Elder Pace suffered two severe heart attacks last year that gave him a new perspective on life.

“You have not come to this earth in these troubled times by coincidence,” Elder Glenn L. Pace of the First Quorum of Seventy said in the Tuesday Devotional. “You have not been sent to earth during this wicked period of the earth’s history to fail because of it, but to succeed in spite of it and help others do the same.”

He introduced his talk by sharing his wish that the musical number would be given by the BYU Singers, which it was. Some years ago the BYU Singers toured Africa and performed on the grounds of the would-be Accra Ghana Temple at the end of their tour. Most of them were sick, and five doctors were busy hydrating and tending to the singers as they dropped one after another.

“It was an example of the most humorous and the most spiritual,” Elder Pace said.

An influential chief told Elder Pace: “When I hear them sing, I feel angels.”

Elder Pace used near death experiences to impress the importance of making the most out of life by understanding one’s place in the Gospel.

Elder Pace suffered a heart attack with great complications, undergoing six bypasses. One hour after the surgery, he suffered another heart attack in which his heart stopped beating for three minutes. His body went into shock for six hours and he lost one-third to half of his heart muscle. The doctors worried about the potential damage this would do on his kidneys and his brain.

“Technically I was gone, but then I got sent back,” he said. “My cardiologist calls me Elder Lazarus. To this day etched indelibly in my soul are the words: ‘Your work is not yet finished.’”

He went on to say that it was both a challenge and a blessing of not knowing why he was sent back as well as how much time he had left. It had given him a heightened awareness to everything in life.

“You may be asking, ‘What does this have to do with me?’ Elder Pace said. “To each of you I say, your work is not yet finished either, and I regret to inform you that you don’t know how much time you’ve got left.”

While on vacation in the Grand Teton National Park with his family some years ago, Elder Pace gazed up at the stars and contemplated his place in God’s creation.

“What is your place in the system of existing things?” he said.

After quoting part of “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Elder Pace taught how everybody is spirit children of heavenly parents. Everybody was taught the gospel, and knew the difference between right and wrong. There was agency.

“When we are dealing with a population as numerous as ‘the sands of the sea,’ we cannot imagine the variety of children our Father in Heaven is dealing with,” Elder Pace said. “The wonderful thing is that He loves us in our diversity. Our diversity helps Him to bring to pass His purposes here on earth. With His complete understanding of each of us, He devised a plan for the time and place of our lifework on earth.”

Nobody is here by mistake or by chance, he said.

“Once we have a conviction of this reality,” Elder Pace said. “We can obtain the faith to move forward and overcome any obstacle that stands in the way of fulfilling our foreordained destiny. We can and will make a difference.”

Elder Pace said students should seek opportunities for using their unique set of talents in making the world better and building the kingdom of God.

He also pointed out that the young men and women in the church today belong to the finest generation and are more spiritually advanced than previous generations. And with this comes responsibility and foreordained assignments. It is vital to not cut off the inspiration needed in making important decisions regarding major, career and finding a spouse.

“Where do you fit in the eternal scheme of things?” Elder Pace said. “I don’t think you should be overly concerned or give undue thought to that. It is enough to know you do fit, and therefore you should be looking for ways you can fulfill your divine destiny.”

The most important work people can do is in their own families. Elder Pace also pointed out that there could exist a synergy between one’s daily job and one’s effort in building the Kingdom of God. He urged the audience to choose a career carefully, with much study and prayer.

He further counseled the students to not worry about any future callings but to focus on their current callings.

Elder Pace said, “Whatever formal callings come our way, I can testify that each of us will have the same accountability to the Lord with our callings as the prophet will with his.”

“I have been asking myself some hard questions: ‘Glenn, you’ve been a General Authority for 20 years," he said. "You’ve learned how to talk the talk. Have you become what you teach?”



Copyright Brigham Young University 12 Jan 2005