University of Utah president: Discover ‘spiritual grit’ with courage, patience and gratitude

Anyone seeking the sort of “spiritual grit” essential to navigating life’s challenges can start by seeking a trio of critical virtues: Courage. Patience. Gratitude.

That was the matter-of-fact counsel shared Tuesday by University of Utah President Taylor Randall at a devotional for Ensign College students and the Ensign College campus community.

College leaders noted that Randall was taking time from a “very busy, demanding schedule” to deliver Tuesday’s devotional message.

That’s a bit of an understatement.

In recent weeks, Randall has been absorbing calls from the Utah Legislature to reallocate state funding at his school — even while monitoring movements out of Washington, D.C., that could, again, dramatically alter federal financial support for medical research.

But on Tuesday, the University of Utah’s 17th president addressed his Ensign College devotional audience as, primarily, a Latter-day Saint.

“If you don’t mind today, I’d rather speak to you as ‘Brother Randall’, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” he said. “I am very proud of my membership in this church. It has sustained me. The gospel principles mean so much to me in my life. They mean so much to my family.

“I lean on them more and more with every passing day of my life.”

Grit: Blending passion and perseverance

Randall introduced the concept of “spiritual grit” by sharing his own experience as a young, married man attending graduate school in Philadelphia.

He was called to serve in the young men’s organization of his Latter-day Saint ward, working with teenage boys growing up ‘in a very rugged environment.” Their community was plagued by drugs, gun violence and fractured homes and families.

There was little hope of rising from such circumstances — without exercising plenty of grit.

“The odds,” said Randall, “were stacked against these young men.”

But many discovered grit — in its many forms — that motivated them to persevere and thrive as they became adults and start their own healthy families.

“Their stories inspire me,” he said. “They are true stories of grit.”

Researchers, noted Randall, define “grit” as blending passion and perseverance to overcome obstacles in order to accomplish a long-term goal.

Grit is needed for secular success. But it’s also essential in one’s spiritual life.

The magnitude of the physical and socioeconomic challenges that once faced Randall’s young friends in Philadelphia was great.

But it is analogous to the spiritual challenges facing Ensign College students and other young people at this moment, he said.

Young Latter-day Saints, he added, are asking tough questions — ranging in personal to social to doctrinal:

• “How do I know who to marry?”
• “How do I know what career to choose?”
• “How do I deal with difficult family members or friends?”
• “Why don’t women hold the priesthood?”
• “Why in the early history of the church were not all worthy allowed to hold the priesthood?
• “Why does the church feel the way it does about same sex attraction?”
• “What do I do when my personal revelation conflicts with that of others, and, in particular, with the political beliefs of our day.”

For many, these are questions without ready answers.

Randall taught that finding clarity on these questions requires spiritual grit to strengthen one’s faith until answers come. He defined “spiritual grit” as “exercising passionate and persevering faith to overcome obstacles in order to accomplish eternal goals.”

Spiritual grit, he added, is often the faith-enhancing sum of several “critical virtues” including courage, patience and gratitude.

Courage at crucial moments, said Randall, “activates our faith to make life-changing decisions or to tackle difficult questions.”

Patience, meanwhile, “supports our courage as our actions often lead us down certain paths and require us to wait on the Lord to make his will known.

And gratitude, he concluded, “changes and elevates our perspective so that we can see the Lord’s will and his hand in guiding our lives.”

Draw upon courage

Joseph Smith demonstrated courage, said Randall, when he kneeled “in humble prayer” and demonstrated his willingness to “receive an unfettered answer to his question of which church was true.”

Smith again relied upon courage when he endured public ridicule for his acknowledgment of the First Vision and completed his task of translating the Book of Mormon after losing 116 pages of the sacred script.

Randall implored his devotional audience Tuesday to discover courage in their own lives while seeking answers to difficult questions.

“To me, the exercise of courage is required at every critical decision point in life.”

Exercise — and then re-exercise patience

Randall labeled grit’s next critical virtue — patience — the “sustaining virtue.”

The Psalmist wrote: “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.”

Patience remains an integral element of Randall’s ongoing faith journey.

As a teen, he prayed many nights “simply to know if God existed.”

And then while serving a full-time mission in Spain, he studied for “long months” before, one day, “bearing testimony of the divinity of Christ — and finally knowing, at that moment, that he was my Savior.”

The gifts of understanding and answers, for Randall, " have often required an extended period of waiting and patience.”

Many of history’s most prominent Latter-day Saint leaders — including Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff — found spiritual answers only after “a prolonged period of patience,” said Randall.

As a boy, David O. McKay prayed to know if Joseph Smith was speaking truth when he claimed he had been visited by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. But no answer would come.

McKay would eventually experience a spiritual manifestation for which he had prayed as a boy — and it came, in his words, as a natural sequence to the performance of duty.

“What an impactful insight,” observed Randall. “Pause for just a second: The natural sequence to performance of duty.”

So what sustained young David O. McKay’s faith during an extended period of his youth when he did not feel like he had yet received answers to his prayers? And why didn’t he surrender to unbelief and frustration?

“It seems he made a choice to continue to believe,” Randall answered. “He prayed. He went to church. He was consistent in his scripture study. He patiently and faithfully waited upon the Lord.”

The uncomfortable times “between questions and answers,” he added, “are moments for us to choose whether we will use faith to believe in a loving Heavenly Father. It’s a time to grow. It’s a time to show our spiritual grit.”

Cherish gratitude

Gratitude, testified Randall, is the “clarifying and joy-enabling virtue.”

Enlisting courage and patience to initiate and sustain faith in trying moments can be difficult and painful. Faith can seem to hang from a thread.

“In these long, lingering moments of uncertainty, gratitude can come to the rescue,” he said.

The university president recalled an uncertain period from his own life when he had finished his graduate studies and accepted a job offer from a prominent university.

But while in his mind that decision was exhilarating and clear. “In my heart, that decision was unsettled. Something just didn’t feel right.”

Randall called the university and declined the job offer. He returned “home” to the University of Utah, still uncertain why he had declined what had once seemed like a dream academic job.

The answer did not come for years. He lost patience and became “a bit frustrated.”

Why, he asked, did he make that career choice? Why was he back, teaching in Salt Lake City?

Soon after Randall and his family returned to Utah, his father-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The Randalls spent hours by his side.

“Even while frustrated in my career, I was grateful that we had been by his side when he passed,” he said. “It was a unifying time for our family and a time for all of us to learn about the eternal plan of salvation.”

He discovered gratitude in those moments, even while feelings regarding his career track remained unsettled.

“How many times do we pray, and we’re so confident and precise in what we require of our Heavenly Father, that we actually fail to recognize that prayers have been answered?” asked Randall.

“How often, because of a lack of gratitude, do we fail to recognize that our life has been directed on the divine course.”

Joy, he added, comes from recognizing the “small, positive moments that surround us every day” — and then being grateful.

Gratitude allowed Randall to overcome the uncertainties about his professional career choices.

“I realized that my decision to move to Salt Lake wasn’t about my career,” he said. “It wasn’t even about subsequent positions that I’ve held in my career.

“In the end, being grateful allowed me to see that a loving Heavenly Father understood what my family needed to thrive. It taught me that gratitude can refocus priorities and bring clarity to questions.”

Randall concluded, saying it was his hope that all can develop the capacity to exercise spiritual grit.

“This grit will be essential as we exercise our faith in bringing to pass our own divine destinies.”

Students seeking ‘spiritual grit’

Several Ensign College students who attended Tuesday’s devotional in the Conference Center Theater said they were eager to meet Randall’s challenge to discover spiritual grit.

“President Randall taught me that my own spiritual grit is going to get me through difficult times,” said Lloyd Ala’alatoa, a business management student from San Francisco.

Ala’alatoa added he was inspired by Randall to follow one’s heart — even when the mind disagrees. “That’s really where the Spirit will touch you; in your heart.”

Sara Cordero, an accounting student from Paraguay, added Randall taught her the value of gratitude.

“Everyone has troubles and challenges — but if we focus more on our blessing, we will know what we need to do.”