Why Weepest Thou? - A Conversation with S. Michael Wilcox 

I enjoyed the gospel discussion with brother Wilcox. I am deeply impressed by his eternal insights and perception regarding human suffering. He echoes not only the suffering of the prophet Joseph, but also, the Jewish Rabbi who explored the meaning of suffering in his book , " Why bad things happen to good people ". I will have to read some of brother Wilcox books. Although I have not lost my wife, I have extraordinary suffered and felt the piercing pain of a father who has lost his daughter. My daughter Anne has been missing for four years , vanished without trace. I feel the immensity of the depths of suffering and pain that brother Wilcox has been through the fiery darts of liberty jail. Yet, brother Wilcox suffered below all things to rise above all things in wisdom and discernment to offer some balm of Gilead to the suffering. My grief has been great and and piercing without consideration. We still don't know what happened to our beloved Anne. We don't know what happened or what fate befall Anne. But many night, I felt the comforting spirit of my daughter bringing peace and calming influence to my soul. To me, of the many wonderful insights brother Wilcox shares, but I have felt like him many times western religion cannot adequately suave grief and suffering but there are elements of eastern religion that better deals or copes with 28:35 grief. No right or wrong, blame or innocence, no analysis , but a gestalt, the low point as the higher point is what it is happened because it happened. I love brother Wilcox insights and understanding both of his suffering. In the unknown loss of my daughter, I am grateful for the precious moments I have felt the presence of my daughter. I love brother Wilcox insights, utter in faith , there will be a happy ending. God bless

I visited Job’s memorial tomb in Oman. God is very faithful. He rewarded Job a great deal in the end. I believe Job is now enjoying eternal pleasure and peace in Heaven with God and Jesus. Death is not that terrible because we know the faithful ones, God loving people will be rewarded. Hold on to our faith. Faith comforts us on earth and leads us to Heaven.

This year my guiding thought is in the NT when the storm rises and the apostles fear-the creator of the oceans, the storms, the very wood in the boat was sleeping unafraid. If I had created the wind and the oceans, I would want to experience the majesty of a storm while on the earth. I don’t want to doubt. I want faith so strong, so real, I can just lay down in the boat and sleep the peace of those who trust. Because He is there and loves us-and walks on water.

We are blessed to have heard this, thank you so much!

Thank you Eric for your wonderful love of the Savior and your passion for the Gospel.

I have listened to this podcast at least 10 times and i cannot get enough of it. So many brilliant insides! Thank you for bringing us this podcast!

Thank you, brother Wilcox! You’ve been a favor of mine ever since I read your book, house of glory! And that you mention a prayer that you say in the temple, and somewhere in the book, you also mention your ancestors, the Malans, came from Piedmont Italy. Those are also my ancestors and we are so proud to be a part of the mainland family. They settled in Ogden. Thank you for sharing so tenderly and yet so strongly, your testimony. You are real and right times, which lets me know that everyone has struggles. Thank you, again!🙏🙏🙏

This man is a true natural philosopher. I love his humanness through which he sees God and the Savior. The way he weaves the feelings and emotions, that we all experience, to make binding cords to tie us closer to the savior is masterful.

In 1998, I watched Titanic alone in a $3 discount theatre. I watched the movie 7 times in the same theatre. I cried and cried each time I saw the movie. I was awakened one day. Why did I waste my tears over a movie? Since then, I don’t want to care about the movie Titanic and I don’t want to watch any sad movie. Life is too short to shed my tears. I won’t waste my tears again. I look for a rainbow.

God bless you and keep you brother Wilcox. You words speak peace to me🙏

This is a classic conversation, God is soo good to us.

I dreamt of Heaven before. It was an extremely scenic paradise in whites, white roses and lilies garden, white laces and curtains, white table cloth banquet tables and white cushioned chairs, white lamps and crystal chandeliers in a huge banquet hall. The place was so large that I saw no boundary. When I woke up, I talked to God not to wake me up next time. I imagine the eternal life in Heaven is much better than the life on earth.

Wow, I cannot tell you how much Brother Wilcox has touched my life, I took many of his classes at the Institute. Thank you so Much!

This is such a great talk. I am from Laurie’s hometown in Alberta. There will be a sweet reunion when they are reunited. She was a treasure.

Beautiful insights - thank you.

This is so beautiful!! Thank you for opening your heart and showing us how painful and divine love is. I felt so much peace after hearing your words.

So poignant, insightful and therapeutic. "Success and suffering are vitally and organically linked. If you suffer without succeeding it is in order that others can succeed after you and if you succeed without suffering it is because someone suffered for you." And I find solace and comfort and wisdom in subscribing to the idea that there were other advanced spirits who like the savior recognized the need for someone(s) to suffer in various insensible ways in order that others might learn compassion and accountability and be more eager to solve the problems of humanity that had no easy answers. And they too said here am I send me. My grandmother used to say to everything there is a reason.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Brother Wilcox for your gift of words, and wrote!! You are amazing and I loved your book Sunset and this interview. I missed you at the S. L. C. Widow conference so I was so happy to find you here. I pray God will continue to bless you as you continue to find purpose in each day. Your mission here on earth is a special one and we are all recipients of it. Smiles, Songbird

What a truly wonderful hour listening to him. Thank you!

I lost my Wonderful Eternal Companion very suddenly on 12-13-21 and I can say I totally relate to his feelings and still struggle with WHY. Thank you for this wonderful message

I’ve loved this man since I saw him on his first speaking assignment at BYU and felt I was in the presence of a great teacher and a holy man. I love Boursin! 😊❤️

Beautifully felt and expressed, as always. Now I wonder which question is Bro Wilcox's favorite ...

Thank you!

What an amazing interview! Everything about it was inspiring! I just happened upon it and will be reading Bro. Wilcox book as well as listening to all faithmatter’s content!

Thank you for sharing!

Magnificent!

I’ve never heard anyone express she deep, love and devotion as Michael does for his wife Lauri❤

Lovely!

This was amazing insight on sorrow and the mortal experience. I believe Brother Wilcox’s explanation on what God does and does not cause. His views enlarged my love of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and expanded my trust in their grace and mercy. Thank you Bro Wilcox for your learnedness, your ponderings - I can improve in that regard and will.

So very good. Brother Wilcox I thank you for speaking about words we kill. I have been pondering on that a lot and as I teach I try so hard to approach it in a different way to keep sacred things fresh. Thank you for having feelings that I share in regards to a lost spouse. It’s nice to be not alone in those thoughts. Thank you for your covenant discipleship.

So very touching💝 I look forward to reading his book!

"If one signs up for JOY, they sign up for suffering."

I weep for the missing peices. You know what i speak of.

I am very impressed with this interview. Mr. Wilcox surely speaks God's word. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and faith.

Another great song which I love to sing is Titanic theme song. ‘My Heart Will Go On’. The lyrics are beautiful. Imagine the sunken Titanic outside Nova Scotia took many lives away, torn up many families and loving relationships, husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends and relatives. ……. Far across the distance And spaces between us You have come to show you go on Near, far, wherever you are I believe that the heart does go on Once more, you open the door And you're here in my heart And my heart will go on and on. ……

Ronnie, great to see more videos like this. I got to visit the museum and some of the tunnels this summer as a cadet with the US military academy at West Point and I was so impressed. You and your team are doing incredible work. So proud to be a Filipino-American. Also, love the drone footage.

Beautiful. I would say in the same way he sees compassion as the key in the human condition, that it is also a shared value with God. To answer the question of why suffering occurs one has to bypass the limited mind to realize that God at all times is providing the most compassionate experience possible to every one of us. To think that God would distribute suffering at random is both nonsensical and would lack compassion. I believe in the same he was able to draw on eastern theology to understand suffering that the “why” is also answered there. While cause and effect (how the brain understands) is useful, it does not account for the way the world is. There is no this causing a that. There is unlimited potential being acted upon by unlimited power, bridled with conditions and karmic propensities which are a result of an accumulation of decisions made by each individual under free will. Many millions of those decisions made prior to the lifetime. 🔑 Thus explaining why one might be born into certain conditions, be subject to certain events. Suffering serves a karmic purpose to bring balance and aid in the evolution of the spirit. 7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

I wish I could have heard this years ago.

WOW! Thank you!

Excellent podcast!!

Absolutely powerful ❤

Very beautiful.

♥️♥️♥️

A woman suffered an issue of blood for 12 years, and lost everything to physicians. I wonder what will it take to get me to seek an encounter with Christ

Thank you, it was a great discussion to hear…🤟🏽 Listen to the best version of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” by “Israel Kamakawiwo’ole” Have a great day…Today🤙🏽🤙🏽🤙🏽

As to why God allows the innocent and righteous to suffer at the hands of evil seems to be answered specifically in Alma 14:11. It is a hard doctrine to present to those who have passed through trials that would have broken me. I hope that I interpret it correctly. But "trust God" certainly does apply. The tares must be separated from the wheat if we are to enjoy a kingdom of love and peace, and the means of that separation must be just. The promise that we must trust is that God will receive those who suffer "up unto Himself, in glory."

While I love Brother Wilcox and many of his insights, his assumption (36:15-36:30) that Christ needed the angel is not doctrine, nor is it consistent with what is recorded in Luke 22:43. It doesn’t say Christ needed strength, which an angel came to provide. It says an angel was sent, strengthening Christ. The strength was a byproduct of the angel’s presence, not the purpose. The purpose of the angel was to witness Christ performing the atonement alone. The eternal law of two witnesses (which pattern and law the scriptures teach is followed, or binding on the Savior as in John 8:17-18, JSH 1:17) would be necessary for fulfillment of the prophecy in D&C 88:132. For the angel to witness that Christ had “trodden the wine-press alone” he would have had to witness that event. The witness wouldn’t be true if Christ needed someone else’s strength to achieve that purpose. I have heard the claim that the angel came because Christ needed strength before and I believe that is a dangerous extrapolation to make from what is actually provided in Luke and considering the angel’s witness in D&C 88. I think a more accurate assumption would be that the angel’s purpose was to witness, and the angel’s presence had a strengthening effect on the Savior in that time of serious anguish, the nature of which Christ had no personal experience until that night.

What’s up with the 3 thumbs down?!

"I will bring good ______" What is that softly spoken word ?

Can I get a copy of this transcript? I have a very close friend who would love to read this pod cast, she does not have you tube access. Thank you

How incredibly touching and spiritual. It speaks to my heart in a way that only a fellow sufferer can understand. It is deep and poignant. This goes beyond platitudes....straight to the soul. Thank you Bro. Wilcox, for being "at my gate"

Maybe, God wants Michael Wilcox to stay on earth longer to teach lectures. His wife is probably having heavenly duty in Heaven with Christ such as singing in choir. Heaven needs angels to sing. I think she is happy and content in Heaven. Every angelic spirit in Heaven is joyful.

And yet, it was Christ who said, "Ask, and ye shall receive..." not "I ask, and ye shall answer." You may like it the other way, but that's not the way.