The Compensating Power of Christ in an Imperfect World: BJ Allen's Story - Latter-Day Lights

How does Jesus Christ make up the difference when life feels unfair, overwhelming, or beyond our ability to fix?

In this week’s episode of Latter-Day Lights, Scott and Darla Brandley sit down with BYU professor and author, BJ Allen, to explore the concept of “the compensating power of Christ,” and how these unique revelations led him to write and publish his Praiseworthy Award-winning book. What started as a mere desire to better understand one powerful line from “Preach My Gospel” quickly turned into an illuminating study of the Savior’s atonement, and a growing testimony that Christ is far more involved in our daily lives than we often realize.

Through thoughtful examples and faith-centered insights, BJ explains how the Savior not only helps us overcome our own weaknesses, but also compensates for the effects of others’ weaknesses, and the unfairness of mortality itself. BJ’s story is a moving reminder that even when blessings are hard to recognize in the moment, Christ is quietly making up the difference, walking with us through every trial, and drawing nearer to us than we may have yet to understand.

*** Please SHARE BJ's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/kzgCXod2Dh8

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To READ BJ’s book, “The Compensating Power of Christ,” visit: https://a.co/d/01aQKNQN

To READ “Preach My Gospel,” visit: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/preach-my-gospel-2023?lang=eng

To LEARN MORE about BJ, visit: https://www.bjallen.net/

To READ Scott’s new book “Faith to Stay” for free, visit: https://www.faithtostay.com/

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Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.

Transcript

“Faith to Stay” by Scott Brandley

Scott Brandley 0:00

Hey there. As a Latter Day Lights listener, I want to give you a very special gift today. My brand new book, Faith to Stay. This book is filled with inspiring stories, powerful discoveries, and even fresh insights to help strengthen your faith during the storms of life. So if you're looking to be inspired, uplifted, and spiritually recharged, just visit faith2.com. Now, let's get back to the show. Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Darla Brandley 0:31

And I'm Darla Brandley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite hope, and inspire others.

Welcoming BJ Allen to the show

Scott Brandley 0:39

On today's episode, we're going to hear how a BYU professor, through his own quest to better understand the atonement, came to learn that Christ's power bridges gaps between the beauty of the gospel and the harsh realities of life. Welcome to Latter Day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter Day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today. We're really excited to introduce our special guest, BJ Allen, to the show. Welcome, BJ.

BJ Allen 1:09

Hello, thank you so much. I'm excited to be here and talk with you guys.

Scott Brandley 1:13

Yeah, we're so glad to hear with us. So um to get kicked off, first of all, congratulations on being a praiseworthy award winner. That's pretty cool.

BJ Allen 1:23

Hey, thank you. Yeah, it was such a it was a surprise, but such an honor.

BJ in a nutshell

Scott Brandley 1:27

Yeah, so um as we you know get started here, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

BJ Allen 1:34

Sure, yeah. So I'm a BYU professor, I'm a business professor, and I live in Provo, Utah with my wife. Uh we'll celebrate our 20-year anniversary this year. And I have six kids. I have four boys and two girls. And uh we've lived in Provo for about five years. Uh I love sports, I love BYU sports. Um, we like to do stuff outdoors as a family. So yeah, just kind of your your typical family of eight.

Scott Brandley 2:08

That sounds fun. Yeah. How do you have time to do anything when you got six kids and you're a sports fan?

BJ Allen 2:16

Yeah. Uh well, funny enough, like I actually you you mentioned the book. Uh I actually wrote like a large portion of the book while I was in the parking lot of my kids' soccer practices because it was uh it was too far to drive back home. So my kids' practices were about an hour and a half. So I usually would write in the parking lot with my laptop for like the first hour, and then the last half hour I would usually go watch because that's like when they would scrimmage and stuff. So it's funny that you asked that question because it's very relevant to our discussion today, because that's usually actually when I wrote was uh just combining the two, just finding some dead time here and there.

Scott Brandley 2:57

Yeah. Well, and being a professor, I mean, that takes a lot of time too. You gotta prep for your classes, and yeah, so good for you. That's it's hard.

Darla Brandley 3:07

It's great multitasking, it's perfect.

Scott Brandley 3:09

Right, yeah. I was gonna say multitasking. You that's awesome.

BJ Allen 3:13

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, life's busy, um, but we're all busy and we can all you know find times for the things we want to do.

Scott Brandley 3:22

Right. Well, why don't we just jump right in, BJ, and why don't you tell us where your story begins?

About BJ’s book gives us a different perspective on the atonement

BJ gets the impression to publish a book

BJ Allen 3:29

Yeah, so I uh my book was published. Uh so my book's called The Compensating Power of Christ, how the atonement of Christ rights the wrongs of an unfair world and imperfect people. And so the the book's really about how the atonement uh works in a lot of ways that maybe we don't typically think. We often think about how the atonement forgives us of sins and strengthens us in time of need, and and all those are true and are beautiful applications. But there's also this kind of other aspect of the atonement that maybe we don't we don't talk about. And I know the genesis of this idea came from a line and preach my gospel. And it's under the section of the atonement of Christ. And this line, it's really famous. Every time I I state it, people are like, Oh, yeah, I know what you're talking about. So the line says, all that is unfair about life can be made right through the atonement of Christ. Okay. And it's such a beautiful line, and a lot of people, you know, we get comfort from that from knowing that we're gonna have a lot of unfairness and a lot of weaknesses in life, and Christ will make it right. And then one day I was just thinking about it, and I was like, I don't, I don't really know what that means. Like it's not an aspect of the atonement that we talk a lot about, and so you kind of start to wonder like, how does Christ make right the unfairness of life? So I just started studying it. I just wanted to study that topic. You know, I mentioned I'm a business professor, so I do a lot of research and a lot of publishing, and and as academics, we just study stuff and we write things down, and and a lot of times it's just for our own knowledge and understanding. So I'm studying this and I start to come across like a lot of scriptures and and conference talks and stuff in books, and I've read a lot of uh philosophical uh Christians like uh C.S. Lewis and and kind of just started putting and compiling everything together. And uh started feeling really prompted that I should put it into a book. And you know, it's really hard to get published as uh as an LDS author. Um they just don't publish a lot of church books, and if they do, they're usually by like you know general authorities or uh famous uh religious institute teachers. Right. So I didn't I didn't really think it was I was it was gonna get published or I was gonna send it in. I just really felt like the Lord wanted me to better understand this aspect of the atonement. So I started uh writing, I put together uh the manuscript. No one knew I was writing a book, not even my wife. And and I I mentioned this earlier. I I wrote most of it in my kids' my soccer practice of my kids' parking lot or the parking lot of my kids' soccer practice. And and the more and more I wrote, the more I just I just felt like such a deeper appreciation for the role that that Christ plays in our day-to-day life. You know, a lot of times we just encounter unfairness, and that could be, you know, a spouse who's unfaithful, that could be disease, we lose our job, that could be people who are just born into unfair circumstances, you know, whether that's you know, a third world country or build born into an abusive home, like so much aspects of of different things. And I'm currently serving as a bishop in my ward and just got a deeper appreciation for the difficulties that people go through, and life really is unfair. And for most of for most of my life, I thought God would just take care of that in in the afterlife, like when we die. And I certainly think that a lot of it happens there, but I don't know if we fully appreciate the the role that that Christ plays in compensating us in this life for those difficulties, or even for like the weaknesses that we encounter. And you know, because a lot of those are just a result of the fall. Like I didn't ask for my weaknesses. Um, you know, I don't think a lot of them are my fault, uh, whether that's just the way I was born or the circumstances I would built in, and now I'm accountable to overcome them, but the savior's there to help me do that. And so I just anyway, so I put this into a book and I sent it to uh a publisher and uh just expected a hey, thanks, but no thanks. No one knows who you are, and and I don't think this will sell. And just kind of the opposite happened. They wrote back and said, Hey, um, we actually we think this is a really kind of novel way of looking at the atonement. And uh, you know, they gave me a bunch of things to change and revise, and I did, and I sent it in, and then it got published. And it's been such a fun world to live in because I am a business professor. This is the first gospel book that I've published. And so being able to uh speak at like BYU Education Week and and BYU Women's Conference and be on podcasts like this and talk about it. What's what's more fun than talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ and and about the atonement of the Savior? And you know, I I I love I'm a business professor. I love I love teaching about business, but I mean it it pales in comparison to talking about eternal things that really matter, like the gospel and the atonement. That's awesome.

Compensation for the unfairness of life

Scott Brandley 9:09

So um can you talk to us about some of the ideas around this compensation? Because that is a really cool idea. Can you give us some more about that?

Reflecting and recognizing past blessings

BJ Allen 9:22

Yeah, so in the book, I break it down uh kind of in three different ways that the atonement of Christ compensates for the unfairness and the weaknesses of life. So and I break that into three three different ways based on who's being compensated and what they're being compensated for. So, like the first one is how Christ compensates us for our own weaknesses, because our our weakness is a result of living in a fallen world. So, how does Jesus Christ compensate us? And we talk about how um Jesus is there to help turn our weaknesses into strengths, how Jesus Christ blesses us beyond the things we can do for ourselves, how he compensates our faith until our faith is sufficient. And there's this beautiful scripture in in Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, where you know it says, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And Christ's grace really is sufficient for everything, everything that's wrong about me, beyond just my sins, the things that maybe are a result of like a like of like sinful decisions, but maybe just suboptimal decisions that I make because I I'm imperfect. And what is the role that the savior plays in helping me overcome those and helping me to be better? So uh one of the examples I use in the book is like a uh a dad teaching his kids to ride a bike. Now, this is and this rings true to me because I have six kids and and five of them can ride bikes, one of them's only two, so she can't yet, you know. But I've helped them, and they've learned different ways and different speeds. Like my first kid learned almost instantaneously. One of my other kids, I won't say which number, because in case he ever listens to this, and uh, you know, not so fast. And you know, but that's just based on like their natural abilities, how they learn. It's not because one's better than the other or not. And my role as a dad was to compensate them through that process until they could eventually ride themselves, right? So my my job was to facilitate an educational experience so they could eventually ride the bike and make that a strength. And so that's kind of the first way it talks about through that process. Uh, then the the second um way is talking about how Christ compensates uh others for our weaknesses. So for example, like as a parent of six kids, like my parental weaknesses are are something very salient to me. Um I mentioned I'm a bishop, you know, I I make mistakes all the time. Like, certainly, certainly, like if uh you know President Oaks was the bishop of the Provo Peak Six War, he could do a much better job than me. And we we all laugh and think, oh yeah, but like deep down we all know that that's true. And so like, are my is my congregation as a disadvantage because I'm their bishop, or are my kids at a disadvantage because the savior's not their father? And this is like this is something that parents really struggle with. And you know, being a BYU professor, I work with young adults a lot. You know, some of them are really scared to have kids because it's like I don't think I'm good enough to do this. Or think about parents who you know had kids who left um the gospel. They felt like, am I responsible? Should I have done something different? And and uh I just share in the book how Jesus Christ compensates us for those under our stewardship. He compensates others for our weaknesses. So, for example, in my kids raising my kids, like I'm gonna do a lot of things imperfect, but when we talk about how Christ's grace is sufficient, it's not just to make me whole from my mistakes, it's to make other people whole from the mistakes that I make that may impact them. So as I try my best as a as a dad, Christ is there making up for my differences and making sure my kids are are taught better than they can or or they should. There's this beautiful scripture in 2 Nephi where the writer in that chapter is basically saying, like, I'm not good enough, like I don't even know if these words are making sense. And God's reply is the weakness of their words will I make strong in their faith. Like I know your words are weak as a prophet, as a Book of Mormon writer, as a parent, as a bishop, but my role is to make your weaknesses into strengths. My role is to make your words strong so that your kids or your missionary, your teaching, your investigators are hearing more than what you can offer, because that's the role that Christ plays, is to make our efforts enough. And then uh the third way we talk about is how Christ compensates us for the unfairness and weaknesses of life. And these are a lot of things we talked about earlier, you know, losing a job, a spouse being unfaithful, being born to difficult circumstances. And I think, you know, uh a lot of the ways that Jesus Christ compensates us is through uh merciful judgment, um, but a lot of it is just through compensating blessings. You know, and I published my book in October of 25, and then the next conference, um, Elder Gossier gave a talk called uh compensating blessings. And I don't think it had anything to do with my book, but I think it was really cool that this is something that the Lord wants people to know about, right? That the Lord gives us compensating blessings, things that we haven't earned on our on our own, that are a result of us trying and being compensated for the for the things that happen in our life. And you know, think about like if I, you know, I I see you guys have like some nice furniture in the background. If if I came into your house and I stole a piece of furniture, you'd be like, hey, I was treated really unfairly. But then if like you know, someone came through and said, Hey, I felt bad that that happened, here's a million dollars, you would be like, Oh, yeah, okay, actually, like, well, yeah, yeah, I feel really compensated. And I think that's the way that it happens with us. And it was really interesting in writing the book because now I see it everywhere. Like I see his compensating blessings everywhere. Like, I bet if you look it through some of the most difficult times in your life, when you look back, you'll think, like, that was a terrible time, and I never want to do that again. But I was really compensated in other aspects of my life. Like, I lost my job, but all of a sudden, like I was really I was really compensated in this aspect of my like my family was closer than ever. Or I went through this difficult time, but this other aspect of my life was really, really blessed. Well, I talked to someone who was a terrible divorce and uh just really messy, and and um, you know, the the uh trying to figure out who's gonna get the kids and where we're gonna live, and just just really hard. And and and then years later, you know, wondering where's God, and then all of a sudden, like things just started coming together beautifully, and um, and she got remarried and has like an angelic spouse, and things are just great, and and she'll tell you, like, that was the most difficult time in my life, and I never want to do it. But like I've blend, I've I've been more than compensated for the difficulties that happened. And maybe we don't often think about the role that Jesus Christ plays in that, but really all the blessings that we receive come through the Savior. There's the scripture in Moroni 7 where he says that men are fallen, no good thing can come unto them except for the atonement of our Savior. And uh I think of Elder Pastor Karen's most recent conference talk where he talks about how like we don't deserve anything that we get. Everything we get comes through the savior because he pays for the law of justice so that God can bless us. And so, anyway, that's a very long answer to your question, but like uh I just wanted to walk through those three different ways because that's really the synopsis of the book. So if you're listening, you don't need to buy the book, you learned everything that that's in it in 12 months.

Darla Brandley 18:01

I would still want to read it, I still would.

Scott Brandley 18:04

Yeah, I well, just as you're talking about that, like the blessings that we get. Um I was a bishop, and how many times have we talked about Darla where we're like we look back and we're like we were so blessed.

Darla Brandley 18:20

We were so blessed, it was so hard, and we were so blessed. We almost want to go back there because all the blessings I don't really want to go through it again.

BJ Allen 18:30

Yes, yeah, you're spot on. And I think like the listener, like you we can all relate to these experiences, and and I think it's a lot like how as a missionary, when you're teaching people how the Holy Ghost fills, and then they're like, Oh yeah, now I understand that I have felt this fool, and I have felt God's love. I just never really recognized it. This is this is what like a lot of people have told me as they've read the book, you know, as I've read reviews online, is the doctrine rings true. It's like something that maybe we've we've always thought about, but never really put it together. And once you start to understand the commentating power, you start to see it everywhere, and you recognize God's hand in your life so much more than you did before. And so, yeah, it is it's beautiful, and it and I and it just helps you feel that God's more in your life than maybe we often think.

Darla Brandley 19:29

Yeah, yeah, He's looking out for us.

BJ Allen 19:32

Absolutely.

Scott Brandley 19:34

I think the trick is to actually recognize it. And and the hard part about that is you a lot of times you don't recognize it until, like you said, maybe years later, you know, when you when you reflect and you really start to think about that time in your life or that challenge, that trial, and you look back and you're like, wow, like God actually was there. And and even at that time, you probably you could have cursed God, you could have hated, like, you know, like and and but actually that's part of the journey. It's it's crazy.

BJ Allen 20:16

Yeah, I think Scott, I think that's a really good point. And and I mean, this is a little deviation from our topic of the book and and the general topic of the atonement of our savior. But uh, you know, if you're a listener and you're going through a really difficult time and you're saying, I don't really feel compensated, I don't feel the blessings, I would say like, welcome to the club. I mean, it's it's not it's not uh uncommon when you're going through it to feel abandoned. And and it's okay to feel that way, nothing's wrong with you, it doesn't mean you don't have faith, like it's just a regular human emotion that you need to process. But often happens in hindsight because when you're going through a really difficult time, whether that is like you know, betrayal or just mental health or depression or anxiety, it's really hard to feel the spirit, it's hard to feel anything. And that doesn't mean anything's wrong with you, but just know that there's gonna be a time in the future when you look back and you're gonna say, Holy cow, like I God was with me every step of the moment, uh, every step of the way, and I see now how I was compensated and how I was blessed. You know, it's a lot like how it took us, you know, to like get to our mid-20s where we finally realized that like our parents really knew what they were talking about. I think it's a lot like I think it's a lot like that. Yeah. It was just we look back and think, oh, God was really with me. He was, and the gospel's true, and it's beautiful, but it's often not until hindsight that we start to realize those things.

Having faith through the trial

Scott Brandley 21:54

Yeah. Maybe that's partly where faith comes in. When you're in the trial. You almost have that's where you have to believe that everything's that God really has your back. You know what I mean? Because it like you said, it doesn't happen right then. It just never seems to happen right then. Sometimes, like a miracle happened, or or you really need a blessing, and it comes through. But I would say more often than not, you you've got to take some steps in the dark, and then you look back and see it.

BJ Allen 22:28

Yeah, and a lot of times in those situations, we start to wonder do I, you know, do I really believe? And is God with me or is God disappointed in me that maybe I don't have the kind of faith that I thought I had or or whatever? And and uh, you know, to those people, like I I think of the soul of the father who comes to the savior and says, Son, the scripture says he has a definite a definite dumb spirit. And the savior says, All things are possible to him that believeth. And the father says, I believe, help thou my unbelief. And the savior heals his son. And I think it's such a beautiful illustration of the Savior takes whatever faith the father had and he makes it enough. He compensates his faith to make it sufficient. Now, Jesus doesn't get mad at the dad for not having enough faith or or or being able to say, like, oh, like I know with I know with certainty that that this can happen. I have enough faith. Please do it. You know, and Jesus doesn't say, hey, well, go home and read your scriptures some more. When you have more faith, come back. He just he takes the faith that the son has or the father has, and he and Christ heals the son. And I think he does the same thing for us. You know, like I don't think that God wants us to focus on how much faith we have or how much faith we don't have. In fact, I don't think Christ wants us to think about ourselves at all. I think he just wants us to focus on him and say, hey, I believe. Help down my own belief. Like my faith is focused on you. I don't know if it's big, I don't know if it's small, and frankly, God doesn't really care. We just focus on the Savior, and in the end, he makes us who we need to be. Like this was like the very core of what the atonement of Christ is about.

Darla Brandley 24:33

Yeah, we don't need to be perfect for him, but through him we become perfect.

BJ Allen 24:39

Yeah, Darla, beautifully put. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah.

Darla Brandley 24:44

That's not my quote, by the way.

Scott Brandley 24:46

But it sounded like you came up with it.

Darla Brandley 24:50

That's great. Yeah. That somebody told me that.

Scott Brandley 24:55

So as you were writing this book, did you have any like aha moments or or things that really stuck out to you that you know that you you could share?

BJ Allen 25:05

Yeah. I I felt like uh I feel like I can't really take any credit for anything that that's good in the book because I feel like it was the whole thing was a very revelatory experience for me. I'm not saying that it's it's like on the level of of being revelation. Just for me, the concept that I learned was revelatory. And uh I would say that the biggest aha kind of thing beyond what we've already talked about. I mean, I think all the aspects uh of the atonement of our savior that are in the book were all kind of ahas for me. Like, oh wow, I've never really thought about that. Like, teach me more, what does that mean? And then looking through the scriptures and stuff. But I'd say like the whole general aha for me was that the savior is a lot more involved in our day-to-day than we often think. Like a lot of times we think the atonement of Christ becomes very relevant, like when we do a big sin or when we go through a really difficult time. But like Jesus Christ is there compensating us in our day-to-day life. Like, whether I'm at work, whether I'm with my kids, I'm taking them to soccer, I'm in my bishop's office, I'm trying to do something in my yard, I'm talking to my neighbor, like I'm doing a podcast. Like, Christ is there every step of the way compensating my efforts because I myself can do very little. Like, I'm just not very capable. But with the savior, like I can do anything that he wants me to. And so writing the book really taught me how involved in my day-to-day that Christ is. And when we start to realize that, start Christ starts to feel a lot closer. He doesn't feel like an abstract figure that you know it becomes relevant every now and then in my life. It's like, hey, he is like my day-to-day companion, and he's a part of of who I am, and he's a part of my day-to-day life. And it just helps you feel the savior more. So, like, you know, if you know, I mean, the book sold, you know, at least like five or six copies. And, you know, for for those people who have read it, great. But really, like it was a life-changing experience for me. And uh that in itself like made all the work enough to help me just feel closer to my savior.

The parable of the talents in relation to compensation

Scott Brandley 27:40

That's interesting. Um, so my as you talked about that, I mean, obviously, we have the light of Christ with us, um, that, but there's also like the parable of the talents, and people go and magnify those talents. Do you think that you can magnify that compensating power in your life?

BJ Allen 28:03

That's a very good question. Um, I think you know, that question is similar to how people ask, like um President Nilsen talked a lot about this. He said that it's doctrinally incomplete to just use the word atonement, to not say the atonement of Christ or the Savior's atonement. And a lot of times we talk about the atonement as if it's this entity that exists in itself, but it's it's the atonement of Christ. So it's Christ's atoning power. So then the question becomes not how can I apply the atonement, but how can I bring Christ's power more into my life? And this goes directly, Scott, to your your question. It's just how do I magnify that, bring that more into my life? It's through increasing our relationship with the savior. Like this is why this is why doing the small things like reading your scriptures and saying your prayers are so important because that's how you build the relationship with someone. This is why making covenants and deepening that covenant relationship is so important. Because the more we do that, the more Christ becomes a part of our lives. It's like my relationship with my wife. Like, I get a lot of strength from that relationship through my during my own struggles in my own difficult times. And it's not like in those moments, I'm like, hey, Angie, I need to, I need to partake of your relationship power and your love. It's just something that naturally happens because we have a deep relationship. So when people ask, like, how do I, you know, how do I apply the atonement? I think a better question is saying, how can I deepen my relationship with Christ? And as we do that, his atoning power naturally becomes a part of our life.

The uniqueness of BJ’s book

Darla Brandley 29:53

Oh, it was very inspiring. I really enjoyed that. I feel very, you know, touched.

BJ Allen 30:00

So thank you very much. It's very nice of you to say.

Scott Brandley 30:04

Yeah, I love, I just love the whole idea of your book, just compensating, making up for, right? Like, because we all have weaknesses, we all have things that we could do better at. We all make major mistakes. Well, small and big mistakes in life, right? Yes. And and it's nice to know the idea of that Christ can compensate for that. I love that the whole idea that the wording, um yeah. So I really appreciate you first of all writing the book. Um, I think that would be something that we should read together, Darla.

Darla Brandley 30:47

Sounds good.

BJ Allen 30:49

Yeah, thank you. It it's actually it's it's very short. I mean, um, it's not super short, but for uh a book on the doctrine as deep as the atonement, I think it's a fairly short, easy read. Uh, I really want it to be easily digestible. Um, and one of the things that that Desire Book and Covenant Communications did with the book is um it's actually it's also really pretty. It's a really pretty book. They put a ton of art in it and like pictures of the savior and stuff. And so even if you guys don't like the writing in it, the pictures are really pretty.

BJ’s advice for aspiring writers

Scott Brandley 31:26

All right, I'll I'll change that. Darla, we should look at the pictures in the book. That'd be way easier than reading it. I'm just kidding. Um, so as you I guess so. This is going out um to people that might be writing books or or have ideas for books that they'd like to write, VJ. So do you have any um advice for people for writers that are putting together a book, especially like a religious book or a spiritual book, anything that can help them in their efforts?

BJ Allen 32:06

Yeah, uh a couple things. One is, you know, if you if I can do it, anyone can do it. I'm not really that smart. Uh secondly, is I think you know, one of the best ways to learn to write is is to read lots of really good writers. I love reading gospel books. Um, I love C.S. Lewis, I love Bruce Mamakonke, I love Bruce C. Haffen. Um I read a lot of um uh a lot of biographies of prophets and apostles. And so like just reading a lot of those things, James E. Talmudge, really kind of helped me see how gospel writers write in like uh an engaging and um like an engaging way. And then the other thing I would say is that um I think one thing that kind of gets overlooked in in writing kind of gospel books like this is like how are you gonna position your book in a way where people feel like they're learning something new? And I think that that's kind of you know, that's the challenging part of a lot of um books like this is like when I tell people I write a book on the atonement, they're like, what do you mean you wrote like what else needs to be said about it?

Darla Brandley 33:29

Right.

BJ Allen 33:30

And and like that's a good question, right? And like what does the business professor know about the atonement of Christ? And and you know, the answer is very little, but you know, the reason it got published was because it was just a different way of talking about the atonement compared to what's out there a lot, or you know, a lot of uh what's out there. Um and so like that would be kind of my advice is like read a lot to get a feel for at least read a lot in the genre that you want to write to get a feel for uh people and styles you like and styles you don't like. And then think about like a positioning. Um, you know, like I'm a business professor, so this is what I tell students. Like, you know, you gotta have your your elevator pitch when people say, like, what makes you unique, or if you want to start a company, what makes your company unique? Like, can you tell me in one minute what makes your book unique or your art or your podcast unique? Where's your positioning? And so, yeah, just some simple things that I think kind of helps me along the way. Yeah, awesome.

Final thoughts / BJ's testimony

Scott Brandley 34:34

Well, um, we really appreciate you coming on. Uh, this has been this has been incredible. So, as we kind of wrap things up, BJ, do you have any final thoughts that you'd like to share with people that might read your book or that are just thinking about the atonement or choices that they're making in their life and how your book can help them.

Where to read BJ’s book

BJ Allen 34:56

We touched on this earlier about how when we start to understand the compensating power of Christ, we start to kind of see to everyone realize how Christ is a bigger part of our life than we often think. And for me personally, this just brought me closer to the stage here. I think like growing up, I had a very natural testimony of God as my father. Because I kind of felt felt like his blessings were everywhere. And when I prayed, I felt him answer my prayers. But I felt I felt like Christ was kind of a distant figure, and I and I've talked to other people who feel the same way or have felt the same way. You know, Christ feels like a a distant, uh abstract figure who sometimes makes an appearance in my life. And when we start to really understand the beauty and the totality of the Savior's atonement, we start to realize that he's a part of our day-to-day life, and then we really start to feel close to him. And I would say for me, like that's been really the most like the biggest and most beautiful difference is that I just feel like that I have a stronger testimony that my savior is a part and of my life, and now he's my friend. And I hope that anyone who reads the book by the end just feels like they got closer to their friend and that they learned how how Jesus Christ is their friend is a part of every aspect of their life.

Scott Brandley 36:32

So, BJ, thanks again for coming on and sharing your thoughts and your experience and your book with us. So, if somebody wanted to find it, where would they go?

Outro

BJ Allen 36:44

So, you can buy the Desert Book, you can buy it on Amazon. Um, if you want to learn more about me or contact me, you can go to my website, bjallen.net. Awesome.

Scott Brandley 36:56

BJ, thanks again for coming on to our show. And thanks everyone for tuning in to another episode of Latterday Lights. If you want to be on Latterday Lights and you have a story that you'd like to share, go to latterdaylights.com or email us at latterdaylights at gmail.com. And don't forget to go and hit that share button, do your five-second missionary work, and let's get BJ's story out there because I think this is a topic that a lot of people need to hear about. Um, obviously, the atonement is a plays a big role in our lives, and this compensating power can really help us to grow closer to him. So thanks again, BJ, and thanks again, everyone, for tuning in, and we'll see you next week with another episode of Latter Day Lights. Till then, take care. Bye-bye.

Darla Brandley 38:01

Okay, buddy. Okay.

BJ Allen 38:12

So