Things Are Often Not As Bad As We Believe

I had forgotten how much the weeks blend together while I am here down in Texas.  I suppose that is a good thing, so long as I am productive with my time in getting ready for my exams.  It is a unique experience not having classes, but yet still having so much to read.  In other words, I don't have much of interest to report this week.

I apologize for another BYU football post, but perhaps it will be of value.  The first week of the season, BYU played a pretty mediocre Virginia football team and lost 19-16, and didn't look good in doing it.  It was one of those losses that grates on you if you are a football fan and that is your team.  It left a rather palpable malaise over the program.  As a part of that game, there was a 2 hour rain/lightning delay.  The grey skies seemed to be an apt metaphor for what happened to BYU in Virginia.  I must confess that I was left feeling rather hopeless for the season because Virginia was a game BYU should have won, and needed to win.

Part of the reason I was so down was because the Y's very next game was against the University of Texas, a traditional national power that consistently pulls in some of the best talent in the nation to fill its roster.  We had just lost to Virginia, and I was convinced that the Texas game was going to be ugly. I started wondering if it would even be possible for BYU to eke out a decent season, after what it looked like was going to be an 0-2 start, with two bad losses.  Given these feelings, you can imagine how I felt when my brother Rob called me to tell me that the formerly beautiful weather in Provo had turned into a torrential downpour and another long game delay for BYU.  (Check out the video in this article to see just how intense the rainstorm really was around the stadium).  It seemed like there was literally a dark cloud hanging over BYU football, and following it wherever it went.

About 2 hours before the Texas game began

Deep down I know that none of these thoughts are rational.  Football is just a game and in the long run none of this really matters.  But when you are a slightly superstitious BYU fan whose Fall saturdays have been defined by BYU football for as long as you can remember, somehow thoughts like this seem to pop into your head and make sense.

As always happened, the storm moved on and the game was still played.  And much to my surprise, and contrary to my pessimism, BYU came out and beat the #15 University of Texas Longhorns.  And the team didn't just beat them, they dismantled them.  Upsets happen in college football every week.  But it is rare that the underdog manhandles the better team and wins 40-21 (a score that doesn't even really reflect how badly BYU beat Texas).  It was so bad that Texas fired its top Defensive Coach today to try and fix something that in the minds of Texas fans should never happen.  (I understand the feeling, because I was there last week).

Taysom Hill (#4) evades another Texas Defender en route to BYU's 40-21 win

As I thought about all of this, it struck me that "Things are often not as bad as we are prone to believe they are."  Whether it is football, school, work, church, the nation, etc., we often let our worries get the better of us when the reality is that things are not actually that bad.  I'm not suggesting that we sweep problems under the rug.  There are always areas where we can improve.  There are always problems that need to be fixed, and some of them are significant.  But as we trust in and follow our Heavenly Father, I truly believe that we will have more days where we sunshine than days where strong storms and devastating winds threaten our peace.

Troubles will come again.  BYU will lose again, and I will likely overreact about it.  It may even prove to be a dreaded loss to the University of Utah.  But this principle will be as true then as it is today.  The history of the Church is a grand testament to this.  Temples can be lost to apostates and even go up in flames.  We can be forced out of gathering places.  Prophets can be unjustly imprisoned.  And innocent children can even die from exposure to the elements because their parents were unlawfully kicked out of their homes and farms.  But as Brigham Young wrote to a friend in the midst of the difficult circumstances of November of 1847, "The cause of Zion is brightening" (Brigham Young to Alexander Badlam, November 18, 1847, Young Papers).  The cause of Zion, of course, matters infinitely more than BYU football and the many other things that we often have cause to worry about.

No one knew more trouble than the Savior Himself.  Yet He did not despair nor lose hope in His divine work.  If we will fix our eyes of faith upon the Son and His Divine work upon this Earth, the many less significant things we worry about will take on their appropriate levels of importance, standing in the insignificant background of our lives.  May we do so.

Brett