Hank Smith:                     00:03                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, we are in our fourth lesson of Isaiah, and I have a story for you. I was reading Isaiah 55. The Lord says, my ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. The heavens, they’re higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways. I mean, that’s like, do you see the distance between the stars and the earth? It’s kind of like my brain and your brain. You’re going to have to trust me. I see things you can’t see. Oftentimes, terrible things happen or what seemingly terrible things happen, and we think, oh no, all is lost. Well, something happened way back in the 1800s, John. It has to do with the Salt Lake Temple, which has had construction going on for the last five years.

                                           00:46                   Kind of fits. It’s 1857. Now, you know the days of 47, that’s when the pioneers come into the Salt Lake Valley. It’s July 24th, 1857, 10 years to the day. They’re having an anniversary celebration. When news comes, imagine this, John, on that day that the United States Army, a third of the United States Army is coming to Utah to take care of these Mormons. That’s what they call them, right? These Mormons at the time. That’s a long ways for the army to go, to stop the Mormons, whatever they’re doing out there, it must be awful. Incidentally, John, this is one of the reasons that the Civil War goes on so long. It’s because when the Civil War starts, a third of the United States Army is out in Utah taking care of people who aren’t doing anything wrong. Brigham Young, they had been building the temple, the Salt Lake Temple.

                                           01:39                   It’s 10 years into this process, and he says, we need to cover everything we’ve built. Here comes this army. So they cover the temple foundation. They completely cover it, which had to be heartbreaking. You’ve dug it all out, you’ve got all of this rock in there ready to go, and you’re going to cover it up, and it’s going to take a huge amount of work to uncover it one day. Maybe you never even will. You don’t know if you’re ever going to be able to uncover all this work that you’ve done. I’m getting this from a devotional by President Kevin Worthen when he was president of BYU. This is from his 2020 devotional. And he was my boss at one point. I don’t think he has any idea who I am. He’s a great man, President Worthen. And this is where I get this story from.

                                           02:20                   When the army arrived the following year, Temple Square looked like a freshly plowed field. There was no visible evidence of the temple’s construction. So the army ended up not harming the property. They marched through where they were in Salt Lake and went out down 30 miles south near Utah Lake. Even during the years that when the army was sitting in Utah, the architect’s office was busy planning the shape of all these stones they would need for the temple. Then the American Civil War starts in 1861 and the army heads back out east. When they’re gone, the Latter-day Saints uncovered the foundation. Here’s something interesting, John. When they examined the newly uncovered foundation, they became aware that it was defective. They noticed large cracks and concluded that what they had been doing, which was the small stones held together with mortar, could not carry the massive weight of the temple.

                                           03:18                   So on January 1st of 1862, Brigham Young said, we have to remove the entire foundation and replace it with one entirely made of granite and the footings would need to be 16 feet thick. Brigham Young says, “I want to see the temple built in a manner that it will endure through the millennium.” I bet he’d be pretty happy with what we’re about to unveil. Now, here’s what President Worthen says. Now, I’m certain that Johnston’s army was not a welcome site in 1857. John, I’m sure that the saints were scared. I’m sure they thought this is a disaster. All this work. Especially what had happened to them earlier when they were in the United States thought, oh, this is awful. When this danger is gone, they find out that it actually became a blessing to them because perhaps they would have never known about the cracks in the foundation if their work had not been interrupted. Stopped. John, when the Lord says, “My ways are not your ways,” perhaps he’s saying, you’re going to have to trust me. What looks awful now may end up being a blessing later.

John Bytheway:               04:24                   Hank, that reminds me of that recurring skit they used to have on a show called Hee Haw. “Oh, that’s bad. No, that’s good.” And they just go back and forth and something that you think is bad is good. And my uncle died. Oh, Roy, I’m sorry. Oh, that’s bad. No, that’s good. Well, why? Because he left me $50,000. Oh, that’s good. No, that’s bad. Well, why? Because the government took half of it. Oh, that’s bad. No, that’s good. Oh, why? Because I had just enough to buy an airplane I wanted. Oh, that’s good. No, that’s bad. I was doing a loop-de-loop and I fell out. Oh, that’s bad. No, that’s good. Because there was a haystack down below. Oh, that’s good. No, that’s bad. Because there was an upside down pitchfork in the haystack pointed at me, oh, that’s bad. No, that’s good. Why? Because I missed the pitchfork. Oh, that’s good. No, that’s bad because I missed the haystack too.

Hank Smith:                     05:13                   And they just go back and forth.

John Bytheway:               05:14                   They just go back and forth forever. And that’s a perfect example. What a blessing they discovered that foundation was cracked so they could do it right.

Hank Smith:                     05:26                   Yep. So if you’re going through something really difficult right now, and it is really difficult, like there’s no way around it, it’s a difficult thing. Just maybe, maybe stay with the Lord and you’ll find out that he had a bigger plan in mind, bigger plan in mind. I remember, John, when you had your kitchen pretty much burn your house to the ground, you said, “I had to go live with my in-laws.” That’s bad. Well, we hope you’ll join us on our full podcast of followHIM. We are with Dr. Ezra Gwilliam this week. He is from BYU, Idaho, and he gives us some impressive insights in these chapters, things I had never seen before. So join us over there and then come back here next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorites.

John Bytheway:               06:12                   Love my in-laws.