Act in Faith, that ye may be Blessed, Spiritual Staying Power

Brothers and sisters, good morning.
We’ve been very well instructed by Sister Kush this morning. I would just add—I was on an airplane coming home from Houston, Texas, when that earthquake hit. I felt a little cheated that I didn’t get to live through that earthquake—until the aftershocks came. And then I was glad I was on an airplane.

As small children, we often dream about what life will be like for us as adults. We dream about what we might do for a career, even declaring, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a professional football player,” or, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a doctor,” or, “When I grow up, I’m going to have my own chain of restaurants,” or, “When I grow up, I’m going to start a school to help children living in poverty obtain an education.”

There might have been other dreams too, like where we would live or some exotic place we would travel to. I know for some, it was a dream to come to the United States and study at a Church institution of higher education.

Austin and Amelia were twins who were the first children to be welcomed into a loving family with high hopes and dreams for them. They were raised by their parents to be confident in their ability to become anything they set their minds to become.

Amelia loved setting goals. She was born with a discipline to finish what she started. She loved helping people, and in high school, she decided to pursue a nursing degree. This decision came after praying and getting a strong spiritual confirmation that this was what she should do. Amelia sent applications to seven universities with nursing programs during her senior year. By spring, she had been accepted to five of the seven.

Austin loved to fix things. He could fix a computer, a car, or a broken dishwasher. But his first love was music. He had mastered three instruments and played in school and community orchestras. He prayed about his future too, but he took no action to apply to any university because he was waiting for Heavenly Father to tell him exactly what he should do.

When all the deadlines had passed, Austin knew he would be taking a gap year. While Amelia prepared to begin her nursing studies, Austin stayed home, working for a local store that sold home appliances and writing sad songs about dreams that did not come true.

The parable of Austin and Amelia helps introduce four principles that I believe are essential for our understanding if we are to successfully navigate our journey through mortality and live lives pleasing to God. And as with each devotional I have, I hope that you have come prepared this morning to listen for and receive impressions of the Holy Ghost.

These principles are:

1. The principle of seeking with faith,
2. The principle of acting with faith,
3. The principle of following with faith, and
4. The principle of expecting with faith that our faith will be tested.

Seeking, acting, following, and expecting. Let’s call them the SAFE principles.

SEEKING WITH FAITH

Seeking with faith is founded on study and meaningful prayer.

There is no better example in this dispensation of seeking with faith than that of the Prophet Joseph Smith. You’ve read about his search to know the truth about religion. You’ve read about his confusion. You’ve read about his sincere efforts to know which of all the churches of his time would offer a path to salvation.In that seeking, he read in the first chapter of James:

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.” (James 1:5–6)

Joseph’s seeking led him to conclude that he must ask of God. He would have to act. And once he knew which church was true, he was determined to act upon what he would learn.

He said:“In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself, ‘What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right? Or are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?’

My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join” (Joseph Smith History 1:10, 18).

Now, my biography mentions that I joined the BYU–Idaho business management faculty in August of 2002, after working for many years in the high-technology industry in Silicon Valley, California. Those are historical facts—but they don’t tell the story of how we arrived in Rexburg, now nearly 23 years ago.

Our youngest daughter attended Ricks College, graduating with an associate degree in the spring of 1998. She initially did not plan to walk in the graduation ceremonies, but that January she had the impression that she should—which turned out to be a very inspired decision.But that’s not where our Rexburg story began.

It was 2002 when we left San Jose, California, on a pristine summer morning for a place that would become our home for nearly 11 years. For me, the 10 years preceding our move were years of seeking.I had a good job with a leading computer peripherals company, but I felt the Lord had something else for me to do. I can only describe it as spiritual restlessness.

I was born and raised in a suburb of Los Angeles, where Alinda and I lived for five years after we got married, until we moved to San Jose, where we raised our family. We loved Northern California. We had cherished and sacred experiences there. We thought we’d never leave—but the Lord had other plans.

The spiritual restlessness I described was accompanied by a desire to live in a smaller town, in a rural setting, closer to mountains, lakes, and rivers. Now, there were smaller towns not far from us in San Jose, but we did not feel that moving to one of them was the right thing to do.So, the seeking continued.

In late April 1998, my seeking was answered with a strong impression as we sat in the Hart Auditorium on what was then the Ricks College campus. The impression, accompanied by a strong desire, was that I needed to prepare myself to teach at Ricks College.It was now up to me to act.

ACTING WITH FAITH
Following our daughter’s graduation and our return home to California, I spoke with a Ricks College faculty member, asking about the college’s hiring process. He responded, “At the end of the day, if it’s meant to be, it will happen.”In 1998, I did not have a master’s degree, but I knew I would need one to even qualify for consideration. So I thought, I will do everything in my power to qualify, and then we’ll see if it’s meant to be.I would also add that I thought 2005 would be an ideal year to transition to teaching, and I kept that date in mind.

In the fall of 1998, I enrolled in a part-time MBA program. At the time, I was serving in a stake presidency. I had a demanding job, and I was traveling about 30% of the time. There were moments when I wanted to give up. But I never lost sight of my goal and the powerful spiritual impressions that had come.When my classmates asked me why I was getting an advanced degree at a rather advanced stage of my career—and at a rather advanced age—my response was:“There’s a little college in southeastern Idaho where I want to teach someday, and I’m going to need a master’s degree if that is ever to happen.”

FOLLOWING WITH FAITH

Scriptural accounts inspire us when we find ourselves in similar circumstances. Instruction directly from the Savior to Joseph Smith made it very clear that there was no church on the earth in 1820 that was His approved and authorized Church. Joseph also received instruction that’s not recorded in scripture, but he followed the counsel and the commands that he received.

Nephi and his brothers had been given a task by their father, Lehi, to retrieve the brass plates from Laban. Laman’s first attempt was unsuccessful. When Nephi and his brothers made the second attempt, they had to escape for their lives and hide in a cave in the wilderness for safety.

But Nephi was bound and determined to follow his father’s command with great faith. So he returned a third time, led by the Spirit, but not knowing beforehand what he should do.
We all know how that story ends—good news for Nephi and his brothers.Not so much for Laban.

So now let’s return to December of 2001. I was in my final MBA course, which was the program capstone, and I would be finished by late January of 2002. We had a subscription to the Church News and received a physical copy each week. I came home from work one day, and the Church News had come in the mail. On the back page, faculty openings at all the Church universities were published.I casually flipped through the pages until I got to the back page and saw that BYU–Idaho was hiring more than 30 new faculty members. Two of them would be in the business management department. I looked at the job descriptions on the website, and one of the positions described my background in every way. It seemed as if it had been written with me in mind.

I stared at the job description, and these words came powerfully into my mind and into my heart:“Bruce, this is your window of opportunity. It is opening for you now. You can choose to proceed or not—it’s your choice. But understand that if you don’t act now, the blessing will be someone else’s, and the window of opportunity will never again open for you.”

This impression was as strong as the one I received in the Hart Auditorium in 1998. But now it’s 2002, not 2005.Would I follow the promptings?With the Church News and the job description in hand, I walked into the kitchen where Alinda was fixing dinner. I showed them both to her and said, “What do you think?” And she replied, “Well, one thing you know for sure—if you don’t apply, they are not going to come knocking on your door.” Truer words were never spoken.

And so I applied.A call came on a Wednesday afternoon in March of 2002 inviting me to go to Rexburg for an interview, and I was thrilled. Two days later, on Friday, I received a letter from BYU–Idaho and assumed it provided the details of my trip and the interview schedule.It was instead a rejection letter.It said:“Dear Mr. Kush, thank you for your interest in a faculty position at BYU–Idaho. Unfortunately, we are not able to consider you for a position. As you can imagine, there are many interested and qualified candidates. We wish you well.”It was a very long weekend with a lot of worry—until I discovered on Monday that the rejection letter had been sent to me in error.Months later, I learned of a very miraculous intervention that involved the faculty member I had become acquainted with in 1998.

On March 17, 2002, I flew from San Jose, California, to Salt Lake City and on to Idaho Falls. It was raining in San Jose on the morning that I left. While waiting for the shuttle to take me to the terminal, a car drove through a very large puddle of water and drenched me and my suit from head to toe in muddy water.I did not have another suit to wear, and I worried what people would think of me and my mud-stained suit. I was scheduled to spend the entire next day on the BYU–Idaho campus.

When I put my suit on that Monday morning, there was no evidence of the muddy water that had soaked me the day before. My suit was perfect. I bowed my head and said a silent prayer of gratitude for a miracle.I had seven interviews that day. I taught a class of more than 100 business management students. My teaching demonstration was observed by the entire department, the dean, and the associate dean of the college. I was not expecting that.My final interview was with President David A. Bednar, then the president of BYU–Idaho.On Friday morning of the April 2002 general conference weekend, I received a phone call from the dean of the College of Business and Communication, who offered me a faculty position in the business management department. We knew then it was meant to be.

I would also add that the dean who called to offer me the job was the one who signed the rejection letter.

I should also add that when I saw the Church News notice in December of 2001 about the positions at BYU–Idaho, had I said, “Well, this is really nice, but it’s not 2005,” the window of opportunity for me would never have opened again. That became very clear in the years after our arrival in Rexburg.Often the Lord’s timing is different than ours.And remember the description of San Jose on the day that we drove out of town? Well, as beautiful as that day was, it did not compare with the stunning sunsets we came to love in Rexburg, Idaho.
In fact, from our home in San Jose, we could never see the sunsets because the view was blocked by a local mountain range and fog that rolled in each day from the Pacific Ocean.Now, there’s a lesson there if you stop to think about it.

EXPECTING WITH FAITH THAT OUR FAITH WILL BE TESTED

The Prophet Joseph’s faith was tested time and time again. It began in the Sacred Grove. It continued as respected religious leaders mocked and scorned him. Trials of his faith—and the faith of his wife, Emma—were constant. His ordeal in Liberty Jail alone and what he endured there cannot be adequately described.

Latter-day Saint pioneers endured trials in many ways.

The scriptures are filled with examples of faithful believers who endured tests and trials of their faith. Some of the greatest lessons we learn from the scriptures relate to trials faced, faith exercised, and God’s deliverance.

No one endured more than the Savior. None of us could fully comprehend the depth of His suffering, His agony in the garden, and His infinite and eternal testing and sacrifice. He gave everything He could have possibly given.

We have to know, brothers and sisters, that our faith will be tested. Lehi taught that “it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.” (2 Nephi 2:11)I am confident that many here this morning could share tender personal experiences of your own very personal trials and testing.

From time to time, tests that are not necessarily trials come our way. In those moments, I think the Lord is asking a question—something like this:“Brother Kush, just checking in to see if you’re still on My side. I want to know if you’re still all in—or not.”

Some of you have heard of our experience early in our marriage when I was called to serve as the bishop of our ward at a relatively young age. We had sold our home and had purchased one that was being built 60 miles away. We had a choice to make. We chose to stay and serve and have never regretted that decision.

While serving in Mexico, with a year left in our mission, a rainstorm settled over our home in Rexburg and flooded our basement with nearly 300,000 gallons of water. We had stored almost everything we owned in our basement—which was all lost to flood damage.Now, I don’t know if this was a test of our faith or a trial of our faith—or it just happened. But this is what I know:before we left on our mission, if the Lord would have said, “Brother and Sister Kush, you have a choice to make. If you go on a mission, there’s going to be a flood in your home and you will lose just about everything you own. Or, you can forego the mission and there’ll be no flood. Your choice.”Like many, when we left for full-time missionary service, we went with hearts committed to serve the Lord for three years. We would not trade the sacred experiences we had with nearly 600 faithful missionaries and their precious converts for a house spared by a flood.

So, seek with faith, with confidence and trust in God. In your seeking, what impressions have come? And if they have not come quite yet, keep seeking. Answers will come. God may answer your seeking differently than you thought or ever desired, but please don’t ever forget that He knows best.Remember that personal revelation is meant to be just that—personal. You are your own agent. Of course, you should seek counsel, but ultimately personal decisions are yours to make.

President Nelson taught:“One of the things the Spirit has repeatedly impressed upon my mind… is how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will.The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children.

Through the manifestations of the Holy Ghost, the Lord will assist us in all our righteous pursuits… there is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know.” (RMN, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for our Lives,” April 2018 General Conference).

Act with faith. Don’t wait for God to reveal His entire plan for you—because He won’t do that. But as you act, you will come to know line upon line and precept upon precept.

The Prophet Joseph taught that faith is the first principle in revealed religion and the foundation of all righteousness—and that it is also the principle of action in all intelligent beings. He further explained that “faith is not only the principle of action but of power in all intelligent beings, whether in heaven or on earth” (Lectures on Faith, 3).So, faith in Christ leads to righteous action, which increases our spiritual capacity and power.

Follow with faith. You will never, ever regret following God’s commandments or the counsel of His living prophets. When impressions come, follow them with exactness and urgency.

Expect with faith that there will be tests of your faith. As you endure with faith and show the Lord that you are firmly planted on His side, blessings you can hardly imagine will come.

I testify, brothers and sisters, that these are true principles. I know that trusting God, the Savior, and those we sustain as prophets, seers, and revelators is safe. And we will be blessed beyond measure as we do so.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.