. It was all there. I would go over those verses and the Lord would say, Have I already told you? What more can I say? There’s a line in, O Holy Night. There’s a phrase, the thrill of hope. And Jesus is hope, and it’s a thrill to know there is always hope. It changes everything, that because of Christ, there’s hope. It’s a thrilling thought. There’s always hope. And so all of those things together is my contribution to that question.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:30:23             Wow. I had a YSA approach me who was suffering with scrupulosity. You leaders out there, you, men and women that are offered a leadership position temporarily to lift others, please be so gentle and give grace to these situations. It is so tricky to navigate. He cried to me and said, I feel so guilty when I’m listening to music that is not tabernacle choir. I said, Hold on. Hold the phone. Wait a minute. Where do you get that from? Where does that expectation come from? And we explored it and found that it was completely baseless. Sister Bonnie Parkin, General Relief Society President, truth is truth no matter where it’s found. The Spirit is the Spirit no matter where it is found. If it’s found in a Beach Boys song, it’s found in a Beach Boys song. You be honest with yourself. You are the DJ of your own soul.

                                           00:31:22             You know what’s helpful and you know what’s hurtful. You don’t have to pretend otherwise. You decide, you work it out with the Lord, but he trusts you. He trusts you. Work it out with him to make sure that the music you’re listening to is not monophonic, is not insistent upon one particular genre. That’s like insisting on living in the same one room of your house the whole time because it’s the nicest room. No. Live your life out there. Explore every genre of music you can. Rule out things that chase the Spirit away. Bring in things that bring the Spirit. The shortest distance between me and the Spirit is the right song at the right time. I have found songs that have come out of nowhere. You’ve had that happen to you. I know you have. Where the song comes out of nowhere and you’re like, are you kidding me?

                                           00:32:11             Really? Right now? This is exactly what I needed to hear. And I’ll listen to that song with my ADHD hyperfocus over and over and over and over again until it wears out its welcome. It’s good we don’t have records anymore. They’d all be scratched in my case because I just do that. But this is what I would advise. Here’s a practical way of helping. We have an incredible opportunity with technology to be helped in the process of finding good music. It can be the reverse. If you turn on the radio, chances are you’re going to be fed a bunch of garbage. But here’s a way to use technology against itself and for your benefit. There is something called, and every platform uses a different term, auto-play on YouTube. I believe on Spotify it’s called Smart Shuffle. On Amazon, it’s called like my soundtrack or my station.

                                           00:33:04             Here’s how it works. I want you to pick out the song you want to hear in that moment, but make it a good one because here’s why. You can go to Spotify, Amazon, or Apple Music and say create a playlist or smart shuffle or auto-play based on this song. Now, here’s what’s cool about what happens. I don’t want to get weird, you guys, but I do believe that there is angelic power that can overcome technology sometimes. We’ve seen certainly the other way, anytime somebody presents a Sunday School lesson, there’s some kind of devilish power that tries to take over technology every time it doesn’t work.

Hank Smith:                      00:33:46             This worked five minutes ago, right? This worked five minutes ago.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:33:50             Well, I believe the opposite is true. And I don’t say that superfluously. I say that with sincerity. I will listen to an Elder Holland talk that I love, and I will turn on auto-play and I’ll let it play. And often as I’m doing, it’s sort of my body doubling with ADHD, someone kindof working on something, somebody talking in the background. Often it’ll auto-play to something I need to hear. I will play a song that is my favorite song in the moment and I’ll put headphones in or I’ll have it in the background and I’ll say auto-play based on this song. And I choose that song very carefully. And auto-play will bring songs, some which I’ve heard and some of which I’ve never heard before. I have seen this work wonders. I’ve heard a song come on where it’s like, oh my gosh, that’s exactly what I needed to hear.

                                           00:34:34             Give God a chance to create an episode where you can actually hear something that you need to hear. I’ll give you an example of this. So I’m driving in my car and I use this smart shuffle and I’m heading to a meeting that I’m dreading. It’s a really toughie. I believe we can pray for specific angels to come to our aid. I don’t say this lightly, what I’ve studied and what I’ve experienced in my life. You can say, God, I need help. I need a specialist. I remember one time when I was underprepared for a concerto I played, I said, God, I know that my mom was really good at showing up and just making it up. Having the Spirit lift her to a level of expertise and acumen that was not natural. She told me that story. Can she come and help me somehow in that?

                                           00:35:23             Enabled by the atoning power of Jesus Christ. And that concerto, I played flawlessly and I had never once played it flawlessly before in my life, no matter how many times I practiced it. I believe that specific angels, people, our lost loved ones can come to our aid and to our rescue and that we can specifically ask for them. This is why we cannot be saved without them. They cannot be saved without us. Why do we want to learn family history? You can come up with a lot of reasons that aren’t good enough for me, but the reason for me is the more I know about my family history, the more I can call on specialists. I didn’t know my grandpa died early and I never knew him, but I found out he was an incredible public speaker through family history. When I go into a keynote and I’m nervous, I say, God, send Grandpa Elroy.

                                           00:36:14             Can you send Grandpa Elroy? I know he was really good at this. And I feel him. And you imagine in the next life when I never knew him in this life, do you imagine how much more connected I’m going to be with him in the next life when I see him? Thanks, grandpa for helping me out. Why doesn’t Jesus come to our rescue every time? Because he wants to delegate that so that people on the other side of the veil can have the joy of being involved in our salvation. It’s so cool. Think about all the people you’ve done temple work for. Wouldn’t they want so desperately to do something for you? I did this the other day. I’m writing my Broadway musical and I’m hitting major roadblocks. Writer’s block like you wouldn’t believe, my friends. I actually did a walking prayer because I’m ADHD I walk pray a lot.

                                           00:36:57             And out loud is really helpful. Speaking out loud, I say, God, I know among the people I’ve done temple work for are really good writers. Could you send one or two of them to help me through this writer’s block? And I sit back down. This was so cool. It flowed, it flowed, it flowed so beautifully at that point. And I felt divine aid. And I can imagine the joy of these people that are like, you know, when God created the plan, remember what he said? He said, whom shall I send? Don’t you think there might be a microcosm there for us as we say, you know, Hank Smith is praying right now and he really needs help with this. He needs help with this specific thing. And God’s like, who wants to go? Isn’t that a cool agency moment that your great-grandfather who happens to be really good at the thing that you’re struggling with is like, ooh, ooh, pick me.

                                           00:37:49             That is such a cool thought. He’s like, oh, I want to be there. I want to be there for my great-grandson, Hank. And maybe it’s as you’re walking out the door, he just gives you a little bit of a thought. I just think there’s so much more of that that goes on behind the scenes than we realize. And I’m going to switch it to my dad because he died prematurely of vascular dementia as well. As he was going through dementia, he’s sitting in the passenger seat. And I wrote a song for him. It was an amalgam of Fight Song together with Amazing Grace. Because my father taught me that when the fights of our life grow too fierce to fight on our own, you can turn them over to grace and let grace do the fighting for you. That was his legacy for me to teach me that.

                                           00:38:27             I’m driving in the car and I just say, play this song and then give me smart shuffle based upon it. Well, after that song was done, guess what second song came up? That song that I wrote for my dad. And there he is in the passenger seat, one of the last times I spent with him. The chances of that are zero. Zero. But that’s what came. And so I think it can happen. So if you’re looking for a little boost on helping God to just inspire you with music, try that principle.

Hank Smith:                      00:38:54             I was thinking about your question. I thought of a couple of things. One, I don’t know how old I was. I had to be, you know, 13 or 14 when I listened to Les Miserables for the first time. Just the story of a redemption, it really moved me. It’s probably a very common experience because it’s a step below scripture, but it’s right there. It’s a good room in the house, like you said, Steven. I also remember reading the words. This had to be even further back. I remember reading the words and I had to be single digits. I had to be eight or nine years old. I was reading towards the words to There is a Green Hill Far Away. I was sitting at church and they sang it for sacrament meeting and I just sat and read it. I’m not sure why.

                                           00:39:42             Little ADHD brain. I read there’s a green hill far away without a city wall. And I could see it. Where the dear Lord was crucified who died to save us all. Oh, dearly, dearly has he loved? We must love him too and trust in his redeeming blood and try his works to do. I still remember it. I had to be eight years old, but I remember reading those words and them having impact. I don’t think I cried. The last time I cried was when the Jazz lost to the Bulls in 1998. But I think it does something very similar to crying as the movement.

John Bytheway:               00:40:22             Hank, did you ever sing that hymn in the Jerusalem Center? The first time I ever went to the Holy Land, we started singing There is a Green Hill Far Away. And I just remember going, well, actually, it’s right over there. It was.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:40:37             There is a green hill right next door.

John Bytheway:               00:40:40             I was just so shocked that I was there. Actually, it’s just over that. Oh, my goodness. To be there and to think how close you were to it. Thank you for bringing that one up. That was the sacrament hymn I asked for at my mission farewell and still remember because I loved the message of it as well.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:41:01             Let’s talk about music helping us with one of the biggest pain points of life right now, especially for parents, parents out there, grandparents that are listening. One of the biggest pain points is there are lots of testimony meetings where a grandparent or a parent will get up and lament over a lost child. A lost sheep. A sheep that has strayed, whatever term is used, leaving the church. The term is used faith crisis. And brethren, I would invite you to be on a little crusade with me on trying to change, reframe faith crisis. I don’t love that term. I’m with Elder Holland. He says, “To have faith is to be in crisis.” So to single out people that are maybe taking more of a circuitous route and finding other journeys, I would say, let’s say faith journey instead of faith crisis. Words can be powerful.

                                           00:41:56             I think we should all consider ourselves in some sort of crisis. And that’s why we need Christ. Instead of singling people out like we’re not in crisis, you’re in crisis. I think that it separates us. And it delineates some kind of chasm between us. It’s not helpful. But I want to tell a story of something that’s really helped me with this, and I hope it’s helpful for people out there. It’s the parable of the meet and greet line. I want to share this in light of what it means in relationship to two pain points. Let’s push pause on the parental pain point of a child that is taking an extended faith journey. And let’s go to another pain point that is often expressed to me, but relative. I will have people that will wait in line two to three hours in a meet and greet line. The first thing they say to me when they shake my hand after seeing the show, after waiting that long is, oh, I’m so sad my child didn’t keep up the piano or the cello. I’m so sad that I didn’t do enough. It was a downer. You know, here I tried to play this show and meet and greet line, I’m keeping my energy up as much as I can. And somebody’s like, I’m depressed. I’m like, oh.

Hank Smith:                      00:43:14             I waited in line to tell you.

John Bytheway:               00:43:15             I waited in line to tell you that you failed.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:43:20             It’s like, okay, thanks for coming. Anything I would say would be so lame after that. It happens so many times that Alma tells me I can pray over my flock, and this is the flock. I said, “God, I’m struggling with this. It’s such a downer. I don’t know what to say. Can you help?” What came to me was really cool. Really cool. And it relates to our pain point, our parental pain point that I was talking about. He said, “The next time you get to meet and greet line, I’ve got you.” He just said, “You open your mouth. I’ll put the words in.” I said, “Okay. I’ve seen that happen before. I’ll try it again.” A woman comes up to me and she says, “I’m so sad that my son gave up the piano.” I looked up kind of like, “Here’s the moment.” And I looked at her and I said, “Every second your son spent at that instrument was worth it.

                                           00:44:19             Every second he was at that piano bench, expanded his mind, improved his confidence, increased his self-discipline. Every second counted.” She looked at me as if she took this burden off her shoulders and let it go. I know that sounds so silly, but it was such a profound exchange. From then on out, I have discovered so many things about this. It was so special. We had this wonderful moment. I’ve used it countless times since then. Every second spent at that instrument counted and mattered and exercised both sides of the brain. And I use that for people who have remorse over their own giving up of the instrument. Now let’s put that into the pain point of a parent who feels like they haven’t done enough. A grandparent or a parent who feels like they haven’t done enough for their child who’s taking an extended faith journey.

                                           00:45:15             I’m talking to you. God loves you and loves your effort. And I can say with enough confidence that I would suppose, and I would hope, that if you came to God and said, “Oh, I wish my son or my daughter would’ve stayed in the church.” He would look at you and said, “Every second they spent in that pew mattered and counted and enriched their life forevermore.” And here’s where it gets especially good. Let’s look at Psalm 78, verse seven. It’s they that might set their hope in God and not forget the works in God. I’m going to relate this to Proverbs 22:6, which is the pain point. Train up a child in the way he shall go, and he will not depart from it. That can’t be true in every case.

                                           00:46:10             This is another way you can read it. Train up a child in the way he shall go, and it will not depart from him. Every second you read scriptures, every second you attempted and failed Come, Follow Me. Every second you insisted they were in that pew, every second mattered and counted and will never leave them. The last thing I will say to that is this. If your definition of family success or success as a parent or a grandparent is predicated, contingent upon something you can’t control, you will never be happy. If your definition of success as a parent or grandparent is dependent upon something you cannot control, you will never be happy. Instead, what if your definition of success was I love my child and they know it? Base your definition of parental, grandparental, or family success on something you can control and your life will change.

Hank Smith:                      00:47:17             Wow. That was wonderful, Steven. It shall never depart from him.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:47:22             There’s a word that occurs commonly over and over again in the Psalms, and it’s selah. Selah is significant. Why? Because selah means pause. To me, selah is the Psalm’s version of the fermata. Fermata in music. For those of you can’t see and are listening, it’s like a arc that’s over a dot. So it looks like a bird’s eye kind of. What does that mean when it’s placed over a note? It’s actually my favorite musical symbol.

John Bytheway:               00:47:53             Look at the conductor.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:47:54             Yes. Hold. It means hold that note. And the greatest thing about it is it’s up to the artist’s discretion to decide or the conductor’s discretion on how long that’s held. All of a sudden, it’s in your hands. Even if it’s God’s music, all of a sudden it’s like, how long do I hold this? It’s beautiful because this is where we come back to Mozart too. Mozart said that music is not in the notes, but is in the space between. I would say that the Psalms, the meaning of the Psalms isn’t necessarily in the words, it’s in the space between. That’s between you and the Lord and how you burn them into your mind, like we talked about, and how you become a Psalmist yourself. How your experiences become your Psalms, your stories, your parables. I would also say this. I have discovered that life is not in our expectations, but in the space between them.

                                           00:48:50             We often have these expectations that are imposed upon us or self-imposed that come from a system or a person. And when those are not met, we feel this tension. It’s a tension between human time and divine time. We’re in living in abundance, and that can create a sense of control over our outcomes. So when an outcome doesn’t come about the way we want it, we feel not only like it’s broken, but it’s betrayal. That’s where our trust issues come from. But to reconcile this, expectations in this world can be held lightly while faith anchors on the belief that ultimately resolution and deliverance will occur, but on God’s terms.

                                           00:49:30             President Nelson’s Expect Miracles. Let’s think about that. His teaching encourages an openness to divine intervention, but not entitlement to a specific timing or form. Often, if you are caught in the expectations rather than the space between, you may feel unhappiness in your life. Remember selah, which is pause, be still. The fermata is on you to hold that as long as you can or want. But also remember, the symphony is the Lord’s. The tension between our time and God’s divine time is tense indeed. But this is what I would say is look at the space between the expectations in your life. Find meaning there. Find happiness, find joy, find solace, find stillness in space between the expectations. And that’s what selah is to me.

Hank Smith:                      00:50:19             Steven, this has been fantastic. I have pages of notes. John, have you just been trying to jot down these, this wisdom?

John Bytheway:               00:50:27             Yep. It’s really good.

Hank Smith:                      00:50:29             He doesn’t even let us know that it’s coming. He just says this very insightful, profound thing and moves on. And I’m like, “Well, hold on. Hold on. Let me write that down.” Yeah, let us know when you’re about to, to change everything, change my whole paradigm. Before we let you go, give us a last note. Hey, do you see what I did there? What do you want our listeners to remember?

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:50:50             I think I’d like to talk about something that is sort of an unfinished subject in a lot of our lives. I have discovered that there are no unanswered prayers. There’s only unfinished prayers. I remember a while ago, I was in the middle of an interview. We had had so many interviews at the outset of The Piano Guys because people were scratching their heads. They’re like, why are The Piano Guys successful? These guys are not rock stars. They don’t fit the mold. You know, nobody’s pinning their pictures up in lockers anywhere. Like, who are these guys? But we got the question a lot. How have you been doing this? Like, what if people want to do what you’re doing? Those people out there that are also nerdy like you are, how could they do what you’re doing? What advice would you have for them? And that was a lot of pressure.

                                           00:51:30             And I felt like I just spit out platitudes. So I was like, well, practice hard. Work hard. Live your dream. It was so nauseating. I remember one day I started into that, and it was this liberal publication. So I was really being careful about spirituality, which I’m not anymore, by the way, because people will criticize you no matter what you say, you might as well be yourself. I’m just myself, so I just express my testimony whenever it feels natural and not overbearing. And I said, “You know what? The only advice I could give is the only way we’ve seen that’s worked in our lives and the only explanation we have for a success, and it’s a quote by a man named Ezra Benson.” And I quoted verbatim the quote that John is just about to read for you.

John Bytheway:               00:52:10             President Ezra Taft Benson said, “Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that he can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends and pour out peace.”

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:52:36             First off, if you are asking the question, how do I turn my life over to God? You are already doing it. You’ve already started. Your feet are on that path. And in closing, I want to recite my favorite Psalm and my favorite words from him. I’m going to close that. And it has to do with feet on the path. Your feet are already on that path, number one. Number two, what to do next. I will say that the reason why it’s hard to express this and why we shy away from the how is because it’s different for everyone. It is personal. It’s between you and the Lord. If we go all Instagram influencer on you and explain exactly formulaically how to do this, it actually might hinder you more than it’ll help you, because that has to be between you and the Lord. However, I don’t want to disappoint you with a answer that is a deflection.

                                           00:53:34             I would love to offer at least what worked for me in hopes that it will help you take the next step. After the first step of asking, take the next step. There was a great talk President Oaks gave called Good, Better, Best. The inspiration for what I’m about to tell you is derived from that. However, there’s a very personal spin on this. When we hear a talk like that, sometimes we feel the pressure. And I love this. When we were talking about this talk in Elder’s Quorum, one of my good friends, Mike, he raises his hand in Elders Quorum. He’s like, “Can I get something straight here? You guys are all talking about good, better, best, but there’s a lot of us who are really struggling just to get to good.” And I really related to that. Put aside the scrupulosity. Put aside the toxic perfectionism.

                                           00:54:25             I know how that feels. I grew up in classical music for heaven’s sakes. Put aside all that. I want you to clean the slate. Will you clear your mind and start over with me? Start instead with simply your relationship with God. Let’s start there. I worked with my YSAs a lot on this. There’s so many expectations. Well, you got to do this. You got to do that. You got to fulfill a calling. You got to get married. You got to go to school. You got to get a job. Put all of that aside. I want everything off the plate. And I want one thing only on that plate. And that’s you and your relationship with Jesus. Start there. How do we turn our life over to someone like Jesus? Well, we’ve got to get to know him. We’ve got to talk with him. This is the beginning of the journey of turning your life over to God.

                                           00:55:17             The reason why I call it good, better, best is because I don’t want to place an expectation on you that every day is going to be a hit record. Just like every song I write will never be a hit and every baseball swing will never be a home run. Every day you try to turn your life over to God will not be best. But it’ll be good. And there are some days when good is good enough. Pick your favorite book of scripture. And I would strongly suggest that this be the Book of Mormon. Why? Because it’s the book that draws us nearest to God. It’s the book that says Jesus the most. And it’s the book that talks about Christ the most. It’s my favorite book. I would strongly recommend that you use the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is a conversation starter with God.

                                           00:56:04             That’s it. Let’s start there. What we’re going to do is we’re going to have a piece of paper out or a computer screen or an iPad. I’d hesitate using your phone because there’s so many distractions. A keyboard’s better. Do you write or type? You decide that. It needs to be write or type. And this is where the psalmist comes in. If we’re not writing enough, it’s just not going to work. I want your planner out, your calendar out. I want everything that is your life, it’s on the table. This is your life we’re talking about. We got our Book of Mormon open. And you say an out loud prayer to God, and you pour out everything. This is not a nourish and strengthen or a moisture prayer, okay? I know those are great prayers, but this is a real dig into it prayer. Cast your burdens on him.

                                           00:56:48             Pour out your thoughts. Ask him for help. Say it out loud because you won’t wander. Then you go to the Book of Mormon and you start reading. It could be where you left off. It could be an open page to random. It could be in Come, Follow Me, whatever you want to do. Open the book. Start reading. When a word or a phrase or a verse stands out to you, could be one verse, could be two verses, could be three verses. When it stands out to you, that’s God signaling I want to talk. I’d love to talk. Then what you do is you’ve opened the door, and now I want you to type and write until there’s nothing left in that ink, in that pen, nothing left in your fingers. That first paragraph will likely be garbage. That’s how I write music too. It might be stream of consciousness.

                                           00:57:33             You just write and pretty soon it’ll get really good. And the things you talked about in your out loud prayer, it could be maybe about the scripture you just read. It might not be. It could be about something you were struggling with mentally. It could be about something you’re trying to repent of. It could be about somebody you’re trying to love. And whatever impression comes to you at that point, I want it out on the paper and out in that writing. Just go, go, go. And then when you get to the end and you think there’s nothing left, I want you to pull an Elder Scott. And I want you to say, “Is there more?” And the flood gates will often open at that point. And you will have a conversation with God and begin turning your life over to him, asking him, “What do I do today? How do, what do I do to turn my life over to you?” And he will tell you.

                                           00:58:17             This I have described is the best scenario. It will not happen every day, but good and better will support best. What do I mean by that? If you’re having a rough day and all you do at the end of the day, all you do throughout the day is listen to the Book of Mormon on audio as you’re driving. That is good. And some days that’s good enough. Start there. Better as you’re opening it up and you’re underlining a few things. You’re pondering over it. You spend 10, 15 minutes, maybe longer. That’s better. Good, better, best. Best is what I’ve described, the out loud prayer followed by this writing session where you’re working with God to glean revelation for your own life. That is how I’ve discovered how I can turn my life over to God. He has given me insight after insight on those best days, which honestly for me are once or twice a week, if it’s a good week. Those best days, they elucidate so much for me and expand my mind, magnify me so much that you’ll find yourself in the work that God has for you to do and miracles will happen and you can expect them to.

John Bytheway:               00:59:26             That’s beautiful. I have never been disappointed by the Book of Mormon. I just want to add that testimony to yours that that’s where that connection can really start and grow and continue. Thank you for that.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     00:59:42             Open your whole life to God, put it on the table, literally and figuratively, and let him direct your life for your good. And that’s turning your life over to God. You can do it every day, but remember, it’s not going to be best every day. And give yourself grace for that. Good, better, best.

Hank Smith:                      00:59:58             I can already see that the things I’ve written are going to have serious impact on the way I parent, the way I think, the way I treat my wife, my desire to go to the temple has increased. Satan’s favorite lie is, things will never get better.

John Bytheway:               01:00:13             And I’m going to change my diet. No more rehash browns.

Hank Smith:                      01:00:17             Yeah. No more rehash browns. Steven, thank you. Thank you for being part of followHIM.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     01:00:23             Thank you so much. I just want to end you with my favorite hymn. My favorite Psalm ever is Psalm 119. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Jesus is real. He is so real. He loves you and wants to connect with you and spend time with you. That’s what he’s after. And I promise you can attain that. But remember this, lead kindly light amidst encircling gloom. Lead thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home. Lead thou me on. Keep thou my feet I do not ask to see the distant scene. One step is enough for me. As you end this podcast, don’t worry about the distant scene. Take ye no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for itself. Even if the night is dark and you’re far from home, he will lead you on. What I hope we’ve gleaned from this is that Jesus has not only inscribed on us on the palms of his hands, he has inscribed us on the psalms of his hands, because the Psalms are of Him. And your personal psalms can be from him if you turn your life over to him. I bear my testimony that Jesus is the Great Deliverer, is the Great Advocate, and his loving kindness is supreme.

Hank Smith:                      01:02:05             We love you, Steven Sharp.

Steven Sharp Nelson:     01:02:06             Thank you. Love you back.

Hank Smith:                      01:02:08             Yes, we do. We want to thank Steven Sharp Nelson for being our guest today. We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Sorensen. We love you, Shannon. We want to thank our sponsors, David and Verla Sorensen. In every episode, we remember our founder, Steve Sorensen. He had your energy Steven. We hope you’ll join us next week. We’re going to do more of the Psalms on followHIM.