right that's a fair question

we like genuine and and the person who acts the most genuine is often the one that we identify with the most but is there a performative aspect to showing up at the Airport with, you know, 300 of your closest friends or whatever the number is to greet the missionary.

And this is getting, you know, probably a little too cynical, but it's an interesting question.

He sees it as totally genuine.

And he says, you know, probably the unhappy Mormon families were staying home.

And, you know, maybe the unhappy Mormon families were showing up to try to act happy.

Right.

Yeah.

And so a rich set of verses, one to fall back on often to remember just a short summary of the gospel message.

For me, more recently, it has been probably Colossians 1, 15 to 20.

And so the supremacy of Christ and really this kind of, you know, they'll sometimes refer to it as kind of this cosmic Christ.

I've been kind of just fascinated with...

And honestly, like the kind of the world of medieval thinking, how the whole world was somewhat symbolic in a lot of ways to the mind of medieval people and where it says that he is before all things.

i don't take that to mean merely in a chronological way i think that is you know ontological and logical way that's already kind of somewhat kind of maybe deep or something but um that he is the one who is holding all things together no how no matter how far deep you drill down with you know physics and the origin of life and all these kinds of ideas where you hear like somebody like Stephen Meyer or somebody like that talking about design and creation and all of that, that It is a mystery.

As far as we know with science and technology and the beginning of the universe and all that kind of stuff, I'm like, well, you know, there's so much we don't understand.

And again, it's to point to God, but what he has experienced.

That's my thoughts on

it.

I tend to think it's actually because of...

That's part of it, but I think in light of the fact that he's considered the apostle to the Gentiles and that his way of approaching... whatever topic or the churches he addresses or Timothy, whomever he's addressing, his approach is, I mean, it reads almost like a very systematic argument through, his argument is very systematic that people, and he's very quotable.

And so what we know of him in his life, having this sort of, dual world sort of understanding, you know, of like being trained at the feet of Gamaliel and also having, you know, been exposed to the things he has in his life in the Gentile world, he can cross paths those barriers and uh so that he can say like in to in in first corinthians 9 where he talks about uh to those who are who do not have the law and as one without the law and those who do have the law and as one with the law i mean he's basically saying to the gentiles and to the jews and he understands both worlds and so um i think what becomes a problem for and this was something that that i experienced kind of early on in my walk where One of the problems with interpreting Paul or reading him is that sometimes we want to read him in an individualistic or existential way that, oh, this is how I feel, that he's speaking to me, this is exactly how I feel.

But that's not usually his approach.

His approach is generally this kind of redemptive historical thing.

and that's only christianity do you get the macro spiritual aspect and the this changes your life yes for the better permanently