Hank Smith:                      00:03                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. John and I share a single story to go with each week’s Come, Follow Me lesson. John, we are in the book of Judges this week and you know the story of Gideon where Gideon is obviously very scared to go out to battle, plus the Lord is taking away his numbers. Nope, that’s too many soldiers. I want less. You want less? You want us to fight with less. Well, he asked the Lord for this fleece like this animal skin that the Lord will get it wet or keep it dry just to give him some reassurance that he’s doing the right thing. And the Lord does it for him. Well, I have a story for you that seems kind of like a fleece of reassurance. This was 20 years ago, John, when Elder David A. Bednar stood up for his very first talk in general conference.

                                           00:56                   Now, Elder Bednar was very young when he was called. He was just 52 years old when he was called. And I know there’s some people out there going, Oh, that’s pretty old. No, that is, that is not old.

John Bytheway:               01:05                   No, it isn’t.

Hank Smith:                      01:07                   In fact, I think Elder Bednar had a senior in high school still when he was called to be an apostle.

John Bytheway:               01:11                   No kidding.

Hank Smith:                      01:12                   Can you imagine? You go to seminary and your dad’s on the wall. So, he stands up to give his very first full talk and he says six months ago, this is April of 2005, and he’s referring to six months ago when he was called to be an apostle. Six months ago, President Hinckley called me into his office and told me I was going to be an apostle. You’ll get released when you die. And think about that. Think about how long Elder Bednar, let’s say he lives to be the age of President Nelson.

                                           01:43                   That’s a, that’s almost a 50 year calling. You’ll be released when you die and we don’t even know if that’s the case. Can you imagine getting that calling, John? And then, oh, by the way, you’re speaking to the entire church on Sunday. He stands up, he says to bear his testimony. He doesn’t have a full talk prepared. He’s going to bear his testimony. President Uchtdorf, who had been called that exact same time, had just born his testimony and now it was Elder Bednar’s turn. But before he would get up, there was going to be a rest hymn. Elder Bednar says, If I had been invited to suggest a hymn for that particular session of conference just before, right, he speaks for the very first time of what is going to be many, many times speaking in that conference center, he said I would have selected my favorite hymn, Redeemer of Israel. Now, John, obviously the music is chosen months before, so you can’t really run up to the organist and do you take requests, right?

                                           02:48                   So he said, “Imagine how I felt when President Monson said the choir and congregation will now stand and sing hymn number six, Redeemer of Israel.” Now, some people would say that was a coincidence, but he said, “Tears filled my eyes as I stood with you to sing that stirring hymn of the restoration. A loving Savior was sending me,” Elder Bednar says, “a most personal and timely message of comfort and reassurance through a hymn selected weeks previously.” He says, “I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real,” or the fleeces, you might say from Gideon of the Lord are real. They do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often the Lord’s timing of his tender mercies, his fleeces, helps us both discern and acknowledge them.

John Bytheway:               03:45                   Wow.

Hank Smith:                      03:46                   Some people might say, John, Oh, that was just a nice coincidence. You know, there’s 300 something hymns in the hymn book. They have to choose one. They just happen to choose his favorite.

John Bytheway:               03:54                   Oh, I love it.

Hank Smith:                      03:55                   Or perhaps it’s the Lord sending him a gentle message of reassurance. It’s not going to take away the difficulty. He still has obviously a long career of apostleship ahead of him.

John Bytheway:               04:09                   But that thing we’ve heard in the Old Testament a lot, the Lord was with him. The Lord was with Joseph. The Lord is saying, I’m with you, David. Elder Bednar, I’m with you.

Hank Smith:                      04:17                   I’m with you. What a great tie there, John. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We are with Dr. Lori Denning this week. And if you want to have fun and learn a lot, you come join us over there. Then come back here next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorites.