My brothers and sisters, it is a happy and memorable occasion to gather with you on this beautiful campus. I am grateful for the light you radiate and for the Spirit you have brought as we meet today in the BYU-Idaho Center.
Today, President Russell M. Nelson, who serves as chairman of the BYU-Idaho Board of Trustees, has directed that I represent him in conducting a matter of Board business. In doing so, I am pleased to be accompanied by Elder Clark G. Gilbert, Commissioner of the Church Educational System, and his wife, Christine, as well as R. Kelly Haws, secretary to the Board of Trustees, and his wife, Connie.
By way of introduction, I would like to cite a biblical story that bears on what I will announce to you today. This account of the prophets Elijah and Elisha from 2 Kings, the second chapter, was used by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland last March in a devotional at BYU in Provo. Elijah is concluding his service, and Elisha is to be his successor. As the two journey together, they come to the Jordan River:
And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground. . . .
And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.1
At this point in our story, Elisha picks up the mantle—literally and figuratively—and the chapter records:
He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of the Jordan;
And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, . . . and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.”2
From there, Elisha goes on to his own powerful ministry.
In this spirit of succession in the ministry, President Nelson has asked me to announce the conclusion of President Henry J. Eyring’s remarkable service as president of Brigham Young University-Idaho. President Eyring has served in leadership at BYU-Idaho for the past 17 years, including the last six as president. Together President and Sister Eyring have inspired, taught, and provided an exemplary model for each of you and this entire community. President Eyring has lifted those around him with his leadership, deep commitment to you students, and ongoing efforts to preserve and strengthen the culture and spirit of this great university.
During his tenure, President Eyring has interviewed over 500 faculty candidates, including many who are here in this auditorium today. President Eyring has also streamlined and simplified the BYU-Idaho curriculum structure. He strengthened partnerships with BYU-Pathway Worldwide and Ensign College to provide online education to tens of thousands of students across the world. President Eyring also guided the campus through the complexities and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is noteworthy that he did all of this by involving others, a hallmark of President Eyring’s inclusive pattern of leadership. He has also served concurrently as an Area Seventy since 2019.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I express deep gratitude and love to President Henry J. and Sister Kelly Eyring for their exceptional service. Can we please pause to applaud the Eyrings’ service?
We also announce today the appointment of Elder Alvin F. Meredith III as the 18th president of BYU-Idaho. Elder Meredith was sustained as a General Authority Seventy on April 3, 2021, and he will continue to serve in that role while he is president of BYU-Idaho. He holds a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. While he grew up in a small town in Tennessee, Elder Meredith has lived around the world, including in Hong Kong and Singapore, where he served as a senior executive of a global technology firm.
Elder Meredith has extensive experience working with young adults, which was highlighted by his service as president of the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission. He has also served on the CES faculty interview committee. He is an effective teacher and leader of organizations. He and his wife, Jennifer, are the parents of six children, three of whom will be joining them during their time at BYU-Idaho.
I have known Elder and Sister Meredith for many years. (I call them Trip and Jenn, but you had better not refer to them that way—that is the privilege of age and seniority only.) Specifically, I have known Elder Meredith since he was a teenager, and my admiration for him only grows as time passes. At this time, I would invite President-Designate Meredith and Jennifer to join us on the stand. You are going to love them.
We will have the opportunity at the upcoming July commencement to further recognize the accomplishments of President Eyring during his outstanding tenure—assuming that, unlike Elijah, he is not translated in the meantime. In the coming months, President Eyring will be returning to BYU’s Marriott School of Business, where he previously served as director of the MBA program. He has been asked to assist with the development of a Christ-centered leadership curriculum and to teach both graduate and undergraduate students.
Likewise, we will say more about President Meredith’s singular skills and preparation for this new post in an inaugural ceremony yet to be scheduled. I should note that President Eyring will continue to serve until August 1, at which time President Meredith will begin his service.
We would like now to hear first from Sister Kelly Eyring and then President Henry J. Eyring. He will be followed by Sister Jennifer Meredith and then by President Alvin F. Meredith III. Following President Meredith, I will conclude with some remarks.
The hymn and benediction at the conclusion of my remarks, will close this devotional.
[Sister Eyring and President Eyring]
[Sister Meredith and Elder Meredith]
With our theme of succession today, I would like to call to your minds another biblical account that has significant meaning for each of us. You are all familiar with the story of Moses and Joshua. At the conclusion of his unique and incomparable ministry, Moses laid his hands on Joshua and ordained, or set him apart, as the leader of Israel. Later, Jehovah reassured Joshua in these words:
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. . . .
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersover thou goest. . . .
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.3
We can all take courage and strength from these assurances for they apply not only to Joshua, but to all of us. Like Joshua, we are also the beneficiaries of God’s commandments, and if we do not turn from them to the right or to the left, He will prosper our way. As God was with Moses and with Joshua, He will be with us. We have the promise of God’s Holy Spirit always to be with us repeated and renewed almost every week of our lives as we partake of the sacrament.
We are successors of Moses and Joshua because we have entered into the same covenant with God and have received, in turn, His covenantal promises to us. As heirs of the Abrahamic covenant, Joshua and the tribes of Israel were promised priesthood, posterity, and property. As latter-day Israel, we are likewise heirs of those promises.
As President Russell M. Nelson has observed: “Once you and I have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him becomes much closer than before our covenant. Now we are bound together. Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us. Each of us has a special place in God’s heart. He has high hopes for us.”4
We can indeed “be strong and of a good courage,”5 even “very courageous.”6 The Lord will “not fail . . . nor forsake” us.7 Through the Savior’s Atonement and infinite grace, the covenant promises of the Father will all be fulfilled.8
These are noble concepts; what’s more, they are realities. What does it all mean for us in our lives day to day?
For Henry J. Eyring and Kelly C. Eyring, it means they can close this chapter of their lives with a sense of peace and satisfaction, having experienced once again the Lord being with them, together and individually. They recognize that as they have been “strong and of a good courage,” they have been enabled to succeed admirably here just as they have succeeded in the very significant challenges and opportunities of the past. They can look forward to the future, secure and certain that these same covenant promises upon which they have long relied will again be honored.
For Alvin F. Meredith and Jennifer E. Meredith, together with their young family, they can also look forward with “good courage” to this new chapter in their lives, knowing that hard work, success, and joy await. Elder Meredith—President Meredith—knows from his experience over the years of seeing covenant promises fulfilled that, like Joshua, the Lord will not fail nor forsake him. His and Sister Meredith’s love for you is already great, simply in anticipation.
Each of you is living your own “new chapter.” Other chapters and challenges await in the future. What does it mean to you day by day to be bound in covenant with the Father and the Son? It means, just as President Nelson declared, “Because of [your] covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help [you], and [you] will never exhaust His merciful patience with [you].”9
This covenant relationship is what the Savior had in mind when He said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”10 Commenting on these verses, President Nelson observed,
While the world insists that power, possessions, popularity, and pleasures of the flesh bring happiness, they do not! They cannot! What they do produce is nothing but a hollow substitute for “the blessed and happy state of those [who] keep the commandments of God” (Mosiah 2:41).
The truth is that it is much more exhausting to seek happiness where you can never find it! However, when you yoke yourself to Jesus Christ and do the spiritual work required to overcome the world, He, and He alone, does have the power to lift you above the pull of this world.
Now, how does overcoming the world bless our lives? The answer is clear: entering into a covenant relationship with God binds us to Him in a way that makes everything about life easier. Please do not misunderstand me: I did not say that making covenants makes life easy. In fact, expect opposition, because the adversary does not want you to discover the power of Jesus Christ. But yoking yourself with the Savior means you have access to His strength and redeeming power.11
Yoked with Christ, you can face each day, and all that is expected of you in that day, with “good courage.” Is it a class? Is it a test? Is it a project or a paper? Is it a conflict? Is it a goal? “Pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.”12
In preparing these remarks, I typed the words of the Lord to Joshua as found in the King James Version of the Bible, and my computer’s grammar correct function tried to “fix” a particular phrase. Jehovah, in reassuring Joshua that He would ever be with and strengthen him, asks this question, “Have not I commanded thee?”13 My computer wanted to “correct” “Have not I” to “Have I not.” You may think that this is a distinction without a difference, but I still prefer the way my Bible puts it. When my computer speaks, the emphasis is on “commanded”—“Have I not commanded thee?” When the Bible speaks, the focus is on the fact that it is Jehovah, the Lord, who is issuing the command (or better said, the calling). Jehovah is emphasizing to Joshua that his calling came from above—“Is it not true that I, Jehovah, have put you where you are? It’s not your good idea or somebody else’s good idea. I, Jehovah, have done this; it is my idea; therefore, you can count on me to help you and see you through.”
Whose idea was it that you would come to this fallen world, gain a physical body, and have a mortal experience? Whose idea was it that you would be born where you were born and now, in this dispensation? You did not come up with this plan and you did not put in place the things necessary to make the plan work.
God says to each of us, “I planned, I created, I commanded, I called you for this time and this place.” Yes, you had to agree. You had to be on board. God would not, could not, and did not force any of this upon you. But you did agree, and now you are here because of God’s command or call to you. Isn’t the Lord saying to you as he said to Joshua, “You and your life are part of my divine plan, therefore, I will be with you ‘withersoever thou goest,’14 including BYU-Idaho.” P.S. “Only be thou strong and very courageous.”15
Sensing the love of God for you, I rejoice this day in the fact that, for some period of time, you have enjoyed, directly and indirectly, the influence of President Henry J. Eyring and Sister Kelly Eyring. I rejoice that in the months and years ahead, you will be blessed by the leadership and influence of President Alvin F. Meredith and Sister Jennifer Meredith. Above all, I rejoice in your growing covenant relationship with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know that They are living, glorious beings; I know that with His Atonement, all power has been given to Jesus Christ in heaven and in earth.16 You are bound to Him, and as you strive to keep His commandments and your commitments, you can go through life with both strength and courage, and you will have rest for your soul. This is my witness and my prayer for you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Notes
- 2 Kings 2:8, 11.
- 2 Kings 2:13–14.
- Joshua 1:5, 7, 9.
- Russell M. Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” Liahona, Oct. 2022, 6, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/10/04-the-everlasting-covenant; emphasis added.
- Joshua 1:9.
- Joshua 1:7.
- See Joshua 1:5.
- See Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” 7.
- Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” 6.
- Matthew 11:29–30.
- Russell M. Nelson, “Overcome the World and Find Rest, Liahona, Nov. 2022, 97, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/11/47nelson.
- 2 Nephi 32:9.
- Joshua 1:9.
- See Joshua 1:9.
- Joshua 1:7.
- See Matthew 28:18.