Tangible Invitations - Material I'm Pondering

I gave a talk in our congregation recently pondering Jesus’s invitations using physical experience to expand our being.

• “Consider the lilies of the field.”^[1]
• “Jesus said to Peter, ‘Come’.”^[2]
• “Handle me and see.”^[3]

And many more.

I’m not going to write out the message or even the outline here, but just collect some sources that I’ve been pondering.

• “Patience” (Maxwell) https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neal-a-maxwell/patience/
• “Spiritually Whole in Him” (Johnson) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2025/04/14johnson?lang=eng
• “Be Still, and Know That I Am God” (Bednar) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/10/14christofferson?lang=eng
• “Things as They Really Are” (Bednar) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2010/06/things-as-they-really-are?lang=eng
• “Ritual and the Subjunctive” (Puett) https://puett.scholars.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum3361/files/puett/files/puett_ritual_and_the_subjunctive.pdf
• “Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments” (Holland) https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jeffrey-r-holland/souls-symbols-sacraments/
• “Persuasion and Love Unfeigned” (O’Driscoll, Gregersen) https://rsc.byu.edu/joseph-hyrum-leading-one/persuasion-love-unfeigned
• Wherever You Go, There You Are (Kabat-Zinn) https://www.amazon.com/Wherever-You-There-Are-Mindfulness/dp/1401307787
• “Book Review: Surfing Uncertainty” (Scott Alexander) https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/05/book-review-surfing-uncertainty/
• “The Precision of Sensory Evidence” (Scott Alexander) https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-precision-of-sensory-evidence
• At-One-Ment: Embodying the Fullness of Human-Divinity (Thomas Wirthlin McConkie) https://www.amazon.com/At-One-Ment-Thomas-McConkie/dp/1953677169
• Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff, Johnson) https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3637992.html
• Finite and Infinite Games (Carse) https://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/1476731713
• “Stairway to Heaven” (Led Zeppelin) https://youtu.be/QkF3oxziUI4?si=T_nRiryT43XXyX4v
• “Hanging By a Moment” (Lifehouse) https://youtu.be/tPnK39ax_AM?si=4AVQ9wJPgA3_xP1Q
• “Hi Ren” (Ren) https://youtu.be/s_nc1IVoMxc?si=0vh6pVxMNQWW0S3A
• “Hold My Hand” (Hootie and the Blowfish) https://youtu.be/xoW3bqnr7tw?si=Us4RgiM-5QjAF8S1