Can we go to the Temple today?

🕊️ 

“Can We Go to the Temple Today?”

— A Morning I Didn’t Expect, and a Lord Who Walks With Us

This morning I woke up and asked the Lord:

“Is there anything I can do for You today?”

I didn’t expect an answer quite like this.

See, I’ve been writing a lot of blogs lately. Pouring things out. Sharing what He’s been showing me. And honestly, I wasn’t sure what to do next. I felt kind of… empty-handed.

My dear wife is going through radiation. It’s been hard. And yet this morning, lying in bed, she reached over, took my hand, and said:

“Can we go to the temple today?”

I blinked. That wasn’t in the plan.

But how could I say no?

She loves the temple. Always has. And I know—there’s good in it. We’ve studied, we’ve compared with the Nemenhah Records. So much of the old temple pattern is true. Holy. Symbolic. Given from above.

But the system?

The way it’s all been packaged, polished, and controlled?

That’s where I ache.

I walk into the celestial room and look up at the chandeliers.

Polished marble. Gold trim. All of it… expensive.

And I wonder—how many poor could be helped with this?

The temple is 26 miles away. That’s gas. That’s time. And yet we go, because she loves it. Because to her, it’s sacred. It’s beautiful. It’s home.

And I love her.

So I go.

But something keeps pressing in my spirit:

🔔 

The Temple Was Always Supposed to Be Us

We go to do work for the dead. And yes, it matters. Joseph saw that too—Alvin being baptized, even after death. That was revolutionary.

But what about the living?

What about us?

What if the greatest temple work we could do today…

is to actually become the temple?

To be cleansed. To be washed. To be clothed with light.

To see the Lord—face to face.

Not someday.

Not symbolically.

But truly.

That’s what the early Saints were promised.

And many of the most sacred moments in those temples still happen—ironically—not in the chandeliers or the endowment rooms… but down in the font. Baptisms. Youth. Tears. Family names spoken aloud.

Why?

Because that’s the part that hasn’t been so dressed up.

So professionalized.

It’s still raw.

Still humble.

And maybe that’s where the Spirit still slips through.

⚠️ What Changed After Joseph?

Now, let’s be honest.

If you compare the temple experience as Joseph gave it—especially at Nauvoo—versus what we see today, it’s not the same.

Much of what we call “permanent” in the temple wasn’t always that way.

Brigham Young changed it.

He added layers—new oaths, signs, penalties, and priesthood hierarchies that weren’t there before.

He turned what was once a pure invitation into something structured and secretive.

He took a sacred space meant to lead to Christ…

and tied it to loyalty to the Church.

Joseph’s original vision was different.

It was about preparing to see the face of God.

To become Zion.

To become holy.

Not just to rehearse symbols…

but to receive the Lord.

💔 The Church Has Trained Us to Believe…

…that the best way to feel close to God is to go to a building.

To follow the program.

To serve the system.

But the truth?

The Lord never said that.

He said:

“I will come unto you.”

“I will walk with you.”

“Ye are the temple.”

I yearn for the day when more of us remember that.

When we wake up and realize—He’s already here.

Not just in the marble, but in the morning stillness.

Not just in the ordinances, but in our obedience.

Not just in a building, but in a broken heart made whole.

💍 A Covenant of Love

So today I’ll go. I’ll drive the 26 miles.

I’ll sit beside her. I’ll hold her hand.

And I’ll do it not because the church says to…

…but because the Lord said to love her.

To stand by her.

To walk with her—just like He walks with me.

And maybe that’s the real temple work.