Coming up in this episode on follow him when I was 16 years old.
That had a lot of gravitas to it and I played a filet elegi, 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 Hello my friends welcome to another episode of follow him my name is Hanksmith I'm your host. I'm here with my musical co-host John by the way John you are musical. I don't know about talented musically, but you are musical. I play the CD player I play the cassette player
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 a Steven Sharp Nelson Steven welcome to follow him. I could be more happy to be here boys 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. Don't give them foam. Oh, we've had like an hour of the podcast
It was unrecorded so far. Yes, I'm recorded. We just failed 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 English is the weirdest language? But a long time to learn that a song is a song and music is just the soul your way down there When you read these year hearing that in or most feelings of the Psalmist, which is just exciting to see because we have all
“Had a soul voice speak sometime 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
Well, I first want to say condolences to the two of you I'm sorry that we've reached the point where you ran out of real guests And you're resorting to chelists It's really sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel when well, okay. We don't have any more guests So there any chelists available. Yes
We don't mind jump in the shark eventually. 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 a been a part of is Trump completely by the agent of all agents, which is my wife Julie
“She said you need to be on that follow him podcast and I said, well, I don't think they'd ever want me on that podcast”
She just took matters in her own hands. What did she do? Hey, did she just email you directly? Is that what happened? She emailed me I'd said yes, absolutely She's like my husband's just sitting around doing nothing. Can you interview him please? Yeah, something like that. She's a giant fan. So all my this 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 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 brother know who Victor Borg is? Yes piano player comedian hilarious to this day hilarious No expiration date on his comedy. It's so funny
For those that you 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 catalogued Just about everybody that was there. 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 the most esoteric Classical piece you can imagine he started in immediately with self-deprecating Relatable
humor. I was so drawn in by this He was so engaging and then all the sudden
He played a classical piece of music that I perhaps would have 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 and doctrine common is 42 as w...
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 gonna elevate your life with this, and I'm gonna impose it upon you Rather than starting with this inclusive Afable relatable way that Victor Borg had you lose people too quickly all that to say that Hank and John
I love you and I love that you are the Victor Borg's 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 and while they're enjoying that you say hey you probably. I'm never tried this before try it
They're so excited because you already have loved and 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 amin 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 the concommon and 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 Thank you. How kind how kind
What are we going to talk about today? Oh my goodness. I'm so excited about the Psalms. Yes We're going to be soul mates by the time 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 Solmists our selves 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 at the Psalms will show us cry out in agony the Psalms are the broadest range of human emotions ever offered to us in Scripture
Stephen, 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 Stephen 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 one percent in both, but he is John tell us about him. This is what we know hanged about our friend Steve Stephen sharp Nelson loves to play the cello”
He doesn't love bios every bios seems to sound the same He just put the words award winning in front of everything in true bio fashion Here it goes. Steve sharp Nelson is an award winning sort of guy He's an award winning consumer of typhoon sushi and on very special occasions Kim Chi 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
John Schmidt is the piano player and in honor of John who's a friend of mine since high school I cut my hair so I could look a little bit more like my friend John Schmidt You do you do and I thought I could suddenly play the piano like John bit new before his award winning performances and content creation with the Piano guys hi John Steve is an award winning failure at many start businesses in venture capital There were some successes as well, but the failures were the most valuable
That's a good line. Stephen 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 and acclaimed writer of words in music a perver of world-class dad humor He can play America the beautiful on the nose flute, which has yet to win any awards The title awarded Stephen that he treasures most is daddy which all four of his kids They just 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.
How ironic I just want to say hey, 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 talents that I have a Christmas CD that his sister me plays the guitar It's beautiful tell your sister. I listened to her every Christmas season 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 is 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 both on the other side of the veil per dyed 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. Wow
Beautiful He's as good as you hope everyone as you listen Is there anyone this good? No, that's not true. I'm gonna read from the come-fall of me manual The title of the lesson this week the Lord is my shepherd We don't know for certain who wrote the Psalms summer 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 Psalmist 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 we'll written all right with that Stephen we are excited to hand the rains over to you and sit in the back of the carriage and try not to fall out No, I want you involved in this. This is really important for me to involve you to I love that revelation is scattered among us and as we cancel together We gather it. Let's dig into the why I am such a wide guy
“I think we live in a world that 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 songs? Well first of all, and this was alluded to in the description
It was the people's book It was the people's him book. They didn't just read from it. They sang from it I am the middle of writing a Broadway musical. I have learned that there's 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 used 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 song 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
“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 is so much more memorization of the Psalms and that's why they flowed through their very light We have picked up on that how many of our hymns do you think are based on the Psalms of 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 can 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 th...
Quoted book in the New Testament
116 times Guest what number two is oh Isaiah gets the silver metal again 56 times 56 times so twice as much as the book of Isaiah 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 saver the epitome of The one by one minister what book is he going to use the one that everybody's most familiar with?
“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 him book of the Church of joy is the Psalms It's proven itself in its literature the proof is in the putting 2.5 more times likely to come across joy and delight in the book of Psalms not awesome and that's a 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'm a big advocate of team Jesus I 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 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 all together religion all together sectarian scholars cite Psalms as a mutable poetry If you're gonna gather Israel and share the gospel of Jesus Christ
The more you know Psalms the better off you're gonna be What a great book to be our lead when it comes to building the kingdom and gathering Israel the Psalms and the hymns can become part of the way you think They're like good friends you need 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 the word I would use is repertoire
Because a musician it 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 How you interact with others, but it's your repertoire. So I'll give you an example. I'm at a key note and I'm talking about creativity I bring up this person on the stage that is epitomized creativity and 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 buried in myself Can I open up to some vulnerability here John and Hank? 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 could just pause what we're talking about right now and I'm gonna relate a song to it But I want to dig into what you do when rehash browns gets put in front of you Well, I think before I would just consume them and put even nasty ketchup on them
As I've gotten older I 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 back. Oh, man did I miss everything up and now
“As I've gotten older I think I'm able to see the Lord pull that plate away for me. I'm said no, no, no don't do that”
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. Yeah, I think the Lord can come in and say Don't do that. That's not on the menu. It's not on the menu Oh, I love that. Hey, this is so good. I feel the same ways. Hey, I shouldn't have said that in the talk. I shouldn't have said it this way I shouldn't interact with this person that way
Hank in my age. I'm gonna 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 help people
I'll 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 I like that there's to take you into play the way there's learning something
“There's importance of humility. I think is a factor there. There's importance of maybe correcting”
something in its in extreme case. But typically what I have experienced and this is taking 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 woodest shirt of Kutta 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 WWEF 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 you have never made an impact
was so bad where is 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 bouncing 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
“underneath 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 I did my best to get in whatever I could 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 thought the power of Jesus Christ in 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 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 scary you're here I understand that but I even other and I said look I told
a story and I said Psalms 55 22 is my go to and I believe it works I have never seen anything
else work on my life I am so excited you know it came back her favorite Psalm and how excited she was that I had court of the Psalms and then I sent my favorite Psalm another favorite and then
She said we're now in a Psalm study group together thanks to the book of Psal...
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 that is just so good it's so wonderful John I could listen to Stephen all day yeah me too I just keep just keep talking it's as good as his music let's recap real quick we've learned that it's the hymn book of the people and it's 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 has thou forsaken me then Psalms 31 Luke 23 quotes it into the hands I commend my spirit David was speaking messianically but he was also referring to his own personal life and his 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 what does that mean for the Psalms how important can they be is 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
“him 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 that comeeth 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 Gassemony it was Psalms one through 13 through 118 were the halal Psalms those were typically really him book central did you know Jesus loved the Psalms loved love love them and quoted them as his very last words
even beyond the grave in the resurrection the Psalms show up 110 and 16 exalted on the right
hand of God that will not leave my soul and hell so that's the why incredible if you want an
endorsement of the Psalms you've got it from Steven now listen to the Savior yes Luke 2444 and he said unto them these are the words which I speak 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 I love that you brought out he's gonna quote them a lot I love it thank you John
that is the capstone and that's exactly what I wanted around off that way 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 soulmate and you're sorry that's just dad humor coming out right well I want to be I want to all be Psalm 8 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 gonna be better about being bolder in sharing our”
emotions relative to our testimonies because all of those are inherent in the Psalms 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 the second or third movement of our Psalmist symphony that we're building right now together 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 and I'm gonna say it again
Nobody can do the work that God has for you to do except you he has given you...
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 when we're 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 now remember your life is not a Benson Boonsong 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 logos and laments and retardandos cellarandos 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 remember that symphony is your work and your work alone that's why”
I want us to become Psalmist how do we turn our life over to God in this podcast I did recently which was with Faith Myoders I talk about ADHD and why God loves your ADHD and 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 high light reel and we're going to come out the other side of 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 i-rate comment I've lived my life on YouTube for 15 years nothing can offend me anymore I've heard it all so I was not offended he said you know I can't stand with people talk about turning
their life over to God and they never explained 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 so Spencer's 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 broke. Box is considered the father of the broke 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 involving is this was happened you know that in the broke period we only had the harpsichord the harpsichord had two variables pluck or not pluck that was it so there's no emotion and no dynamics Beethoven said we cannot merely practice our art what is your art it could be anything from cooking the relationships to service to whatever don't limit it to artistry artisty 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's 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 your painter aren't you a painter I draw what's your medium my favorite is watercolor why is it your favorite watercolors 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...
it takes a little bit of planning and challenge what happens when you're engaged in that
“describe the feeling 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 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 did we lose track of time Alma 41 helps us to understand this and 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 and then he moves on and it's like hold on wait what what what what will pause pause
what happened there I mean maybe 88 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 says but then all the
“sun 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 attorneys 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
see as Lewis says we don't belong in time it's not our natural habitat we're 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 by the way 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 is as we become so almost 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 you're child a special year teenage daughter who is thrust upon by all of the wires of the devil is ever a come up with and bless her heart she is struggling in a world that is meant for her to struggle in
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 great at her sold if you want to learn the piano it's very game when you're purely creative it cannot be assured 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 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 pure reviewed illustrious event that had a lot of gravitas to it and I played a phovae energy 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 my son I felt like I was every part of every mistake you made and I said what do you mean it's like I don't want to disparage you but every mistake was written on your face
and you pulled me into it 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 mistak...
I smile a lot it is elevated my performance it is 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 the sudden I'm not doing it for the fear of mistakes 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
the reference point of this is the second 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 the soul not to be graded postered 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 on the Lord praying to him that he will consecrate thy performance for the welfare of thy soul and by extension the welfare of the souls that are around I'd say 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 fill energized from the performance it doesn't happen every time 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 audiences
“not into it but there's one person out there that is touched and is 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 let me
play to the one oh my goodness let me tell you what happened one day I was so tired and I was saying the prayer out of wrote sort of like okay here we go let me say my prayer before I walk on to say 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 lower case oh the one upper case oh and all of sudden this was so cool and I want you to experience this in your life brother 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 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 the sudden comparison falls away all of a sudden why are people paying so much money for my concert when yo yo ma is next door and he's way better than I am that note I missed if you're a cellist out 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 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 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 my favorite calling in the church by far was when I got to serve in a YSA state 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 missed it with all my heart what I discovered was something very interesting I would hear the phrase I'm going through the motions
I'm not feeling anything I'm not feeling revelation I'm not feeling the spiri...
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 CS Lewis said that when we say this we're as efficient water wondering where all the water is 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 asked 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 ubank says hey guess what it's both I love that answer let's take our focus off of 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 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 admitted”
or not we've all felt at many of us have felt it and this is the one thing I would advise if your expectations of the gospel in 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 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 it'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 burnouts 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 your only as hot as your recent
“hit and you have to sacrifice everything to make it successful and this is maybe across other industries”
but I experienced that first hand 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 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 there at odds 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 why had to actually take a completely big giant step back and I love ...
guys alvanderbeek Paul Anderson John 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 no no no no they put their arms around me”
and they said we got you we got you 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'd 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 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 it was always done never because I
“might as well try out for the MBA for heaven's sake 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 oh 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 blueprint of a Broadway musical he said Steve that sounds great I love that idea I was like okay next 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 slothless 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 a burnout Arthur Brooks to the great social scientist who was a former French horn player by the way it's one of the reason why 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 and that's where midlife crisis 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 why 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 thought because instead of starting over altogether which is discouragement and 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 and Hank you probably have some stories in your life where you did this either intentionally or unintentionally if 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 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 relatively new setting even let's relate it and I
have to be humbled because I'm starting the through 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 him 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 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 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 if you look for the packets...
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 says Steve what are you doing right now in your life I'm like oh hey wow okay 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 should tell him about it okay and I start telling him 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 I just
number down then the next day I've forgotten it 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 begin one packet then Jesus will say try again I just just picture of saying that all the angels are like oh man this kid is so dense and Jesus says 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 childhood piano
“guys or you know I I whatever I say and I don't say the Broadway musical thing like I usually”
don't and he says oh that's real class I said what do you do and he's like why 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 John and I are just mesmerized what do you want to do next 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 by the way 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 to hate him he doesn't yeah anybody 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 him upon which this Psalm is based right I want you to remember be still my soul is for words be still my soul for words then what are the next ones the Lord is on 6 words it is Psalms 46 Psalms 46 be still my soul the Lord is on my side now you remember we're 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'm God was relevant for you
I can think of probably numerous times I remember as a bishop reminding myself of President Hinkley 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 trust him in one last thing you brought up that those negative thoughts are coming from the adversary sometimes just going through the Savior's titles deliver 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 brother
If you fill yourself accusing yourself where is that coming from not the deli...
not the redeemer not the Savior he doesn't act like that those help me during those times
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 but 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 what did you sit down to and tell me what could go wrong
and anybody else want to tell me what could go wrong with the film what if my co-host gets a bad
haircut yeah yeah 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 is a filmmaker I could say you know I'm gonna do I'm gonna 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 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 in 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 of that get through the first couple episodes it's a little rough at the beginning but it gets better and better and better and 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 lows and fishes I just bring the lows and fishes and I will say that there are some days and I say this at a 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 lows and fishes this boy whose name telemicus comes and I love his interaction with Jesus he says he says it's not much
it's all I have how many times have I said that to Jesus it's not much and you know what Jesus says back it 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 for 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 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 ourselves 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 for and the Lord is on my side is six
“Psalm 46 be still and know that I'm God now if you want to read into this further go to DNC 123 17”
memorize that scripture it is such an underrated scripture and John concorded for beta my no we 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 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 a 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 ...
most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty now before you start thinking of the shadow
sometimes the shadow has a negative connotation we're not thinking bit mittler 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 he means secret it's the”
Hebrew word set air which is concealed or a sheltered place but more so remember how we in our face 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 and if you've ever been out in the hot sun down by the dead sea or the place called masada or cumeron 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 it's a shadow by day in a pillar by night it the shadow is is a refuge from the raise of the sun when it's so bright in the desert yeah we have to remember
“this was written pre-AC yeah pre-ac this was not AD it was AC 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 sea minus I'm passing but I could be better 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 and I love that I love thinking about 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 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 the 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 I go to the place that has a ribbon 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 word that I was in
“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 got a nail this I've got a nail this I got a 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 and I'm like what do I say what do I say and I have two brothers and three sisters in my family and if you're not you're not watching the YouTube I have the
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'd ever had and then the person that ended up speaking next to 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 nuna and tree is namo I said to them in my
family I have two brothers and three trees with no explanation whatsoever with a big smile yeah
With a big smile they're like okay what are these Americans now they're adopt...
weird let's move on you know why am I telling the 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 I started to get this
downward cycle 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 a point 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 and I felt God laugh it is a beautiful sound to hear God laugh with you and he's
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 is Nephi say and second 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 verse 1 9 1 1 if you're an 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 coming up in part two 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 Lynn Sanders now you don't know that name my friends but I did
