Introduction
President Gilbert
Sister Gilbert and I are so excited to serve with you at BYU-Idaho. We feel the Lord's hand on this university. We also feel His love for you, the students who enroll here. In ways that are truly unique in all of higher education, this is a student-centered university. President Hinckley declared in his announcement of BYU-Idaho:
The school will have a unique role in and be distinctive from the other institutions of higher education within the Church Educational System . . . .
BYU-Idaho will continue to be teaching oriented. Effective teaching and advising will be the primary responsibilities of its faculty, who are committed to academic excellence.[1]
You may not yet recognize the power of this unique identity; but if you haven't already, you will feel it when a faculty member knows your name, recognizes your needs, and reaches out to you personally.
I promise you that in the coming years you will be blessed with an increased recognition of this great blessing in your life. We are grateful to serve with a remarkable faculty and university staff, filled with individuals who are committed to the students and mission of BYU-Idaho. We feel a sacred stewardship to this university and to each of you.
Today we would like to introduce ourselves and begin to give you a feel for who we are and how we were called to this new assignment.But in introducing our family and our background, we also hope to introduce a theme: accepting and magnifying calls that come from the Lord.
Sister Gilbert
But first, let us start by simply introducing our family. President Gilbert and I met and were married while in college at BYU in Provo. Work and school have taken us to Northern California, Southern California, Massachusetts, Utah, and Idaho. We are the parents of eight children. Our oldest son, James, is graduating from high school this year and recently received a call to serve in the Taiwan Taichung Mission. Our daughter Paige is 14 years old and will be our oldest child at home as we move our family back to Rexburg. John is 12 and is fretting his brother's mission departure, leaving him the only boy at home. We have five additional daughters: Emma, who is ten; Mary and Grace, our 8-year-old twins; Lucy, who is 7; and our youngest daughter Claire, who is almost 2.
President Gilbert
But we did not start out with a family of ten! In fact, before there was James or Paige, John or Emma, Mary, Grace, Lucy, or Claire, it was just the two of us. Yes, this marriage started as two college students—one of them hoping beyond hope that he could impress his future bride that he was the one. This is a picture of Sister Gilbert and me studying together when we were dating in college.
Accepting the Call
Sister Gilbert
So, how did we go from study dates in the library to a family of ten and the call to serve as President of BYU-Idaho? Well, it didn't happen all at once. Throughout our marriage, and even back to our time dating in college, we have learned that when we are obedient to the calls that come from the Lord, He blesses us in ways we could never imagine. Some of those calls will come as formal Church assignments—a bishop, a Primary president, a Young Men's leader, or even a seminary teacher. Other calls will be less formal, but will be just as significant. Those calls may come as a responsibility to be a father or a mother, to become a better person, or to simply serve someone in need.
President Gilbert
The title of our talk today is "Rise to the Call." To introduce this theme, we would like to draw on the calling of Matthew in the New Testament. The scriptural account of Matthew's call does not provide a lot of detail—in fact, it is just one verse. In Matthew, chapter 9, verse 9, we read:
And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.[2]
That's it; a single verse and a simple response from a disciple to rise to the call. What else do we know that can help us understand the calling of this disciple? Matthew was a tax collector, a profession not well-respected because of its focus on money, greed, and even misrepresentation. We also know from Matthew that his call came in a custom house where tax monies were likely counted and gathered.
The often troubled early Baroque painter Carravagio has captured this scene in dramatic relief. In his painting "Calling of St. Matthew," Carravagio portrays Christ on the far right side of the canvas. He employs a technique that uses light and shadow for thematic emphasis. Notice that while Christ stands in the darkness, He seems to emanate light. Moreover light flows across the painting in the direction of the future disciple. Among art scholars there is some debate about which figure actually represents St. Matthew in the painting. The most commonly accepted view is that the man in the middle who is pointing to himself is Matthew. A less common interpretation, but the one we prefer, is that Matthew is the younger man sitting at the table on the far left, looking down at his hands and his money. It's almost as if he is taking one last look at his past before he rises up to take the outstretched hand of the Savior calling him to the work.
Sister Gilbert
There is a lesson in the calling of St. Matthew, and we believe there is a pattern we can learn from in rising to the calls we receive in life. First, we must look up and accept the call. If you follow our interpretation of the Caravaggio masterpiece, before Matthew could rise up to his call, he had to first look up, raise his sights, and accept the call he had been given. Second, he had to let go of the things that were holding him back. For Matthew, that was not just his money but his career and a life invested in a different path. For others, this might be a fear of failure, sacrificing personal pride, leaving behind a bad habit, or even personally forgiving an offense. Third, we must seek for the enabling power that comes from the Lord when we are on His errand. Not only did Matthew become a disciple of the Savior, he would eventually witness the Resurrection and later the Ascension of Jesus Christ. Finally, when we are blessed with great power in our callings, we need to have the humility to recognize where that power comes from. The Lord can do great things with us when we dedicate our lives to Him. As Elder Russell M. Nelson has said recently from this podium: "The Lord uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible."[3] Whether it was the young Joseph Smith called to restore the gospel, David to defeat Goliath, or Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, it is not the greatness of the man or woman, but their willingness to rise to the call that leads to power in the Lord. When we look up and truly understand the call the Lord is extending and let go of our self-focus, the Lord will empower us and make us mighty in His hands.
1. Look up and accept the call
2. Let go of the things that would hold you back
3. Seek for enabling power from the Lord
4. Recognize the source of that power
Serving with the Boston Youth
President Gilbert We would like to share several experiences in our own lives that have helped us learn the importance of this pattern. During the midst of a very challenging academic season in my graduate studies, I was extended a call to serve in the Boston Stake Young Men's presidency. Having never served in that calling before, my first thought was that the assignment would basically entail planning a few dances each year at a stake center. But I soon learned to look up and see that the Lord had much more in mind. In fact, the Lord was looking for someone who could invest personally in the lives of the young men in Boston, young men who were new in the gospel and who needed to know the Lord's love in a personal and direct way.
Sister Gilbert Once President Gilbert looked up to see what the Lord expected, he realized this call would mean much more than a quarterly stake dance. It would mean every Sunday driving around the Boston Stake attending meetings, teaching, and getting to know those youth. It would mean attending weeknight youth activities in inner-city branches where there were not always local youth leaders available. It would mean having youth in our home and into our lives. Here is a picture of some of those youth sharing a meal in our dining room. President Gilbert loved those boys as if they were part of our family. He prayed for them. He knew them the way the Lord knew them, and he knelt at night asking how best to reach each of them. The Lord put great power into my husband because he was on the Lord's errand.
President Gilbert
Now, I want you to focus especially on the four boys pointing at the camera. Each of those boys would eventually come here to Rexburg and attend BYU-Idaho. Each of them would eventually serve a mission. And each of them would eventually meet a wonderful young woman and marry in the temple. This is a picture of all four of them in front of the Oakland Temple at a wedding that happened last summer in California. I love those boys. I love everything they have become. Mostly, I love that the Lord allowed me to serve them and to witness His power in their lives as He has shaped them into the men they are today.
Sister Gilbert
Now, in a marriage sometimes one spouse is asked to serve by supporting the other in his or her calling. Certainly there have been many times in our married life where I have had to support President Gilbert as he has been called to assignments of responsibility in the Church. But that support has gone the other way as well. When I was eight months pregnant with our third child, I received a call to teach early morning seminary in our home. That's right—eight months pregnant and in our home! Now before you start wondering whether our bishop had gone crazy, let me tell you of the blessing this was for our family. First, the call meant that President Gilbert was often responsible to get the other children ready for the day, to tend the baby in the early morning, and sometimes to fill in for me in teaching lessons when I wasn't feeling well. Consider again the pattern we have discussed of rising to the call: I had to look up to recognize that the call had come from the Lord, and I had to let go of my fears of managing a young family and a busy home in accepting the call. Very soon, I began to see the enabling power in my calling as the Lord began to magnify my ability to teach. Finally, I learned to recognize that the sacrifice I thought I was making would turn into a blessing in my own life in ways I never could have imagined when I first accepted the call. Here is a picture of that seminary class after a Church meeting in Boston.
Path to Rexburg
President Gilbert
Both of our first two stories relate to formal callings or assignments in the Church. But sometimes the call to follow Christ comes in other, more intimate ways. These calls can relate to our work, family life, and personal life. And sometimes they require us to do hard things. When Sister Gilbert and I first moved back East for graduate school, I was required to participate in a multi-week program affectionately named "Math Camp" by the doctoral students in my program. I was in way over my head. It was about one-third of the way through the initial experience when I started to doubt myself. I knew the program was where the Lord wanted me, but I was becoming painfully aware of my own academic shortcomings. I will never forget one evening with Sister Gilbert as we ate dinner along the Charles River. I confided in her that I didn't think I could complete the program. I explained it wasn't simply a matter of working harder; I just didn't have the ability to do that kind of work. I will never forget her response: "Clark, you prayed for this opportunity and you know our family is supposed to be here. Now, buck up and learn that math!"
Sister Gilbert
Well, as you know, President Gilbert made it through "Math Camp," and he eventually made it through his graduate program and was given multiple offers to teach in his field. Through this challenging process we both learned that when you are on the Lord's errand, you need to forget your fears and trust in the Lord. In Proverbs we read, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."[4] Ironically, my husband's research and work in his doctoral program would prove foundational, not only to his future work for the Church, but also to his time in Boston. He took a position on the faculty right where he had trained and began teaching.
We grew to love New England falls, cheering on the Red Sox, serving in the Boston Stake, and being in a community where we could represent the Church. President Gilbert loved his job, and he loved teaching and being in a visible professional environment where he frequently played an ambassadorial role for our faith. Here is a picture of President Gilbert with one of his cohorts of MBA students. They are all dressed in white shirts with khaki pants in caricature of our family photos that hung in his office at work. President Gilbert loved teaching, and he loved working with and mentoring students in personal ways.
President Gilbert
And yet, we would soon learn that sometimes a call in one stage of life is preparation for another. Think of Lehi and his family who were called out of Jerusalem. They showed great faith in leaving their possessions to enter the wilderness. I have to believe that by the time they reached the land of Bountiful, they were quite comfortable and were not anxious to go anywhere else.
And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been in the land of Bountiful for the space of many days, the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying: Arise, and get thee into the mountain. And it came to pass that I arose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord.
And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters.[5] After nearly 10 years in Boston, it became clear that the Lord had another call for our family. We would be asked to leave the familiar and comfortable surroundings of Boston to gather with so many others who had done the same thing in coming to Rexburg to become part of this amazing institution at BYU-Idaho. This time it was not overcoming fear of failure or questions about personal preparation.
This time we had to leave behind something very different. The success of an early career led to the very risky temptation that our accomplishments had come from our own efforts and not from the Lord. Rising to the call meant recognizing that the Lord had placed experiences in our lives, not for our own glorification but in preparation for future service in the kingdom. We would be asked to give up a career studying innovation and the trappings of a visible professional life to once again leave the familiar in order to be blessed with something better. The ensuing three years on this campus changed our lives in ways we never could have imaged. We learned then, and we continue to realize, that when we rise to the calls the Lord presents to us, He blesses us in ways that are powerful and permanent.
Sister Gilbert
Let us review what we first shared about rising to the calls we receive in life. Whenever we are given a calling from the Lord, we must first look up and accept the call. Sometimes this means raising our gaze so we can see the great work the Lord has waiting for us. In looking up, we also must then let go of the things that would hold us back. For Matthew it was leaving his money, his career, and perhaps even some of his professional associations. For others it might be letting go of a nagging sin, personal pride, fear of failure, or any number of requisite sacrifices. Once we understand the call the Lord is extending and we are willing to leave behind those things that would hold us back, we must then seek for the enabling power that comes from the Lord to fulfill our callings. For President Gilbert, that power was manifest in the lives of the young men he served with in Boston. For me, it was the power to teach by the Spirit as a seminary teacher. Whatever your call, if it comes from the Lord, He will endow you with great power; but you must seek for that strength. Finally, when those gifts come, and they will come, it is critical that we recognize the source of that power and never claim it unto ourselves.
President Gilbert
In closing we would like to briefly share with you some of the context of our most recent call. Three months ago I had just landed on a flight enroute to speak to a gathering of media executives. When I turned on my phone, it rang almost immediately with a call from the Office of the First Presidency. I was told President Uchtdorf would like to meet with me and my wife in his office. Having just landed, I asked if I should turn around and fly right back to Salt Lake City. Instead, the meeting was schedule for three days later. That meant we had three days to reflect on what the call might be. We initially thought the assignment would be to serve as a mission president.
When we found out it was to return to BYU-Idaho, we were thrilled and overwhelmed all at once. While the visibility and expectations of this call are unique, we soon realized that the pattern of this assignment would be the same as so many other calls we had received throughout our lives. Like millions of others in this Church, ours was simply another call to "lift where [we] stand."[6] We would like to conclude our message with a challenge to all who are participating in this devotional. This semester, and in the coming years, you will receive calls from the Lord. He will ask you to be more than you are today—to look up and leave behind those things that would hold you back. One of those calls may come from your bishop this week. That call may be an assignment in your ward Relief Society, elders quorum, or home evening group. Other calls may come in more individual and personal ways. The Lord may extend them during a quiet moment in the temple, during a campus devotional, or while sitting in one of your classes. You may be called to invest more in your school work, to more fully live the Honor Code, to have the courage to interview for a leadership position on campus, to get married, or to simply reach out to a roommate and be a better friend. To look up and understand the impact of each of those calls, you may need to let go of an addiction, to change a pattern in your life, to overcome selfishness, or to confess a sin. You may need to let go of your own fears and insecurity and work harder with more hope in Christ.
I would like to share with you a Twitter post from my first day as the president of BYU-Idaho. The post reads: "First day @BYUID. I will rise to the call by listening, learning, and seeking the Spirit #RisetotheCall." Sister Gilbert and I invite each of you to share with others how you will rise up to the calls in your life. Rise up and accept the call the Lord has for you and seek for His power in magnifying your assignments. When you are on His errand, He will make you mighty in His hands.
Sister Gilbert
We would like to close with our testimonies of the gospel. Let me first say that I know that this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth. I know that the Atonement of the Savior is real. The Book of Mormon is true. We are led today by a living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. We love you, and we are so grateful for our call to serve together here at BYU-Idaho.
President Gilbert
Like Sister Gilbert, I, too, have a deep and unwavering testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I also know that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and he stands ready to help us repent and return to our Father. The Atonement of Jesus Christ changes lives and heals the broken heart. It allows us to change and be better than we are today. I also have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It is true; and when I read it, the Lord speaks to me in powerful ways. Joseph Smith was a prophet, and we are led by living prophets today. We love you. We are thrilled to serve you and pray for the Lord's power in this assignment. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] President Gordon B. Hinckley, "Ricks College to Become BYU-Idaho"
[2] Matthew 9:9
[3] Elder Russell M. Nelson, "The Lord Uses the Unlikely to Accomplish the Impossible," BYU-Idaho Devotional, 26 Jan 2015
[4] Proverbs 3:5
[5] 1 Nephi 17: 7, 8
[6] President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Life Where You Stand," Ensign, November 2008