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

SALT LAKE CITY — 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," he said.

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 started 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," he said.

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."

Read the rest on Deseret.com.

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