Thank you, Shane and Robin. That was beautifully done. May we, like Nephi, rejoice in God\u2019s mercies even when the journey is toilsome. Especially when it is toilsome.<\/p>\n
We have just sung \u201cCome, let us anew our journey pursue\u201d (Hymns,<\/i> 1985, no. 217). Perhaps no metaphor for mortality is more ubiquitous than that of life as a journey. The image takes many forms and colorations. Some regard the journey from birth to death as an accident of biology, a purposeless passage into oblivion \u201cfull of sound and fury, signifying nothing\u201d (William Shakespeare, Macbeth,<\/i> act 5, scene 5, lines 27\u201328). For believers, the journey through mortality is purposeful. It does not lead merely to the grave but constitutes a pilgrimage to a promised land. And for Latter-day Saints, this pilgrimage marks a journey home, a return to a loving Father who sent His children to learn what could be learned only through trial.<\/p>\nTrials Along the Trail<\/b><\/h2>\n
Trials are an inevitable and necessary part of our journey home. We knew this before we came to earth. Even so, when \u201cfiery trial\u201d befalls pilgrims along the way, it can feel \u201cas though some strange thing happened unto you,\u201d as Peter wrote to the Saints facing persecution under Nero (1 Peter 4:12). It is one thing to know in principle that trials are part of the journey and quite another to experience them in practice. As Shakespeare quips, \u201cThere was never yet philosopher That could endure the toothache patiently\u201d (Much Ado About Nothing,<\/i> act 5, scene 1, lines 35\u201336).<\/p>\n
This has been a trying year for me, and I fear that I have not always endured my toothaches patiently. I\u2019ve sometimes felt weary in the journey, even though the difficulties we have faced at BYU pale in comparison to those experienced by American higher education generally. Many, if not most, universities have experienced furloughs, forced program reductions, deep budget cuts, and layoffs. If you read the Chronicle of Higher Education<\/i> or even our local newspapers, you don\u2019t need me to inform you that public and private universities across the country, including those in Utah, have taken big hits. Even the richest universities, such as Harvard, have had to engage in painful belt-tightening because so much of their operating revenues comes from their endowments.<\/p>\n
That BYU would also face challenges ought not to have taken us entirely by surprise. Last year, as you may recall, I showed you this big green ledger book that I had discovered collecting dust in the ASB. It contains a record of faculty salaries at BYU from 1921 through World War II. I mentioned last year that during the Great Depression salaries dipped below their 1921 level, and I said that while I did not \u201cexpect a salary cut such as was experienced during the Great Depression, . . . we need to be prepared to face the challenges of our day, whatever they may be, in a manner worthy of our forebears\u2019 legacy of sacrifice\u201d (John S. Tanner, \u201cLearning in the Light,\u201d BYU 2008 Annual University Conference faculty session address, 26 August 2008).<\/p>\n
I am grateful that thus far during the current recession BYU has been spared draconian budget cuts and layoffs. In fact, most of you received a raise. But BYU is not immune to the consequences of the downturn. Given current conditions and projections, for example, raises may be less likely next year. We anticipate no increase to our salary budget and a modest reduction in our supplies and travel budgets. Regarding the hiring freeze, it continues in force. As the president said this morning, we simply don\u2019t know when it will end.<\/p>\n
Frankly, we don\u2019t know what the future holds for either the economy or the academy, but I personally feel confident of two things: in the future, there will continue to be solid, ongoing support from the Church for<\/i> us; and the future will continue to require a spirit of sacrifice and dedication from<\/i> us. It always has. Therefore, I want to repeat counsel I have given in each fall address the past two years.<\/p>\n
For two years running I have called your attention to a statement by President Spencer W. Kimball. He predicted:<\/p>\n
It will take just as much sacrifice and dedication to preserve these principles in the second century of BYU\u2014even more than that required to begin this institution in the first place.<\/i> [\u201cThe Second Century of Brigham Young University,\u201d BYU devotional, 10 October 1975]<\/p>\n
This is a sobering statement when you recall the sacrifices made by those who built BYU and who were sometimes paid in produce and promises.<\/p>\n
Now, in context, President Kimball was probably speaking more of the spiritual sacrifices necessary to preserve BYU\u2019s ideals in a sea of secularism than of financial sacrifices necessary to sustain its basic operation. But whatever the nature of the trials we are called upon to face in our days at BYU, as President Kimball predicted, they will require a spirit of sacrifice and dedication. Maintaining this spirit at BYU has been a concern for all those who have guided BYU\u2014whether in times of adversity or in times of prosperity.<\/p>\n
It has also been a concern for me. As I said two years ago when discussing President Kimball\u2019s prophecy: \u201cFor BYU to meet this impending test, we must keep alive the spirit of sacrifice and consecration\u201d (John S. Tanner, \u201cA House of Dreams,\u201d BYU 2007 Annual University Conference faculty session address, 28 August 2007). Similarly, last year, in speaking again of President Kimball\u2019s prophecy, I said: \u201cI am persuaded that sacrifice and consecration are vital in preserving the Spirit of the Y\u201d (\u201cLearning in the Light\u201d). The current challenges test our level of consecration.<\/p>\n
Now I do not think for a minute that the hiring freeze, budget cuts, and other small sacrifices we have been asked to make have been concocted as a test. Nonetheless, they do test our spiritual mettle. They bear spiritual as well as temporal implications for us on our journey heavenward. For just as there is no such thing as a temporal commandment (see D&C 29:35), there is no such thing as a merely temporal trial. These current challenges test not only our ability to manage but also our willingness to hearken.<\/p>\n
Given this, what has BYU\u2019s response to the current exigencies revealed about its spiritual health? From my vantage, what has been revealed to date is very heartening. In the main, BYU has met the test remarkably well so far\u2014beginning first and foremost with the president. As always, he has acted with complete fidelity to the mandates of our trustees, whose trust constitutes one of BYU\u2019s most precious assets in good times and bad. His iron determination to follow prophetic guidance without evasion and with exactness has increased this asset for us all.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen a similar spirit of obedience, gratitude, and sacrifice among the faculty and staff. It\u2019s been quite remarkable and heartwarming. I don\u2019t believe there is another major university in the world where one would find such a spirit of commitment to the common good.<\/p>\n
Since the freeze was announced in December, over and over again I have heard heartfelt expressions of gratitude from you for the remarkable resources we enjoy, and I have witnessed your willingness to do more with less. You have come up with creative proposals to find ways to accomplish the work with reduced resources. I\u2019ve seen departments transfer staff to help units who have lost personnel to the freeze. I have seen faculty volunteer to teach introductory classes in other departments and assume duties formerly discharged by an advisement center. I have seen faculty forego leaves, take on heavier teaching assignments, reduce travel, and accept restructuring plans with good grace. And the staff has been equally magnificent. They, too, are doing more with less. Moreover, they continue to transfer permanent positions from their side of the ledger to ours. We received three more slots from them this year, for a total of 13 over three years. Their \u201cbig, hairy, audacious goal\u201d is to transfer 25 slots from administration to faculty. When the freeze is lifted, the positions from these transfers will be deployed to help us meet critical needs.<\/p>\n
In short, the economic downturn has awakened an upturn in the spirit of sacrifice on campus. This has made my heart swell with joy to sojourn among such Saints. While our trials to date have been relatively modest in comparison with those of our forebears, it appears to me that their pioneer spirit still lives on today among a little band of pilgrim professors in Provo. I\u2019ve worried in past years that our academic success might make us proud and that our generous support might make us complacent\u2014that we weren\u2019t prepared to walk in the footsteps of those who have gone before us. After this year, I feel more sanguine that, were we called upon to do so, we might be able to pull our wagons back to Missouri after all.<\/p>\n
What is more, I suspect that many of you would even do so with a smile. You have frequently responded to the current conditions with good humor and good cheer, as the Lord commands: \u201cIn the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world\u201d (John 16:33). An example of your finding humor in adversity is a poster that one of John Rosenberg\u2019s chairs prepared for him. It wittily captures a conversation he and many faculty leaders have been having with you over the past year: \u201cHope. Nope. Cope!\u201d After the poster was mounted in the hallway, faculty have continued to have fun with its gallows humor. They now pin on the poster news clippings about conditions elsewhere in the academy as reminders that it could be worse. We\u2019re coping. And we need to plan on continuing to cope. This is a time for all hands on deck.<\/p>\n
The freeze has functioned not only as a test but as a catalyst for good at BYU. Latter-day Saint sojourners know that opposition is required for growth (see 2 Nephi 2:11) and that we are better off owing to a \u201cfortunate fall.\u201d Even bitter adversity can have its sweet uses (see Shakespeare, As You Like It,<\/i> act 2, scene 1, line 12). Likewise, as a result of the hiring freeze and the reduction in travel budgets, requests to fill vacancies, attend conferences, and expand programs are receiving more rigorous scrutiny than ever before. This strict scrutiny is a good thing. It needs to continue in perpetuity.<\/p>\n
Stricter scrutiny, however, has tended to occur ad hoc rather than systematically. So I have asked every college to complete comprehensive workload analyses for each department and faculty member. Most deans report that this has been a revealing exercise, even for deans and chairs who thought they knew their units well. It will help units deploy resources more effectively and equitably, as well as hold individuals more accountable. It will also enable the central administration to respond more knowledgeably to resource requests. We are better off because we have been forced to rigorously examine our resource deployment. There is more transparency, more strategic decision making. Many college councils now regularly discuss position vacancies and frequently recommend moving positions around rather than simply proposing to continue the status quo.<\/p>\n
Current conditions have also prompted us to look for ways to realign programs to strengthen natural synergies and streamline administrative costs. The most dramatic example of this involves the programs in Health and Human Performance, which have been realigned with other colleges. We need to continue to look for more efficient and effective ways to accomplish critical tasks. This is not easy or pain free, but if we meet the challenge wisely, this period will have been a fortunate fall for BYU. Like Adam and Eve, we\u2019ll be better off for it. Like Christian, the hero of John Bunyan\u2019s allegory The Pilgrim\u2019s Progress,<\/i>we\u2019ll be encumbered with fewer burdens on our backs and a clearer vision about the way to the Celestial City.<\/p>\n
Another example of a proposal that promises to streamline while strengthening a core university program is the potential restructuring of general education. I stress that this is only a proposal as yet. Associate Academic Vice President Jeffrey Keith and Dean John Bell have floated a revised model for general education to the Faculty General Education Council, Deans Council, and Academic Vice President\u2019s Council. The new model promises to greatly simplify general education requirements and reduce hours while potentially increasing general education\u2019s effectiveness. Other institutions that have adopted the model report that it has also significantly increased buy-in by faculty and students. The model allows faculty from across campus to be involved in general education. It also provides students with greater flexibility as well as more opportunities to pursue minors and interdisciplinary study. The new model also makes it easier for the university to define and measure general education outcomes, thereby ensuring that the huge investment BYU is making in the general education of our students is truly meeting its objectives. Now, I am a great proponent of general education, so I want us to look at this proposal very carefully and critically. We have not settled on this new model, but we are kicking the tires. It might be time to trade in a gas guzzler for a more efficient new model. You\u2019ll be hearing more about this proposal in the coming weeks as we solicit faculty input.<\/p>\n
To summarize: I believe that substantial good has come out of our efforts to cope with straitened circumstances. Being forced to ration resources has required us to be more reflective about what we\u2019re carrying in our wagons and more creative in how we\u2019ve organized the wagon train and distributed the load. It has brought our community together in a spirit of shared sacrifice. When some are stuck in the mud or are in dire need of food, others pitch in to pull them out and then share provisions. However, we can\u2019t continue indefinitely to lose members from our little band. I am grateful that the board has been willing to consider limited exceptions to the freeze to meet the most dire needs. To this point the freeze has not frozen BYU in the snows of Wyoming on its journey toward a rendezvous with its prophetic destiny.<\/p>\n
In preparation for this talk, I reread John Bunyan\u2019s The Pilgrim\u2019s Progress.<\/i> (Well, actually, I listened to it while participating in a 100-mile bike ride around Utah Lake.) I was struck by how much of the allegory is devoted to conversation. Bunyan\u2019s pilgrim Christian is constantly engaged in teaching and learning from others he meets along the way on his journey to the heavenly Jerusalem. So should we on our journey home. Latter-day scriptures repeatedly enjoin the Saints to \u201cteach one another . . . doctrine\u201d and \u201cwords of wisdom,\u201d \u201caccording to the office wherewith I have appointed you\u201d (D&C 88:77, 118; 109:7; D&C 38:23). Last year I mentioned that the injunction to \u201cteach one another\u201d had impressed itself on my mind. I felt that we needed to think more about this as faculty. This impression has remained with me throughout the year\u2014hence our conference theme.<\/p>\n
I discovered last year that Karl G. Maeser had developed an explicit plan for teaching and learning at Brigham Young Academy. You may remember that he adopted as \u201cthe guiding rule for the teacher\u201d in the Academy that \u201cwhatever can be done by the pupils, the teacher should never do himself\u201d (Maeser, \u201cThe Monitorial System,\u201d Church School Department, Juvenile Instructor,<\/i> 1 March 1901, 153; see also Maeser, School and Fireside<\/i> [Salt Lake City: Skelton and Co., 1898], 272). Thus this institution promoted active learning and peer teaching well before it became fashionable in academe. Active learning and peer teaching are part of our institutional DNA.<\/p>\n
In fact, the practice of collaborative learning among Latter-day Saints goes back well before Maeser\u2019s Academy to the earliest school in the Church. By revelation the School of the Prophets envisioned a porous boundary between student and teacher. As described in Doctrine and Covenants 88:122, every learner was expected to become both student and teacher at different times, \u201cthat all may be edified of all\u201d\u2014this has profound implications for us\u2014\u201cand that every man may have an equal privilege\u201d\u2014this, too, has deep significance for us. I sense that there is important wisdom for us yet to mine that has been deposited in such revelations about teaching one another.<\/p>\n
We tried to bring some of these implications to light in the president\u2019s midyear leadership meetings last December. In the lead-up to those meetings, the Center for Teaching and Learning gathered video clips of faculty engaging in active learning activities. Here are some short clips, one from the University of Massachusetts and three from BYU: Debra Himes from Nursing; Matthew Mason from History; and Janet Young from Teacher Education. [A video was shown of professors using a variety of ways to involve students in learning.]<\/p>\n
As these video clips demonstrate, there is a wide variety of ways to engage students in active learning. The video clips also demonstrate that active learning is not rocket science. Active learning strategies may be as simple as having students capture content and critique each other\u2019s captures. Such strategies need not replace but can effectively supplement lectures.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s do a brief demonstration together of an active learning activity. [A video was shown of a professor using steel balls and a wooden track to help students learn physics.]<\/p>\n
Now you never know when our students are going to need to be able to apply what they learn from us about acceleration. My son-in-law recently shared this from YouTube. [A video was shown of a man sliding down a giant waterslide, launching from a ramp, and then landing in a pool of water.]<\/p>\n
Do you want to see it again? Here it is. [The video was shown again.]<\/p>\n
Actually, the video is doctored. It generated a lot of buzz a couple of weeks ago on YouTube before it was exposed as a hoax. When I saw it, I was reminded of the steel ball demonstration, so I couldn\u2019t resist sharing it. Real or fake, it is the kind of prank some nut like Evel Knievel might actually try.<\/p>\n
Teaching each other entails more than faculty teaching students or students teaching students. It goes beyond what we categorize under \u201cteaching\u201d in our annual stewardship reports. We fulfill the scriptural mandate to teach one another when faculty teach and learn from other faculty. Certainly we teach one another when we publish scholarship, especially in high-impact journals. Faculty also teach one another when they share and discuss research and creative work among departmental colleagues. I have noticed that departments with strong research cultures are generally places where faculty share and critique works in progress. They engage in lively conversations about each other\u2019s research and creative work. In such departments, faculty mentor not only students but each other. They engage in robust conversation about developments in the disciplines. I strongly encourage this form of teaching one another here at BYU.<\/p>\n
I also encourage and commend your efforts to learn from each other across college boundaries. I was heartened to hear in resource planning several deans speak about plans they have to collaborate with other colleges. I have long believed that this sort of collaboration ought to be more prevalent than it is at BYU, in both our teaching and our research. We ought to look for ways to learn from each other across our silos. Advances in knowledge often take place at the intersection of the disciplines.<\/p>\n
In The Pilgrim\u2019s Progress,<\/i> Christian and his fellow travelers frequently take stock of their progress toward the Heavenly City. We\u2019re also taking better stock of our progress toward our goal of helping students achieve stated learning outcomes. To this end, we\u2019re talking a lot more with each other about what our students are actually learning, not just about what we think we are teaching them. Assessment is no longer a hiss and a byword on our journey; it\u2019s merely a rubric for the many ways we\u2019re trying to measure our effectiveness. Some colleges have instituted assessment days and retreats. One college calls its retreat \u201cCamp Assessalot.\u201d We are in the middle of a paradigm shift from teaching to learning. Our focus is shifting from \u201cmy course\u201d to \u201cour program.\u201d We are beginning to reconceptualize teaching as a public part of our profession\u2014like our research\u2014rather than as what we do in private behind closed classroom doors.<\/p>\n
Increasingly, faculty are also taking stock of their courses in medias res by soliciting formative midcourse student feedback. The new tool developed by the Center for Teaching and Learning has made this easier than ever. It is proving to be effective in raising student teaching evaluations. Evidently, students like to know that we care about what they think. More to the point, midcourse evaluations are helping faculty make adjustments that actually improve learning\u2014which is the whole point. We assess not merely to understand, nor to increase popularity. We take stock to improve learning, to get better.<\/p>\n
One of my favorite lines in The Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/i> occurs when Christian encounters Mr. Talkative. As his name indicates, Mr. Talkative loves to talk, especially about salvation. Everything for him becomes an occasion to expound the gospel, but never an occasion to repent and live it. Bunyan shrewdly observes:<\/p>\n
Some cry out against sin, even as the Mother cries out against her Child in her lap, when she calleth it<\/i> [a] naughty Girl, and then falls to hugging and kissing it.<\/i> [John Bunyan, The Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/i> (1678), part 1; The Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/i> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), 67]<\/p>\n
Likewise, it is not enough for us to gather assessment data only to excuse familiar faults by saying, \u201cOh, students always complain about my organization. I\u2019m just a free spirit. They need to learn to roll with the punches when there is no syllabus or I don\u2019t return assignments.\u201d We must use what we learn from program and course assessments not like a fop to preen and admire ourselves but like an engineer to measure performance and improve it.<\/p>\n
In our interactions with students and colleagues, we need to remember those in the last wagons (see J. Reuben Clark, Jr., conference address, 5 October 1947; To Them of the Last Wagon<\/i> [Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1947]; also \u201cThey of the Last Wagon,\u201d Improvement Era,<\/i> November 1947, 704\u20135, 747\u201348). The president has detailed what remarkable students we have at BYU, and indeed we do have great students. The best could go anywhere and no doubt will go places after they leave us that we and they scarcely dream of, bringing honor and renown on themselves and their alma mater. But there will always be some who don\u2019t finish first, indeed, who struggle to finish at all. I do not advocate lowering standards for stragglers, but I do implore us all to assist those who plod along in the last wagons just hoping to complete the trek. You and I would also struggle in some classes. We admit only students who can succeed, but not necessarily who can succeed equally in every subject. Each student has different aptitudes. As Eliot Butler used to say, quoting Will Rogers, \u201cEverybody is ignorant, only on different subjects\u201d (New York Times,<\/i> 31 August 1924; quoted in The Will Rogers Book,<\/i> comp. Paula McSpadden Love [Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1961], 138). Likewise, everybody has something to teach us if we are willing to learn from one another.<\/p>\n
Some of our students will not<\/i> go on to become prominent professionals in law, medicine, or business, much less follow our paths to graduate school and the professoriate. They won\u2019t grow up to be just like us. Imagine that! Yet they too are beloved sons and daughters of the King we serve and whose throne is the object of our pilgrimage. What is more, they have equal potential to grow up to become like Him. We therefore ought to value and attend to the needs and futures of all those we travel with. For, to paraphrase Chaucer, \u201cpilgrims are we all\u201d (see Geoffrey Chaucer, \u201cGeneral Prologue,\u201d The Canterbury Tales<\/i> [c. 1387], lines 26\u201327).<\/p>\n
I commend and encourage the initiatives that I am beginning to see bubble up all across the university to pay attention to those who don\u2019t immediately go on to a career or graduate school in their major disciplines. Attention to them is a healthy effect of the economic downturn. As financial storms rage and cold economic winds blow, it is important to consider what lies in store for those who don\u2019t have the prospect of immediate shelter in the form of a career or graduate school. Well might we echo King Lear\u2019s words in the storm as he confessed his failure to notice the downtrodden: \u201cO, I have ta\u2019en Too little care of this!\u201d (Shakespeare, King Lear,<\/i> act 3, scene 4, lines 32\u201333). It is salutary for us to turn attention to the needs of all our students, not just the high achievers. It is also the prudent thing to do. More often than not, our future donors will come from the ranks of those who haven\u2019t gone on to pursue academic careers but who loved their experience with us at BYU nonetheless.<\/p>\nConclusion: Stones and Storms<\/b><\/h2>\n
In conclusion, let me tease out lessons for our journey from one of the great epic journeys in scripture. The Book of Mormon tells of many migrations to the promised land. None is more evocative than the exodus of the Jaredites. Lehi\u2019s group evidently crossed the sea in sailing ships that could be steered and were open to the light of day (see 1 Nephi 18:22). The Jaredites, by contrast, crossed the fearful deep in barges that could not be steered but were completely at the mercy of the tempests and tides. As if this weren\u2019t terrifying enough, the Jaredites also faced the prospect of traveling in darkness for a journey that would last almost a full year (see Ether 6:11). The Lord solved these twin challenges of light and steering in two very different ways\u2014through stones and storms.<\/p>\n
As you will recall, He touched with His finger clear stones presented to Him for that purpose by the brother of Jared. As a result of the Lord\u2019s touch, the stones shone forth welcome light to illuminate the dark passage across the deep. We generally remember this divine intervention that helped the Jaredites on their epic voyage. But what about the lack of steering? The Lord addressed this problem with a rougher remedy. He \u201ccaused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind\u201d (Ether 6:5). The Lord\u2019s hand was in the storms that \u201cburied [the barges] in the depths of the sea\u201d (Ether 6:6) just as it was in the stones that lighted them.<\/p>\n
Brothers and sisters, I believe that God is likewise in both stones and storms on our pilgrimage to the promised land. We take with us on our journeys bright memories of times when His finger touched our lives. These testimonies light the dark way home, warming us with memories of sacred encounters with a personal God who cannot withhold Himself from those who love Him. The touch of His finger in our lives provides both a promise and a foretaste of the Lord\u2019s full embrace. God is in the glowing stones.<\/p>\n
But God is also in the storm. He says to the brother of Jared that the winds and the rains and the floods \u201chave gone forth out of my mouth\u201d (Ether 2:24). He sends his \u201cfurious wind\u201d to blow the little band of Jaredite pilgrims toward a new and better home (Ether 6:5). It takes faith to find God in the tempests, but He is there too.<\/p>\n
The Book of Mormon records that \u201cthe wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters\u201d (Ether 6:8). In a moving epilogue to a very wise book entitled My Grandfather\u2019s Blessings,<\/i> the Jewish physician Rachel Naomi Remen refers to this verse in the Book of Mormon. She writes:<\/p>\n
In the course of any lifetime there are times when one has to sail into the unknown without a map or compass. These can be times of despair and terror; they can also be times of discovery. Having accompanied many people as they deal with the unknown, I find that the most moving part of the Mormon exodus story is a single line. Despite the challenges and great difficulties of this sea journey, \u201cthe wind always blows in the direction of the promised land.\u201d I have seen many people spread their sails and catch this wind.<\/i> [Rachel Naomi Remen, \u201cEpilogue,\u201d My Grandfather\u2019s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging<\/i> (New York: Riverhead Books, 2000), 376]<\/p>\n
I pray that we can be wise and faithful enough to catch this wind.<\/p>\n
Our closing musical number is entitled \u201cPilgrim Song.\u201d The Apostle Paul says that we are to teach one another not simply through words but through hymns and spiritual songs:<\/p>\n
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.<\/i> [Colossians 3:16]<\/p>\n
In the closing song, I hope you feel the grace in our students\u2019 hearts as they sing of their faith that we are going to live forever.<\/p>\n
Someday we shall reach the harbor and be \u201cout of the swing of the sea\u201d (Gerard Manley Hopkins, \u201cHeaven-Haven\u201d [1918]). Someday God shall wipe away every tear. This is the promise every pilgrim clings to and holds in his heart, as recorded so beautifully in the book of Revelation:<\/p>\n
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?<\/i><\/p>\n
. . . And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.<\/i><\/p>\n
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.<\/i><\/p>\n
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.<\/i><\/p>\n
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.<\/i> [Revelation 7:13\u201317]<\/p>\n
Brigham Young provided a similar perspective for our early pioneer pilgrims who suffered so much on their mortal journeys. He said:<\/p>\n
We talk about our trials and troubles here in this life: but suppose that you could see yourselves thousands and millions of years after you have proved faithful to your religion during the few short years in this time, and have obtained eternal salvation and a crown of glory in the presence of God; then look back upon your lives here, and see the losses, crosses, and disappointments, the sorrows . . . , you would be constrained to exclaim, \u201cBut what of all that? Those things were but for a moment, and we are now here.\u201d<\/i> [JD<\/i> 7:275]<\/p>\n
I am grateful for the knowledge shared by pilgrims and pioneers alike, that in eternity \u201call shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well\u201d (Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love<\/i> [c. 1373\u20131388; also called A Book of Showings<\/i>], Thirteenth Revelation, chapter 27). The choir shall now sing \u201cPilgrim Song,\u201d whose chorus supplies a coda for these remarks: My soul doth long to go where I may fully know the glory of my Savior. And as I pass along I\u2019ll sing the Christian song: I\u2019m going to live forever.<\/i><\/p>\n
[\u201cPilgrim Song,\u201d arranged by Ryan Murphy (2000); lyrics adapted from \u201cThe Christian\u2019s Song,\u201d The Golden Harp; or, Camp-Meeting Hymns, Old and New<\/i> (Oneida, New York: George W. Henry, 1857), 26\u201327]<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n