Feeling Separated? So did Jesus. - A Conversation with Kerry Muhlestein 

As I studied the New Testament and Jesus Christ's suffering and "aloneness" I thought about our Heavenly Mother. How excruciating it must have been for her too. I can see my Father fleeing to the edges of the universe to be with and comfort her. I wonder if that's partly why he was left completely alone. I wonder if the only thing that could make the Father leave Jesus in that moment was to comfort our Heavenly Mother?

I have experienced much healing from my Savior and the teachings of this podcast are consistent with my experience with Jesus 's healing power. This is so important to talk about.

Thank you!!

Wonderful conversation! I have a little poem I wrote during a faith crisis that I feel is relevant: Eli Eli lama sabachthani? My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? My soul is empty, my stomach a pit Where can I find thee, feel thy presence one whit? I'm seeking the scriptures, but doubt crawls in Are you with me now, is my pain such a sin? Don't I need thee every hour? Why now leave me here to cower? Can you answer here my prayer? Tell me you are really there Tell me what I feel is you Show me what else I can do Yet Christ Himself uttered those words On the cross as he died and his voice was heard He went below both you and me Are we greater even than He? Our God He died alone and in pain And was buried, we thought, there to remain But even though He passed away He was raised to life on the very third day My God, my God, I know not why You've chosen this moment to let me die But I know you have power to redeem and to save me In the moments I cry Eli lama sabachthani

I love this new way of looking at sin, repentance, and forgiveness. It makes so much more sense to me than the punitive model I grew up with. As Dr. Muhlestein points out, there is a very large (and growing) segment of the population suffering disconnection. Attachment psychology includes a couple of terms for a segment of these people -- anxious-avoidant/dismissive-avoidant... those who fear rejection/abandonment so much that all connection and all relationships are ultimately viewed as sources of pain. Unfortunately for most of us in that category, this is an entirely rational position to take, based on observation of our reality. That made the ending, picturing a reunion with God, particularly poignant. Thanks for the intense happy/sad feelings, and for continually opening our eyes to new views.❤

I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation as is resonates deeply with me as I traverse through my own "Faith crisis". Much of modern Christianity, and most especially, my own LDS tradition has become nonsensical to me. I simply don't understand or find it plausible that an "All loving" parental figure, capable of loving more deeply than the very best human beings, would require his own Son to suffer and die to repair some cosmic rift in the fabric of the universe. This conversation, without calling it out, is posing a complete theogical shift in how we think about "The Atonement", which IMO, is sorely needed to save Christianity from itself. To think of Atonement as "connection" instead of "payment", suggests that relationship itself is the healing balm needed to cure this primal wound we call sin (separation). My primary issue with our typical language is that is proposes a plan where God's presence (relationship) is the reward instead of the medicine.

I love this SO MUCH. I’ve listened twice and shared. I wish it was in written form so I could send to someone in prison.

Beautiful ❤

I definitely hav said, "This whole leaving home thing is overrated." I definitely have many times where I currently see not so much value in having left the heavenly parents. And my many siblings and I were all raised to grow up and leave homr and we have and do, but when it comes to the logistics of doing that, for most of us, the process of actually leaving our earthly parents has been, against our own wishes or efforts, graceless and clunky, and we have not had good memories or a nice process for doing that which could help us emotionally with something as huge of a life event, so as siblings we get together and stick together, but part of that is having gone through a level of trauma in leaving homr as adults and we have felt quite disenfranchised in that whole arena, which isn't what we expected...which again leads me to say--as I and other siblings always looked forward to that being a good experience, and it would be the only memory we currently have of leaving a home that had many positive feelings about it--that leaving home is totally overrated, and why on earth should it ever be a thing. It just doesn't feel good or even necessary most times.

"When the world shook and the sun was wiped out of heaven, it was not at the crucifixion, but at the cry from the cross: the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God. And now let the revolutionists choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the world, carefully weighing all the gods of inevitable recurrence and of unalterable power. They will not find another god who has himself been in revolt. Nay (the matter grows too difficult for human speech), but let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist.” ― G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Can you turn up the volume?