Our Finest Hour

I listened today to a talk given by President Nelson at BYU in 1990. As he sought to encourage the students there, he said this: “Prepare to do work of real worth for your fellowmen. This is one of the fundamental reasons for enrollment at this institution of higher learning. The critical difference between your just hoping for good things for mankind and your being able to do good things for mankind is education.” This is a thought that President Nelson has since repeated to youth more recently as he has encouraged the gaining of knowledge and higher education. In this address President Nelson also told of what motivated him in his research as he sought to gain understanding about the human heart. He said, “Many years ago when I was a young intern, we had a wonderful neighbor lady named Netta Davis. She had a serious heart condition—a diseased mitral valve—destroyed in her youth by the ravages of rheumatic fever…. Her congestive heart failure worsened. Her little body finally died because of this malfunctioning valve. This was long before the advent of surgical repairs within the heart. Such was hardly dreamed of in those days. But Netta’s passing changed my life. I determined that her death was not to have been in vain.” Though he certainly had wished at the time to help her, he did not have the understanding or education to do so. But he subsequently went to work with a team of researchers trying to develop an artificial heart-lung machine. He continued, “To make connectors for tubing, I learned quite a bit about glassblowing. And I learned how to operate lathes, drill presses, and other machines required to make pumps, valves, and cylinders. With my associates, I also had to learn the physiological requirements for oxygenation of the blood and the requirements for blood flow to and oxygen consumption of the tissues. We had to learn how to anticoagulate the blood and then reverse the anticoagulation so normal clotting could again be restored. And we learned the hard way that bacterial contamination could destroy an otherwise successful experiment.” All of this learning eventually led to the first open-heart surgery in 1951. President Nelson reflected, “Netta Davis did not die in vain. Her desperate need motivated me as nothing else could. I thought of her the day I operated upon the heart of President Spencer W. Kimball. In a real sense, it was partially because of Netta that I was able to perform that operation President Kimball needed.” It was knowledge and education that enabled him to make a true difference for the good of mankind.

                The scripture that comes to mind as I think about this message from President Nelson is what the Savior declared in 1833 to the Prophet Joseph Smith: “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake that evil one” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:36-37). The Lord wants us to learn and gain intelligence, so that we can have light and truth and ultimately bless others with it. In the dedication of the Kirtland Temple we find this famous instruction: “And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom, seek learning even by study and also by faith” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:7). The key phrase in this for me is the first one, because it explains the why of learning: “As all have not faith.” In other words, because there are those who have no faith, who know not of God and His plan, who do not understand how to access His power, we are to study and learn and prepare to help them. We gain an education primarily so that we can bless and serve and bring faith to others around the world. I appreciated the recent devotional given to the Utah Area in which Church leaders encouraged the youth in particular to continue their education in some way after high school. Sister Emily Belle Freeman recounted how what she learned throughout her life prepared her for her service she is now giving as the Young Women General President. A summary of the devotional relates, “As a teenager, President Freeman said, she took to heart a line in her patriarchal blessing that instructs her to learn to find joy in learning. In high school, she joined a band and learned all about producing music. In her 20s, she worked for a publishing company and learned about producing newspapers, books and magazines. In her 30s, she and her husband ran an events company. In her 40s, she became fascinated with social media and learned all about YouTube and producing podcasts. When she stepped into her new role this last August, she learned she would have responsibilities with youth music, with producing a magazine that goes all over the world, with planning Churchwide youth events and with working on an Instagram account for all of the girls around the world.” All of that learning she did throughout her life helped her prepare for her future service. She said, “Now, in my 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s I had no idea I would be tapped on the shoulder by a prophet of the Lord, but God did. And He prepared me for what will hopefully be my finest hour. And He will do that for every single one of you.” And so we all need to seek learning, by study and by faith, and strive for light and truth and understanding as the Lord puts opportunities before us. Then, like President Nelson and Sister Freeman, we will be prepared for our finest hour when the Lord will have need of us.