My dear brothers and sisters, Aloha!
It is wonderful to join with you today. Hawaii is like a second home to me. I first came to the North Shore when I was 11 years old. As a teenager I worked as a groundskeeper on this campus. Members of my family and friends have attended here. My father served 35 years on the board of the PCC and my long-time business partner was the PCC’s former president and CEO. Our family still spends some time nearly every summer in Laie. To us Laie is a place of both beauty and of sacred gathering.
As I begin today, I would like to share a brief, personal reflection concerning the division and turmoil that has arisen out of the recent pandemic and election in the United States. I, like probably many of you, have spent real time reflecting over all that has transpired. In this process I have felt both sadness and distress, but also resolve and peace. During this period, I have often turned to the scriptures for increased light and understanding. There I have been touched by one particular account. It is the occasion where the Savior with His disciples one evening began to sail across the Sea of Galilee. You may recall as they journeyed across the water a fierce storm arose. Waves crashed over their boat causing their ship to fill with water. Despite this chaos Jesus slept. He was calm. Soon, though, His disciples awakened Him and frantically asked, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38). We next read this soul defining response and query from our Savior, “And he arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” (Mark 4:39-40).
What are we to learn from this? In part, for me I have been impressed that I must understand and know as never before that no matter what is going on in our lives, the overarching reality is that God is not absent but in the details, and can rebuke any storm. Please know and keep this truth dear, that our Savior knows, understands, sees and is in control of all things. He has all power to intervene and lift us from anything going on in our lives.
I believe it is very telling that the Biblical account of our Savior’s birth opens with the angels of God saying on four separate occasions, “fear not” or we might say “be not afraid,” coupled with the assurance that with God “nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). In a related vein, I have always been inspired by the life and testimony of Corrie ten Boom, the well-known Christian activist who helped many Jews escape from the Nazis during the World War II Holocaust until she was arrested and put in a concentration camp. She wrote, “I have experienced [God’s] presence in the deepest hell that man can create. I have really tested the promises of the Bible, and believe me, you can count on them. . . . Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
Nearly 71 years ago in March of 1950, Matthew Cowley, the beloved apostle to the Pacific area, said the following at the dedication of a new meetinghouse in Laie:
“It is a very dangerous thing to live here in Laie. It is a very serious matter. Wherever you erect a temple of God, there come forces of evil trying to break down God’s power outside of that temple. . . . If you are to find God in that house and this [chapel], when you enter you must take God with you. [To take God with you means to keep your mind and heart focused on Him.] You will never find Him in these houses of worship or these temples unless, as we enter the portals, we take God with us.” (Henry A. Smith, Matthew Cowley: Man of Faith, 1970, 231)
It is a serious matter to be here at BYU-Hawaii. The Spirit of the Lord is upon this institution with the intent of blessing the lives of all those who come here (see Luke 4:16-20). You are blessed to be studying at a world-class institution of higher learning where you can take God with you. Moreover, if you learn to take God with you, you will leave here empowered to touch, bless and astonish the world around you in uncommon hours and in sacred ways. Therefore, my question to you this day is this, “Are you taking God with you or are you letting the forces of evil that surround you distract or diminish you or cause you to straddle the fence?”
We bring God with us as we focus on God’s will in our lives. That is, as we serve Him not ourselves.
Our Savior once taught, “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 23:11).
Many years ago, from these very grounds, my father taught me this very principle. At a gathering as someone asked him how they could make a difference in life, I heard him share a statement that he kept framed on his office wall. The words come from a French professor, that lived during the time of Joseph Smith, by the name of Chateaubriand. He was a brilliant historian and writer. One day a group of students came to him with a challenge. They asked him to summarize the history of the world in a single sentence. After pondering the question for a few moments, Chateaubriand said this:
“In the days of service all things are founded, in the days of special privilege they deteriorate, and in the days of vanity they are destroyed.”
He is greatest, as the Savior said, who serves. This too is what my father wanted me to understand as much as anything else. But what does this really mean? It means that all we do must be about service. For relationships to thrive, for societies to flourish, and for mankind to fulfill his potential, we must choose to serve. This includes every corner of our lives, including that which is done in person and online. In contrast, as King Benjamin taught, if we choose the course of the natural man, which is so easy to do, all things are destroyed (see Mosiah 3:19). Your challenge today at BYU is not only in earning a degree but in coming to know how to utilize the skills and knowledge given to you here in service to God and mankind.
I have come to believe that to take God with you in your studies means, in part, embracing at least three specific kinds of service in all that you learn and do. These include (1) service to absolute truth versus man-made truth or secular trends, (2) service that forsakes the world, and (3) service that lifts the disenfranchised and even the enemies within your sphere of influence. These things serve both God and man and are a failsafe equation to becoming your best self.
First, Serve God by Knowing His Truth.
By following gospel truth, we can overcome life’s challenges, remove the world’s incessant call to compare and aspire, replace misplaced time and attention with things that matter most and avoid becoming a stumbling block in the lives of those around us.
Many years ago, a Harvard educated scientist and later Church apostle, John A. Widtsoe, said:
“It is a paradox that men will gladly devote time every day for many years to learn a science or an art; yet they expect to win a knowledge of the gospel, which comprehends all sciences and arts, through perfunctory glances at books or occasional listening to sermons. The gospel should be studied more intensively than any school or college subject. They who pass opinion on the gospel without having given it intimate and careful study are not lovers of truth and their opinions are worthless. . . . Their method is without honor in the halls of truth” (Improvement Era, May 1943, 289).
No one will ever know life’s great truths without studying and experimenting upon God’s word in faith, sincerity, and real intent (see Alma 32, Moroni 10: 3-5). Through this process Heavenly Father promises that He will reveal any needed wisdom we lack. This is one of the preeminent truths of Joseph Smith’s First Vision: by revelation from God, we can know all needful truth (James 1:5). It is also a lesson of the scriptures that God expects us to seek His wisdom (see 1 Thessalonians 5:21), that we might arrive at the point where we can declare, like Joseph, “All is well… I have learned for myself” (see JSH 1: 20, 26).
When I was growing up, my generation was told such maxims as you needed to wait to go swimming for at least thirty minutes after eating; eating a low fat or fat free diet was essential to your health; the change in the seasons were due to the earth’s proximity to the sun; and that one year in a dog’s life was equal to seven years in a human’s life. We now know that each of these statements is incorrect and that the experts espousing these beliefs were categorically wrong. While none of these items in and of themselves are particularly life altering, this reality should serve as a reminder that trust in man’s learning can never be relied upon as your absolute guide for life.
In regard to evidence concerning the Church we have seen a similar pattern. For example, the Book of Mormon mentions the existence of cement buildings, barley, and writing on metal plates. Over time various critics, who thought they knew better than scripture, declared that the Book of Mormon was false because scientists could find no evidence of such things. Today we know that the scientists and the critics were wrong. There was cement, there was barley, there was writing on metal plates in ancient America.
While true science will always agree with true religion, God’s truth is eternal and scientific reality is ever changing. There is ever a constant need to be cautious about what the world declares to be reality. Do not ever let yourself be at ease in the world of knowledge. Also, seek to do the hard work to search out and learn for yourself what is really known or unknown or still to be better understood, as well as the underlying assumptions beneath what the world purports to be the truth of things. Too often, we want to console ourselves in the comfortable, the rational or in that which justifies us or our own biases. You are living in a world where it screams that if a persuasive site on the Internet says it’s true, then it must be so! Be careful my young friends!
One of the profound cautionary life stories in the Book of Mormon is that of Korihor. Korihor was an anti-Christ but we sometimes forget that he began as a believer who allowed the adversary to overcome him and those he taught by holding to teachings that were pleasing to the carnal mind. In Alma 30, Korihor says, “I also knew that there was a God. But behold, the devil hath deceived me. . . . And I have taught his words; and I taught them because they were pleasing unto the carnal mind, . . . insomuch that I verily believed that they were true” (Alma 30:52–53).
In the gospel, it is also true that some parts of God’s word and work may not always be readily understood by us. There may be things for you that lead to legitimate questions or concerns or even doubts. By Divine design we have opposition in all things. Through opposition we actually find meaning and truth. But science and critics cannot answer the questions of the soul. You will never know this Church is true or Joseph Smith was a prophet if you let your own thinking or that of others prevail over the voice of the Spirit.
The Savior promised, “Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 12:6). To Oliver Cowdrey who was looking for answers to his life’s question, the Savior confirmed the truth of His promise or reveled knowledge, saying: “Cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things. Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God? . . . Doubt not, fear not” (D&C 6:22-23, 36).
God always speaks to the questions of our soul. The Savior knows you personally and He understands your deepest concerns. But it is only by revelation you will receive all the needed wisdom to sustain and lift you through questions of policy, doctrine and history. In that search, you cannot be concerned with whether the world accepts or likes you. Hold close these words of President Nelson:
“If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we must learn to receive revelation. . . .
In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost. My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation.”
I wish to share one last thought on this topic: In the week following the 9/11 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., President Henry B. Eyring spoke to the students at BYU-Idaho. He gave a profound promise that I also would like to share and affirm to you. He said:
“We live in a time of increasing difficulty and change. Many of us have felt some things that led us to the scriptures. In the last few days, I have found things I had never seen there before because, in my extremity, the Lord showed me things that He had prepared long ago to help me. I’ll make you a promise: If you will, in the next few hours and days, go to the scriptures, you will, as you read them (pick… anywhere that you’re led to read), see scriptures speaking to you as if it was the voice of God, as if He knew your needs and your concerns; and He will tailor that to you, and it will be a witness to you that He knows you and that in that set of scriptures . . . is a means by which He can guide you and comfort you. I promise you; you’ll have that experience—and it will be very personal—in the next few days.”
Please accept this invitation as if President Eyring had just extended it to you today. Serve Heavenly Father by claiming this prophetic promise. Find your own sacred grove where you come to know from “your own individual and independent awareness” of the underlying truth and reality of the living Christ, His Restored Gospel and how you are to move your life forward from this place and time. Embrace the words from Hamlet, “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Second, Serve God by Forsaking the World.
As this dispensation opened Joseph Smith was told that “God had a work for [him] to do” (JSH 1:33). This is also true for you. God has a work for each of you to do. Joseph Smith, however, was also told that Satan would tempt him to seek after riches and do what he could to frustrate the work he had been called to (see JSH 1:46).
It should be instructive that before the Savior appeared in the Americas Satan worked to cause the followers of Christ to discriminate and persecute one against another by “stirring up the people to do all manner of iniquity. . . puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world” (3 Nephi 6:15).
In short, Satan worked to “break up” the Church, to take away their “peace,” and destroy every person and family seeking to follow the Savior. As you pursue your education and career ambitions, Satan will likewise tempt you. In the general conference of October 1974, President Gordon B. Hinckley said the following:
“In 1856, when we were largely alone in these valleys, some thought we were safe from the ways of the world. To such talk, Heber C. Kimball, the grandfather of our beloved president [Spencer W. Kimball], responded: ‘I want to say to you, my brethren, the time is coming when we will be mixed up in these now peaceful valleys to that extent that it will be difficult to tell the face of a Saint from the face of an enemy to the people of God. Then, brethren,’ he went on, ‘look out for the great sieve, for there will be a great sifting time, and many will fall; for I say unto you there is a test, a Test, a TEST coming, and who will be able to stand?’” (Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, Bookcraft, 1945, p. 446).
President Hinckley continued, “I do not know precisely the nature of that test. But I am inclined to think the time is here and that the test lies in our capacity to live the gospel rather than adopt the ways of the world” (Ensign, November 1984).
As you study and work here you likely will feel inklings to live your life in the world’s way.
Please understand and know that you cannot do the work God has called you to do through the world’s ways. This is Nephi’s shared truth to us. He testified he could do all things, even build a ship, but only as he worked the timbers after the manner shown him by the Lord and not after the “manner of men” (I Nephi 18:2). Revelation from the Lord can direct you in school, business, and science as well as in Church. Our Father in Heaven needs you, His sons and daughters, to “let God prevail” in everything you do—whether that is in raising a family, your career, or even in giving humanitarian service.
Moreover, in our current day and time you will also need to have courage to stand against a world that will increasingly mock, scorn or accuse you. This will be required in both large and small matters and even in family and church affairs at times.
For example, years ago, on a small island in Tonga there lived an elderly sister by the name of Vaikato Tavutu. One day a group of Tongan building missionaries came to the island to erect a chapel. After they arrived, they discovered that this sister knew all the details for the design and layout of the building. The missionaries could not understand how she knew all this without ever seeing the blueprints. It turns out that decades before the building missionaries arrived, Sister Tavutu was experiencing an illness when the apostle, George Albert Smith, visited the tiny island and gave Sister Tavutu a priesthood blessing.
During the blessing sister Tavutu said she was able to understand all the words in her own tongue and he promised her that if she would be faithful, she would live to see a beautiful chapel erected on her island. She saw this chapel in a vision and saw that it would have a “gold steeple that shone in the sunlight.”
The supervising labor missionary went on to say:
“One day [many years after her vision, Sister Tavutu] became very ill. Her brother went to her and told her she had better repent of her sins and confess her lies [about her vision about the chapel which had never come]. He told her she knew that she had told lies all those years and now she was going to die with that on her conscience. Well, Vaikato recovered; and after many years, her vision was fulfilled.
“Vaikato was not certain of her age but thought she might be 102 or so. She was on the work site each morning helping to fill the barrels with water with which to mix the mortar; she was also carrying the coral bricks to the builders. I spoke to her through an interpreter and told her not to carry the water. The buckets were too heavy for her and the men could do it. I also asked her to please only carry one brick at a time, as they were about the size of our cinder blocks. However, as soon as I was out of sight, she started carrying two bricks at a time again. One of the Tongan builders came to me and asked for some gloves for Vaikato because her hands were bleeding from the rough blocks. I got down from the scaffold and went to the lady, admonishing her again through the interpreter to only carry one brick at a time. I took off my gloves and gave them to her.
“The tears started running down Vaikato’s cheeks, and I thought I had wounded her feelings. Then I noticed the tears rolling down the interpreter’s face. He told me: ‘The little lady said that the Savior’s hands had bled for her and that she was not ashamed to have her hands bleed for the Savior’s work.’” (Eric Shumway, Tongan Saints: Legacy of Faith, 178-180).
A number of you here today are Tongans. What a marvelous legacy this remarkable Tongan saint, Sister Vaikato Tavutu, has left. What a giant of a person! Despite all the mocking of friends and family that should have known better, she stood for revealed truth and so must you. Be not ashamed of the Savior. Stand tall. Deny yourself of all ungodliness. Bear the cross of Him who bled and died for us. Turn away from any who would have you compromise what you know to be true and let your service show that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. Forsake the world.
Third, Serve by Lifting the Disenfranchised and Loving Your Enemies.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Savior expressed what we now call the Golden Rule, saying, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matt 7:12). This we must always do.
C. Terry Warner, a dear friend and emeritus professor of philosophy at BYU-Provo, tells the story of two brethren in the same ward that had been at odds with one another for years. They both had offended each other in un-Christ like ways. Their critical spirit towards each other caused a “repelling force” that had also affected each of their families. Their differences seemed beyond repair. Finally, one of these brothers needed to relocate to another state. Feeling uncomfortable with himself about the state of things, just before his move, he saw the other brother in the church parking lot. When he saw him, he stopped what he was doing. He ran over to him, grabbed his arm from behind and turned him around. As the two stared at each other, the one who grabbed the arm apologized for all he had done and asked for forgiveness. The other said, “Why?” telling him he had nothing to be sorry for. The one brother then said, “I have loved you less. That is my sin. I have loved you less” (C. Terry Warner, BYU Speeches, 1995-1996).
Are there friends, students, teachers, family, or others around you that you have loved less than you could have? Are there some that you have not forgiven or helped in the way you should have? Jesus asks each of us to embrace and love those that do not believe or live as we do. He said, “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?” (Matthew 5:46).
We serve God by serving the least, the last, and the lost. We serve God by embracing and lifting people who are different from us, who do not accept us, who even despise us. There is no room for racism and discrimination in the gospel and Church of Christ. To see others as God sees them requires the sacrifice of any or all justifications, even when resulting from offensive words or actions.
Brother Warner also once posed this question, “How then shall we come unto Christ so that everything will be different from what it could possibly be otherwise?” He answered, “By sacrificing all taking of offense.”
Our words and actions must rise to the Savior’s charge on the night of His Atonement when He declared, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34).
We would do well to remember that on the night of His Atonement, He washed the feet of one who He knew would betray Him, of another who He knew would deny Him, and of others who He knew would fall asleep in His most needed hour. Later, as He hung in agony on the cross, He asked for forgiveness for the Roman soldiers that had taken His clothes, mocked Him and nailed Him to the cross.
Just before the dedication of the Los Angeles temple, President Harold B. Lee reported that he had a profound spiritual experience. He said he experienced what he thought was not a dream but a vision where he saw the president of the Church teaching, “If you want to love God, you have to learn to love and serve the people. That is the way you show your love for God” (General Conference, April 1973).
It moves me to my core to want to redouble my efforts to reach and minister to all when I think that of all the things a prophet of God might be taught before a temple dedication was that to love God, one must better learn to serve and love others.
Conclusion
In concluding I would like to leave you with one last life lesson. Some time ago I was in the office of one our Lord’s apostles discussing a policy issue which some members had found challenging. During that discussion he said something to the effect, “We all want others to like us. I want you to like me. But when I say my prayers at night, God says to me, ‘I do not need people to like you. I need you to do My will.’”
Now imagine, for a moment, the great burden it is to be an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth today. In a social media infused world, where we live for “likes” as a way of not only being liked but also being validated, an all-knowing, all-loving God says, “I do not need people to like you. I need you to do My will.” I need you to give up your will for My cause. I need you to sacrifice. I need you to serve. Please remember this great truth that,
“In the days of service all things are founded, in the days of special privilege they deteriorate, and in the days of vanity they are destroyed.”
I leave you today with my sure witness that God lives, and that the living Christ directs this, His Church, through His prophet, Russell M. Nelson. God is in control. He is in the details of your lives, the nations and this university. Do not fear the future but embrace it by serving God and mankind.Choose this day to serve the Lord in every needful way. Live in faith and trust in the Lord and His gospel. In other words, be immersed in and live the two Great Commandments.
At the groundbreaking of this campus, President David O. McKay talked about how millions of lives would be blessed by the good works coming out of Laie, this campus, and the temple. He also prophesied, saying: “The world needs men and women who cannot be bought or sold . . . genuine gold [leaders] is what this school is going to produce . . . Not leaders only in this island, but everywhere. . . . You mark [my] word . . . from this school . . . will go men and women whose influence will be felt for good towards the establishment of peace internationally” (Groundbreaking address, Church College of Hawaii, February 1955).
Later at the dedication of the college, he prayed: “Help us, O Father, to appreciate the sacrifices and accomplishments of the past. Give us power and intelligence to contribute to the pressing and progressive demands of the present. Give us inspiration in all efforts that tend to establish peace among nations, goodwill toward men. . . . May we be, in every sense of the word, loyal, true to the best that is within us, and consecrate our lives and our efforts to the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth, we humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord” (Dedicatory prayer, Church college of Hawaii, December 1958).
I also so pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.