Today I’d like to take us back in time 18 years, to the late summer of 2001. It was one year after President Gordon B. Hinckley’s bold, unexpected announcement that Ricks College, a two-year school offering only associate degrees, would become BYU-Idaho. After a year of furious activity on this campus, undertaken at the direction of President David A. Bednar, President Hinckley sent Church Commissioner of Education Henry B. Eyring to Rexburg. His assignment was to expand on the mere twenty sentences that President Hinckley had spoken in announcing the creation of BYU-Idaho.
The surprising decisions President Hinckley had announced the year before included a change in the college’s status and name, year-round operation, and the elimination of intercollegiate athletics. President Hinckley also declared that this institution would grant no graduate degrees and would remain teaching-focused.
Of course, the intercollegiate athletic coaches were understandably devastated, notwithstanding the offers they received to stay on in teaching positions. But the other members of the faculty were ecstatic. Under the direction of President Bednar and his academic vice president, Max Checketts, faculty members immediately went to work creating bachelor’s degrees and implementing a year-round academic calendar.
This work was accomplished so quickly and effectively that many Ricks College students stayed to earn a bachelor’s degree from BYU-Idaho. In addition to good upper-division courses, these students also enjoyed expanded activity programs and support in obtaining internships and full-time employment at graduation.
Commissioner Eyring’s Speaking Assignment
Commissioner Eyring, who was also an Apostle at the time, spent much of the summer of 2001 writing and rewriting the talk President Hinckley had assigned him to give. By early September, he had the Prophet’s approval of his text.
But then the unthinkable happened. On Tuesday, September 11, terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Nearly 3,000 people were killed, and more than 6,000 were injured.
Like so many others, I will never forget where I was when the awful news came. I lived in Utah at the time and was driving to Church headquarters for a meeting with the seven members of the Presidency of the Seventy. Upon entering their conference room in the Church Administration Building, I felt great gratitude for the peace that prevailed there, notwithstanding our limited knowledge of what was going on in New York and Washington. I will never forget the comfort of Elder Christofferson’s prayer to begin our meeting, which was blessed by the Spirit even in that hour of terrible uncertainty.
Upon returning home, I learned more about the devastation in New York, Washington, and a field in Pennsylvania, as well as the cessation of all air traffic in the United States. My first thought was to call my father. By coincidence, we were both scheduled to give talks to college students the next Tuesday. I expected him to confirm my feeling that we should both cancel our addresses. My talk, on the subject of succeeding in college, seemed trivial and inappropriate under the tragic circumstances of 9/11.
But my father’s reaction was entirely different. He felt that the remarks he had prepared at President Hinckley’s direction would be perfectly appropriate at BYU-Idaho, perhaps even providentially so.
In hindsight, Commissioner Eyring couldn’t have been more right. But, to his credit, he made things work out, in several ways. First, he recognized the connection between the sweeping changes occurring at BYU-Idaho and the great uncertainty that hung over the world in consequence of the apocalyptic terrorist attacks, which seemed repeatable and even unpreventable. He optimistically decided to make the theme of change central to the address that had been in the works for months.
Though there wasn’t time to get President Hinckley’s approval of a new draft, Commissioner Eyring significantly expanded his emphasis on responding productively to change. You can hear that emphasis in this clip from his talk:
Now the other thing I was impressed with is that you were asked to raise your scriptures. I felt as you did that to make a promise to you that I know will be fulfilled because it has been fulfilled for me in the last few days. 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 them 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 that you lifted above your head 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.
In fact, the talk “A Steady, Upward Course” uses some form of the word “change” 44 times. Ironically, not all of those references to change were planned. As if it were a dose of his own medicine, Commissioner Eyring started his talk with a change in his expectations. In those days, teleprompters were still rare. But, in an effort to be on the cutting edge of technology, BYU-Idaho audio/visual specialists Jim Croasmun, Arlen Wilcock, and Alan Young had rigged up a system using laptop computers and cables, the first-ever use of a teleprompter on this campus.
Jim, Arlen, and Alan knew that their prototype system might not work perfectly. But they had spent many days rigging and testing it. And, in the hour leading up to the devotional address, it was working well.
You can guess what happened. Minutes before the talk was to begin, the teleprompter screens went blank. Jim, Arlen, and Alan’s professional lives flashed before their eyes. Yet Commissioner Eyring didn’t miss a beat. In fact, he seemed to feel liberated by the blank teleprompter screens. While waiting for the teleprompter to come back on, he ad-libbed this story about former Stanford business school Dean Robert Jaedicke:
Just a month or so ago, I was on assignment and I was in an airport in San Francisco, waiting between planes. I saw a man that I thought I recognized, and I realized that he probably was having trouble recognizing me, too. It had been a number of years. He was the dean of the graduate school at Stanford University when I left that faculty to come here to become the president many, many years ago. I remember being surprised that he came to my inauguration, knowing how busy he was. I recall that somehow in the moments of the inaugural party, moving about, I saw him. I encountered him that day, and he was crying. He expressed gratitude for having been here.
When I met him in the lounge in San Francisco recently, his first words were: “I’ve retired now. I’m living in Montana.” Then he wanted to tell me about a bishop of the Church that he had met. So of all the things that he would remember about me, he remembered the feelings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that he’d felt. He has not joined the Church yet, but he felt something here that you’ve felt. And I wanted you to know that as much as we thank the singers and those who prepared the music, what happened here today has been happening here for generations. That is, the Spirit of the Lord comes and touches people; and you’ve been in such a place and in such a moment today. You will years later, just like the dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, remember that there was a spirit here today. [1]
President Eyring’s teleprompter never came back on—until a few minutes after he finished speaking. To this day, Brothers Croasmun, Wilcock, and Young can’t explain why. Yet, in hindsight, it was meant to be. President Eyring ended up speaking—mostly off the cuff—for nearly an hour. And the things he said, in the spirit of prophecy, have proven invaluable to generations of BYU-Idaho students and employees.
My talk today isn’t designed to replace President Eyring’s remarkable, once-in-a-lifetime sermon about BYU-Idaho. But I want you to know about it. When devotional ends, I hope that you’ll read “A Steady, Upward Course” in its entirety. Those of you in the BYU-Idaho Center today can pick up a paper copy as you leave. And we’ll send all BYU-Idaho students and alumni an electronic link to the talk.
Before adding my personal testimony to the spiritual and intellectual power of this foundational talk, let me suggest that you look for nine important themes in it. Five of the themes can be thought of as efforts we need to make in order to qualify for the promises made in “A Steady, Upward Course.” The other four themes are effects that flow from those efforts. Here they are, divided into the two categories:
The five types of effort required to qualify for the effects promised by President Eyring are these:
Efforts
- Centering on the Saviorand His commandments
- Focusing on the unchangeable
- Prayingfor the guidance of the Holy Ghost
- Teaching and nurturing
- Treatingeverything as the Lord’s
The four effects promised to flow from our efforts are these:
Effects
- Frugal innovation
- Influencing others for good
- Legendary leadership
- A steady, upward course to exaltation
Rather than quoting passages from “A Steady, Upward Course” that address these five efforts and four effects, or rewards for our efforts, I’ll share brief clips of President Eyring’s statements. Here are the efforts:
Efforts
- Centering on the Savior and His commandments
[T]he students—you and those who follow you—must play a major part. It is their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His restored gospel and their obedience to His commandments that will put Him at the center of the school. Their faith will largely determine whether we learn here by study and also by faith. As we do, we will attain academic excellence. We will not attain academic excellence without that faith of yours as students and those that follow to learn by study and by faith. . . . The students will learn from example how to keep on a steady, upward course in times of great change. They will see leaders and teachers and staff members for whom the Savior and His kingdom are at the center of their lives. [2]
- Focusing on the unchangeable Each of us can follow the example we have seen here. We can follow a steady, upward course in a world of change without fear, welcoming the opportunities. The way is a simple one, clearly marked. It is to keep our eyes and hearts fixed on that which is unchangeable. We must have an eye of faith fixed on eternal life. That life, the greatest of all the gifts of God, is to live in glory forever in families in the presence of our loving Heavenly Father. It takes a focused eye. Listen to Alma, chapter 5, verse 15:
“Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal [life]?” [3]
- Praying for the guidance of the Holy Ghost A number of you in this room, I know, have been praying. I have felt that. One of the joys of coming to Ricks College has always been for me to know that I would go into a room where people of faith would be praying that the Holy Ghost would be poured out. Every time I come, I always have a confirmation that that’s happened again. One of the reasons that we can prophesy about the academic excellence that will be here is [that] you will do that same thing in classes. And those that follow you will do it in classes. You will do it in the evenings. You’ll pray for the blessings of heaven to come down upon your teachers. You’ll pray that you’ll be taught by the Holy Spirit. The prayer that I’ve felt in this room is one of the things that has made this institution worthy of the trust that has been given it by the prophet of God. I want you to know that . . . I know that about you. [4]
- Teaching and nurturing
President Hinckley, in the press conference after his announcement, said, “It will be just as good a teaching institution as we can make it.” That will happen because the Savior is and will be the great exemplar. He was a teacher. His work and glory was to lift others. He taught His disciples not to set themselves as being better than others, but to be the servants of all. [5]
- Treating everything as the Lord’s
The expectation is clearly that inspired and frugal people will find ways to bless more students at ever lower cost per student. That has been true [at some times] in the past. It will be true in the future, whatever the turbulent times ahead will bring.
There will be a practical benefit, in turbulent times, from that frugality borne of faith. There will come times when the Lord’s prophet will ask us to do more with less. Knowing that will come, we must and will find ways to improve and to innovate that require little or no money. We will depend more upon inspiration and perspiration to make improvements than upon buildings and equipment. Then hard economic times will have little effect on the continuous innovation that will not cease at this school, even in the most difficult times. [6]
These five types of effort on your part will produce remarkable outcomes. President Eyring has testified that you can qualify to achieve the following four effects:
Effects
- Frugal innovation
It is your frugality and their frugality, their willingness to make do with a little less, that will set a tone for the campus. Their sacrifice, your sacrifice, will bring down the blessings of heaven as it always has. . . . I hope I live long enough to someday meet some employer who employed one of you and says, “Where did that come from? I’ve never had such a person. Why people just flock around that person. And they want to follow. They don't have to be led; they’re seeking to go where that person wants to go. And they come up with new ideas. I don’t know where that comes from. They seem to find a better way, and the budget doesn’t go up. I can’t understand it.” And I’ll smile and say, “Well, come with me to Rexburg.” And I may not be able to show it to you, and I may not be able to prove it to you, but you’ll feel it. There will be a spirit here, I so testify, because of the love of God for all of His faithful children. And those blessings will be poured out here in rich abundance. [7]
- Influencing others for good
I’ll make you a prophecy. I will simply tell you: The day will come that that capacity to influence people around you for good will have you singled out as one of the great leaders in whatever place you’re in. They will not quite know why, but you will know that the reason you are being singled out is not because of your innate gifts as a leader but because you have done what the Savior would do—learned how to, and did, reach out to those around you to try to lift them, to help them to be better even when it might be a little bit difficult and you might not have been received very well. [8]
- Legendary leadership
The graduates . . . will be natural leaders who know how to teach and how to learn. They will have the power to innovate and improve without requiring more of what money can buy. Those graduates of BYU-Idaho will become—and this is a prophecy that I am prepared to make and make solemnly—those graduates of BYU-Idaho will become legendary for their capacity to build the people around them and to add value wherever they serve. [9]
- A steady, upward course to exaltation
The students will learn from example how to keep on a steady, upward course in times of great change. They will see leaders and teachers and staff members for whom the Savior and His kingdom are at the center of their lives. From that example, I make a prophecy. Now listen carefully.
From that example they—you—will become life-long teachers in their families, in the Church, and in their work, and they will bless others wherever they go by what they have learned about innovating with scarce resources and treating all they have as if it were the Lord’s.
You can imagine the joy of an employer or a Church leader when such a graduate arrives. The graduates will be at personal peace by having kept the commandments. [10]
I hope that you’ve enjoyed getting to know President Eyring and his powerful talk “A Steady, Upward Course.” It can apply to you and me as much as it did to the fortunate BYU-Idaho students and employees who saw and heard it in person. You have the promise of becoming a natural, legendary leader who influences others for good and gets things done inexpensively yet effectively.
The keys to this success include centering our lives on the Savior and His commandments, focusing on the unchangeable, praying for the guidance of the Holy Ghost, nurturing others, and treating everything as the Lord’s. I see you doing these things, and I look forward to a lifetime of watching you rise on your steady, upward course.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
[1] Henry B. Eyring, “A Steady, Upward Course,” BYU-Idaho devotional, Sept. 18, 2001.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.