Faith Matters

We live in a world that prizes activity: being productive, staying in control, always doing something. So when life brings seasons of waiting—through illness, loss, or circumstances we didn’t choose—it can feel unsettling, even threatening to our sense of self. But what if those seasons are actually inviting us into a deeper understanding of God?
Today, we’re joined by Terryl Givens to explore an extraordinary book called The Stature of Waiting by W.H. Vanstone. Vanstone noticed something hiding in plain sight in the gospel accounts of the last week of Jesus’s life. Up until a certain moment, Jesus is the one acting—teaching, healing, feeding, leading. And then, almost imperceptibly, the grammar of the story shifts. He is no longer the one doing, but the one to whom things are done. He is handed over. He waits. He receives. And Vanstone suggests this isn’t a tragic turn in the story—it’s its deepest revelation.
Terryl and Fiona introduced many of us to the God who weeps in Moses 7. In Vanstone, we meet that same vulnerable God again—this time, waiting. And we ask what it means to follow that God in how we love, how we age, how we suffer, and how we let ourselves be carried.
We hope that as you move through Holy Week this year, this conversation helps see the face of God in the most vulnerable moments of the Easter story — and in your own.
Become a Friend of Faith Matters or a paid Wayfare subscriber by March 31 to get Issue 7 in the mail!

This version has the correct audio--thanks to those who let us know the last one wasn't right! 
From time to time we like to share episodes from other shows in the Faith Matters network that we think you’ll really love, and today we’re highlighting one of our new favorites from Article 13, the podcast hosted by Zach Davis.
If you haven’t discovered it yet, Article 13 is one of the most beautifully produced things Faith Matters does. The title comes from the thirteenth Article of Faith and that really captures the spirit of seeking that you’ll experience in these episodes. These are rich, deeply researched explorations that bring together cutting-edge scholarship and spiritual wisdom to ask big questions about how we live.
In today’s episode, drawing on research from thinkers like Seth Kaplan and Pete Davis, we hear a compelling case that one of the central challenges of our time is a growing fear of commitment.
Our culture tells us that the best life is the one where we keep our options open. But the irony is that the things that make life richest—friendships, tight-knit neighborhoods, shared projects, belonging—become possible when we choose to commit to one another. Real, rooted, showing-up-again-and-again community.
Even though our tradition is built around covenant relationships, we’re living in the same cultural waters that pull toward busyness, mobility, and individualism.
This episode is both a diagnosis and an invitation. It’s full of ideas and stories that might make you want to knock on a neighbor’s door, join something local, or start something in your own community.
We hope it sends you back to your people—your neighbors, your ward, your community—with a little more fire.
And with that, here’s Article 13.
Become a Friend of Faith Matters or a paid Wayfare subscriber by March 31 to get Issue 7 in the mail!

From time to time we like to share episodes from other shows in the Faith Matters network that we think you’ll really love, and today we’re highlighting one of our new favorites from Article 13, the podcast hosted by Zach Davis.
If you haven’t discovered it yet, Article 13 is one of the most beautifully produced things Faith Matters does. The title comes from the thirteenth Article of Faith and that really captures the spirit of seeking that you’ll experience in these episodes. These are rich, deeply researched explorations that bring together cutting-edge scholarship and spiritual wisdom to ask big questions about how we live.
In today’s episode, drawing on research from thinkers like Seth Kaplan and Pete Davis, we hear a compelling case that one of the central challenges of our time is a growing fear of commitment.
Our culture tells us that the best life is the one where we keep our options open. But the irony is that the things that make life richest—friendships, tight-knit neighborhoods, shared projects, belonging—become possible when we choose to commit to one another. Real, rooted, showing-up-again-and-again community.
Even though our tradition is built around covenant relationships, we’re living in the same cultural waters that pull toward busyness, mobility, and individualism.
This episode is both a diagnosis and an invitation. It’s full of ideas and stories that might make you want to knock on a neighbor’s door, join something local, or start something in your own community.
We hope it sends you back to your people—your neighbors, your ward, your community—with a little more fire.
And with that, here’s Article 13.

One of the real challenges of studying the Hebrew Bible is figuring out how to make sense of stories of divine violence—where a God of love seems hard to find. These passages raise real questions about the nature of God and what it means for us as we try to live faithfully.
Our guest today is Riley Risto, director of Latter-day Peace Studies, who joined the Church after a powerful mystical experience while praying about the Book of Mormon, an experience that centered his faith on Jesus and shaped his lifelong effort to take Christ’s teachings seriously in a world—and a Bible—full of violence and conflict.
In this episode, Riley invites us to engage scripture through what’s often called a cruciform lens—the idea that, if Jesus gives us the clearest picture of who God is, then his life and teachings should shape how we understand every Bible story. Instead of letting the most troubling passages define our image of God, we begin with Christ and the cross and allow his life—and his radical call to love our enemies—to guide the way we wrestle with the rest.
Along the way we explore what René Girard’s work on scapegoating might reveal about violence in scripture, what it might really mean to “take the Lord’s name in vain,” and what a Christ-centered reading could mean about justice.
Underneath it all is the conviction that we’re not meant to be casual observers of scripture, but participants—trusting that honest wrestling can refine our faith and discipleship. For us, this cruciform lens has sparked new curiosity and breathed new life into our scripture study this year, and we’re excited to share it with you.
If conversations like this are resonating with you, we’d love to invite you to explore more of the work we’re doing at Faith Matters. One podcast you might especially enjoy is Proclaim Peace, a joint project from Faith Matters and Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
Hosted by Jennifer Thomas and Patrick Mason, Proclaim Peace explores what it might look like to read scripture through a lens of peace—and how those teachings can shape the way we live, engage conflict, and show up in the world.
If this episode sparked something for you, we invite you to subscribe to Proclaim Peace on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We think you’ll really appreciate the thoughtful conversations happening there.
Become a Friend of Faith Matters or a paid Wayfare subscriber by March 31 to get Issue 7 in the mail!

In today’s conversation, we explore creativity as a spiritual practice—not something reserved for artists, but a way of living.
Our guests are Lisa Valentine Clark, a comedian, actor, and host of The Lisa Show, and James Rees—artist, educator, researcher, and passionate advocate for the arts.
Both Lisa and James have spent their lives creating—in front of audiences on stages, in studios, in classrooms—and they’ve come to see that creativity does sacred work inside us. It gives form to what we’re wrestling with. It helps us clarify what we think and feel. It helps us metabolize the unexpected. It draws us into deeper presence.
For Lisa, these insights became intensely practical. She shares the foundational rule of improv, “yes, and”: accept what’s given and build from it. This principle became a discipline that helped carry her through the hardest season of her life.
Throughout the episode, we return again and again to the role of vulnerability—the courage to begin before you feel ready, to quiet the inner critic, and to let something take shape before you judge it. It’s this openness that makes growth possible.
We hope this conversation expands the way you think about creativity and moves you to notice the ways you’re already being invited to practice it.
Become a Friend of Faith Matters or a paid Wayfare subscriber by March 31 to get Issue 7 in the mail!