Five faculty and administrators from the College of Life Sciences recently expounded upon BYU’s double heritage of learning by study and by faith as they shared inspirational messages that were both intellectually enlarging and spiritually strengthening.
Finding Direction in Uncertainty
Mary F. Davis
Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Biology
Delivered April 9, 2024
EXCERPT: If you are living in a way that prepares you to receive personal revelation, then keep moving forward even if you do not receive a clear prompting about which path to take. Trust that God will not let you make a wrong choice without warning you.1 Trust that God wants you to be involved in your path. Your voice matters to Him. If you are pointed toward Him, He can walk with you no matter what career or life choices you make.
Each of you has your own path. I hope you choose one that leads you to eternal life with God, that leads you to our Savior, Jesus Christ. We read, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”2 At times, I have viewed this as a small, narrow path in the middle of a wide vista leading to a far-off glimmer called eternal life, and I have feared that when I stray off the path as I inevitably make mistakes, I might lose hope of ever finding it again.
Instead of the goal of eternal life being at the end of a single path, I envision eternal life with Jesus Christ atop a mountain. Because individuals enter this life at different points and with different challenges and advantages, individuals are spread all around the mountain.
In this scenario, “strait” and “narrow” refer not to a single path that everyone needs to find and fit on; instead they refer to the possible angles of each person’s trajectory that will allow them to reach the summit and Jesus Christ.
We will each fail at scaling the mountain on our own. We do not have sufficient ability to do it. This is why the Atonement of Jesus Christ is necessary and is such a precious gift. It is also why we do not need to worry about where we are on the path, only that we are pointing to Jesus Christ. If we are, His Atonement is sufficient to assist each of us in pressing forward regardless of the challenges and to compensate for when we make mistakes and stumble off the path. Please trust Him. Trust Him enough to focus on Him no matter how slow or backward your progress may feel.
I have a testimony of my Savior. I have a testimony of my Heavenly Father’s love for me as His daughter. I believe in His love for each of you, individually, right where you are. I believe you each have a path back to our Heavenly Father. You cannot stray so far that a single step cannot help you face Him again.
2. Matthew 7:14; see also verse 13.
Great Temples of Learning on Temple Hill
Rick N. Jellen
Professor of Genetics in the Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences
Delivered May 21, 2024
EXCERPT: Jesus proclaimed Himself to be “the way, the truth, and the life,”1 whose life was “the light of men,” a light that “shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”2 The light emanating from the art glass windows and illuminating the exterior of the Orem temple are metaphors of His divine light. As spiritual darkness descends, the virtuous Savior and His light grow ever more visible as a beacon to the world. His gospel is the way back to our heavenly home. His truth brings me understanding, purpose, hope, and joy in that journey. He not only gives me hope for eternal life, but He is also “the light of the sun”3 that perpetuates all earthly life—even the life of those beautiful flowers on the temple grounds.
Truth comes to God’s children in many different ways, but all truth comes from one source. We were recently reminded of this in the October 2022 general conference when President Russell M. Nelson taught, "God is the source of all truth. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints embraces all truth that God conveys to His children, whether learned in a scientific laboratory or received by direct revelation from Him."4
As a scientist, I believe that when we engage in what science calls basic research, we are working with God to uncover fundamental truths about how the natural world operates.
Within the spiritual realm, all of us are commanded to seek understanding of saving truths through prayer and fasting. All these efforts to uncover truth require diligent study and faith, for “faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.”5
We serve in the house of the Lord to receive a special endowment of spiritual knowledge, including sacred truths about God’s plan for us and the eternal roles the Savior plays in that holy plan. This light is accompanied by power to enable us to accomplish the spiritual tasks God would have us perform in preparation for eternal life with Him.
I believe that, similarly, in the dedicated academic temples on Temple Hill, we receive endowments of light and power that enable us to magnify our talents and personal missions in this temporal life—should we so elect to use them for God’s consecrated purposes.
2. John 1:4–5.
3. Doctrine and Covenants 88:7.
4. Russell M. Nelson, “What is True?” Liahona, November 2022; emphasis in original.
5. Alma 32:21.
The Entire Church Shall Take Hold of Christ
Ali A. Crandall
Professor of Public Health
Delivered June 4, 2024
EXCERPT: [One] suggestion for taking hold of Christ is to cherish the journey by building connections with others rather than fixating on the end goal.
Whenever I read the Gospels, I am touched by how the Savior often took detours on His way to do important things. When a synagogue leader, Jairus, asked the Savior to heal his daughter the request was urgent—Jairus’s daughter was “at the point of death.”1 The Savior immediately went with Jairus, but the road was crowded, and the going was a little slow with all the people thronging about. This is when the woman with an issue of blood touched the hem of the Savior’s garment. Given the urgency of the young girl waiting to be healed, it has always amazed me that the Savior paused to identify, heal, and uplift the woman—after all, she already felt healed just by touching His garment. But for the Savior, that was not enough. He wanted the woman to more fully know Him, and He wanted to know her. Relationships were important to the Savior. He did not neglect Jairus and his family: Jesus raised the young girl from the dead. But He also did not neglect a woman who needed physical and emotional healing along the way.2
After I was accepted to Johns Hopkins University, I decided to visit the campus in Baltimore before making a final decision. I flew in on a Sunday so that I could visit a ward and get advice on where to live. I arrived at the Inner Harbor Ward church building early and took a seat on the back row of the chapel. As I waited for the service to begin, I felt a distinct voice in my mind say, “Ali, your PhD is important, but your experiences in this ward will be more important.” Because of this prompting, I made sure to find housing in the ward boundaries.
I learned so much from my associations with people in that ward. And I am so grateful for that prompting because I made sure that I prioritized the friendships and service opportunities that were extended to me. Otherwise, I think it may have been easy to put too much time and energy into my PhD and neglect building relationships with the people around me.
When there is so much to do in life and when we face so many pressures, it can be tempting to just focus on getting your degree or publishing the next paper or enforcing the latest policy. But, like the Savior, we need to pause along the way to make sure we are building relationships.
2. See Matthew 9:18–25; Mark 5:22–43.
The Covenantal Journey of Disciple-Scholarship
Richard A. Gill
Dean of BYU Undergraduate Education and Professor of Biology
Delivered July 9, 2024
EXCERPT: A few years back, I was having dinner with the family of my graduate student Kala‘i Ellis. His father, Mark, is involved with the Polynesian Voyaging Society and now the Polynesian Cultural Center. In his work, Mark—along with many others—employs historically accurate navigational approaches to sail double-hulled canoes thousands of miles across the Pacific without using western instrumentation. They use celestial navigation and knowledge of oceanography and natural history to cross ancient routes traveled by their ancestors.
Mark, in a moment of clarity that captured my imagination, summarized the work of navigation when he said, “On the deck of the canoe, the navigator daily makes thousands of observations to make hundreds of choices to answer two questions at sunrise and sunset: ‘Where are we?’ and ‘What is our heading?’”
Those same two questions should animate each of us spiritually. We should daily ask, “As a disciple and a scholar, what are the observations and choices I am making that tell me ‘Where am I?’ and ‘What is my heading?’”
What about us while we are at BYU? Our task is to discover how we use the refining experiences, the resources, and the community of BYU “to stay on the covenant path,”1 to “let God prevail”2 in our lives, to “[build] bridges of understanding”3 that will help reduce conflict and division in our communities, to live lives of gratitude,4 to become peacemakers,5 to repent, to seek forgiveness, to forgive others, and, ultimately, to build a life guided by celestial ideals.6 That is a far more daunting goal than the secular challenge of using the university to become a scholar or find a profession.
Our challenge is to observe the spiritual signs—our metaphorical bird migrations and celestial landmarks—that confirm we are on the path God intends for us. Being covenantal creates a unique type of acceptance and wonder along the voyage of discovery, inviting us to discover who God intends us to become. Being covenantal suggests that we are bound to God and to each other in a process of growth and transformation, each discovering our own way to use our talents and life experiences to build the kingdom.
So, what are the observations that we need to be making on our own voyage of discovery? Let me suggest three:
- First, observe how the Spirit is drawing you toward particular people or problems.
- Second, observe how to develop your unique suite of spiritual strengths so you can be a better disciple.
- Third, observe how the hand of God blesses and guides you, and give thanks for those blessings.
2. Russell M. Nelson, “Let God Prevail,” Ensign, November 2020; quoting Bible Dictionary, s.v. “Israel.”
3. Russell M. Nelson, “Peacemakers Needed,” Liahona, May 2023.
4. See Russell M. Nelson, “The Healing Power of Gratitude,” video message shared on social media, Church of Jesus Christ, 20 November 2020. Transcript available in Nelson, “The Story Behind My Global Prayer of Gratitude,” Inspiration (blog), 20 November 2020, Church of Jesus Christ, churchofjesuschrist.org/inspiration/the-story-behind-my-global-prayer-of-gratitude.
5. Nelson, “Peacemakers Needed”; see Moroni 7:3–4.
6. See Russell M. Nelson, “Think Celestial!” Liahona, November 2023.
Illuminating Your Place in God's Masterpiece
Tonya H. Fischio
Assistant Dean of Communications for the BYU College of Life Sciences
Delivered July 16, 2024
EXCERPT: When Tom Holdman [a stained-glass artist] was working on the San Antonio Texas Temple, he wanted to use agate stone in the stained glass windows. Agate looks like a rough rock on the outside, but it can have a vibrant, translucent appearance inside that lets light shine through, highlighting its beautiful, banded layers.
When Tom visited the temple site and mentioned his intention, the missionary overseeing the construction emotionally led Tom to a trailer full of rough stones. He explained that while digging the foundation, they had encountered essentially a cave full of rocks. Without quite knowing why, the construction missionary followed a prompting and instructed the crew to pull out and save all the stones from the cave before proceeding with the dig. This action resulted in significant teasing from the crew—because who saves a pile of rock? But now, standing in front of the trailer next to Tom, the missionary knew why he was led to do so. These stones, with their beautiful agate interiors, were carefully preserved in the earth, ready to come forth when God needed their vibrant quality to shine forth from His holy temple.
Later, Tom came across Isaiah’s prophecy about temples in 3 Nephi 22:12: “And I will make thy windows of agates” (also Isaiah 54:12). Today, Tom tries to include a piece of this prophesied agate in every temple he works on.1
Perhaps you are like the agate stone, covered in a rough exterior with an undiscovered vibrant interior of beautiful color and banded layers of experience ready to transmit the Light of Christ when the Master Artist needs you. Know that your time will come; He is aware of you and has a purpose for you. If you invite the Spirit into all your life’s endeavors and seek to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, you will be right where you need to be at the right time, with just the right preparation and knowledge to radiate the Light of Christ wherever God places you.