Young Men General President Steven J. Lund encouraged students to recognize patterns of faith in their lives during his devotional address on Sept. 20.
President Lund spoke about the importance of recognizing flashes of heavenly light in one's life. He said that through those moments, individuals will be able to recognize “flickering assurances of God’s love.'
President Lund explained that faith and belief are complicated things and that sometimes individuals feel unsure of the doctrines or narratives of the gospel.
“Heavenly Father purposefully designed and ordered our world to require us to walk in faith,' President Lund said. 'He pressed into place the pieces of this sophisticated jigsaw puzzle of mortality but held back a few of the pieces, which He keeps in His pocket to ensure that faith is required as we come up against the gaps in this puzzle’s spiritual landscape”
President Lund then spoke about a business trip of his. He said that during the drive from the airport, he felt inspired to look through small gaps in concrete wall slabs through the bridge they were driving on. Through those gaps he could see a beautiful view. He compared the light coming through the gaps to theflashes of light people receive from Heavenly Father during our life’s journey.
“Life often presents like an incessant grey wall stretching off into nowhere, but here and there, if you watch for them, flickering assurances of God’s love for us will become evident,” President Lund said.
According to President Lund, the experience of gathering knowledge through flashes of intelligence has happened in the life of many great authors, his own life and in the lives of many BYU students.
“My testimony is a composite panorama of countless bursts of light through an otherwise impenetrable earthly veil,' President Lund said. 'I speak here of such flashes in hopes that they may bring to your mind similar glimpses that have informed your testimony, so that in those questioning moments you might remember them.”
President Lund then shared his own experience going to the temple to receive revelation. He said on one occasion he went to seek guidance on what course of study and career to follow. He received an answer that “could not have evoked a stronger allergic response' in his soul.
However, President Lund said he chose to follow the prompting; through the decisions he made, he was able to meet his wife and start his family. 'The Lord sometimes withholds blessings from us to eventually deliver undeniably discernible miracles,” he said.
President Lund explained that university life, especially at BYU, is designed to take students to a wall where they have to 'fight their way' to grow. He also said that life’s challenges don’t come with explanatory footnotes, but if one choses to become a faithful observer of the way the Spirit works, they will be able to 'better understand the miracles that illuminate the tapestries of testimonies and find courage to move forward.'
“Our experiences with the Spirit may seem best measured in micro-lumens rather than lightening bursts, but, especially on our darkest hours, the Spirit can amplify them to clearly light our way along the covenant path,' President Lund said.