Line upon Line

“I come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”¹

In 2021, my son Chris Eastland (now Elder), Steve Merrell, and I led the North American West Area Single Adult Conference of more than 30,000 singles from California to Alaska and Hawaii. The theme was “An Abundant Life”. I have been thinking about this ever since: What is an abundant life? I’d like to share what I believe is one aspect of this with you today: learning to understand the difference between What you are becoming and Who you are becoming. And what the difference is between them.

What is Profit?

The owner of a small grocery store’s younger son just graduated from a prestigious business school and came home to visit his father. As he was looking about his father’s small grocery store, he noticed a box with a bunch of slips in it. There were no other records. He asked his father, “Is this how you keep your records? How do you know what is owed, and what is paid? How do you know what your profit is?”

The father looked at his son and smiled. “When I came to this country, I walked off the boat with nothing more than the pants I wore. I got a job in this very grocery store. I worked hard, and when the owner finally retired, I bought the store. I married your mom, and we had both of you children. And now, you have both graduated from college and are ready for your life. Add all of this up… subtract the pants… and the rest is profit.”

The son was focused on the What. The father on the Who.

As with President McKay and his famous quote, the father believed that “no success in life can compensate for failure in the home.” President McKay knew that the Who in life is what matters most.

The Two Tests in Life

The What Test

We spend most of our life on What questions. That’s What we care about, stew about, worry about. But, it’s all about temporary things even when it is a passion of ours. And, that’s perfectly normal. It motivates us to get up in the morning and get moving.

However, my opinion only… is that (with a few exceptions) God does not care What we decide to do in life. Profession. Location. Sports we like. But He… who knows all… cares very much about Who we are becoming. In fact, the Who we will become is what we are here to work out, and the What we do is the circumstances in which we are placed to learn Who we are.

The What we do day to day provides us experience, knowledge and skills. And, they are very important. But they are most often only temporary for this life. After all, there will be no used car salesmen in the afterlife. No insurance salesmen. No doctors. (But there better be ice cream shops, or I’m going to ask for a recount!)

We also tend to judge others using the What Test. How successful they are professionally. The titles they have. Wealth. All are status symbols by which we tend to judge others.

The Who Test

The Who Test: My best way to describe the Who Test is by sharing a couple of examples.

When I failed the Who Test:

1. Costco: A few months ago, I was in line at Costco checking out. I was anxious to get through the line and get back home. I was barely aware of the elderly lady in front of me I was so occupied with just getting through. She fumbled by putting things on the counter, taking them off, and putting other things on. My patience was wearing thin. Finally, she paid and left. As she was passing through the door outside, I realized that she was putting things on the counter and taking them back off because when she saw the price, she didn’t have enough money to pay for them all. At that moment, it hit me that I could have easily paid for the things she couldn’t afford, but I was so into What I was doing that I totally missed an opportunity to help her. I passed the What Test: I got what I went there for and returned home safely, but I failed the Who Test.
2. The gas station: once again, I was at the gas station down on the corner where Taco Bell is. It was after dark and I just wanted to get a few things. An old van pulled up, and the driver got out. He came over and asked me if I had $5.00 to help him buy enough gas to get where he was going. I felt good about filling his tank up for him, and just turned away as he started to drive out. And then I looked up. As his car passed me by, I saw a very tired and hungry mother with several small children looking at me, and I immediately knew that had I been actually aware, I would have seen the needy family who I could have bought a simple dinner for, or even groceries at the attached grocery store. But, by then, they had pulled out before I could. I passed the What Test, I got what I went there for, but again, I failed the Who Test.

So, being aware of the Who opportunities during the daily living of doing the What things is how we will become truly disciples of the Savior.

For the Young Men and Young Women 

1. If you’re still in school… A What pursuit… Do you look for those who are less popular… And bring them into your circle?
2. Do you yell at your parents just because you don’t get your way?
3. Do you stand up for the boy who is being bullied or the girl who is being taunted?

Let me tell you about my younger son, Jay. He’s a big, athletic guy. Tough. Football. Rugby champion. Black belt in Jujitsu. One time when he was in high school, he was in the football locker room, he was getting dressed, and heard one of the popular guys talking trash, making fun of one of the girls they all knew, and they were laughing about it. She was simple, a little slow, not particularly attractive. Easy to make fun of. Jay got up, confronted the guy, and told him to stop it. “You have no right to make fun of her. Shame on you.” The guys all jeered at him, but he stood his ground. A few days later, this particular player saw Jay in the hall. He stopped him and said, “Jay. You were right. I’m sorry.” To me, Jay will always be God’s warrior.

Those are Who questions: who you are becoming — not What you are becoming. Are you becoming a disciple of the Savior or just a better student of math or geography?

For Those in the Workplace

In your place of work, do you help those who are struggling in their job? Do you do small kindnesses to someone who doesn’t seem to fit?

Transitions from a What Life to a Who Life

As a discouraged, homesick young missionary serving in Stirling, Scotland, in March 1897, Elder David O. McKay noticed an inscribed stone on the side of an apartment building under construction near his flat. The message was bold and clear: “What e’er thou art, act well thy part.”

The What e’er is the What in life. The “act well” is the Who part.

What is the yardstick by which to decide?

₃₃But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.²

1. 1. • The “seek ye first” is the Who part. The “all these things shall be added” are the What things of life.
      • Seek ye first the kingdom of God… what does that mean?

₁₉ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth… ₂₀ But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, ₂₁ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.³

We all need to do a self-test from time to time: are our hearts focused on the treasures of eternal value? Character. Compassion. Service. Honesty. Are our treasures Who treasures or What treasures?

Are You a Who Person or a What Person?

People Who Passed the Who Test

1. Meghan Porter: She lived a life prepared to meet her Savior. She was the Relief Society President in our ward when I was the Bishop of the Santa Monica YSA Ward. Anyone who knew her immediately knew she was one of God’s pure spirits. It wasn’t just the things she did. It was who she was, how she lived. She developed cancer at the age of 24 or 25. After a year of medical help, she was declared cancer-free. But it came back. Sister Eastland and I would visit her in the hospital. She was always cheerful, even though she knew that she was nearing the end of her time here. We visited her the day before she passed away. Her mother said to her in order to cheer her up, “I know there is a good returned missionary on the other side who is waiting for you.” Meghan looked at her and replied, “I just hope he isn’t someone who got in a car wreck that was his fault!” And they laughed. She lived the Who Test.
2. A single adult I know in Oregon. Paul Hale. In the 2021 North America West Area Single Adult Conference, one of the things Chris and Aly and I did was to take six single adults back east with us, along with the great Church scholars Rick Turley and Kate Holbrook. At each of the six sites, one of the scholars and one of the single adults would be filmed discussing what happened there. Paul Hale was one of them. He shared that when he started his company, he prayed and consecrated it to the Lord. Nothing would happen there that was contrary to that covenant. Not for money. Not to just get along. Nothing. It would be a Who place, not a what place.

(By the way, you can find all six videos on churchofjesuschrist.org.)

Ask Yourself How to See a What Chore From a Who Perspective

There is a story of a wealthy man and his young son who were sitting on their driveway working on a bicycle. Their neighbor was walking by and saw them. He said, “Why are you working on that bike, Bill? You can afford to take it to a bicycle shop?” The father looked at his friend and replied, “I’m not working on a bike. I’m working on a boy.” The father did not see a bicycle in need of repair. He saw a boy in need of not just a father… but a dad.

Loran Bingham

When Sister Eastland and I first came to California from Washington, D.C., right after we got married, it was for graduate school at USC. We left good jobs… she as a physical therapist for one of the most prominent orthopedic surgeons, and I as a foreign and defense policy specialist at the U.S. Senate.

I share this because of the big transition to being poor graduate students. Several times, I considered quitting and going back to D.C. One of those times I remember to this day. I was the Home Teacher to a couple in the ward (it was the Brentwood Ward at that time), Loren and Verdawn Bingham. His father started Bingham Electric, and now Loren was the president and the main person with his semi-retired father.

Loren somehow found out that we were in a pretty difficult place. He called me and asked me what I was doing the following weekend. I had no plans. He then asked me if I would do him a favor. He said his father was driving from LA to central Utah, overseeing an electrical job in a small factory there, and needed someone to ride with him and make sure he was OK. He said he would pay $200 and would really appreciate it.

Now, I knew that his dad didn’t need anyone to ride with him. And, Loren knew that I knew that. But he wanted to help us and knew he couldn’t just give me money. So, this was his way of making sure I wouldn’t refuse and could maintain my self-respect.

He saw a need for a Who opportunity… and found a What assignment to do it.

Henry Eyring

The following is a story told by President Eyring about his father to students at BYU.

Now you have to know a little bit about my father. His name was Henry Eyring, like mine. He had done some of the things students of this university are preparing to be able to do. His work in chemistry was substantial enough to bring the honors some of you will someday have, but he was still a member of a ward of the Church with his duty to do. To appreciate this story, you have to realize that it occurred when he was nearly eighty and had bone cancer. He had bone cancer so badly in his hips that he could hardly move. The pain was great. Dad was the senior high councilor in his stake with the responsibility for the welfare farm. An assignment was given to weed a field of onions, so Dad assigned himself to go work on the farm.

Dad never told me how hard it was, but I have met several people who were with him that day. I talked to one of them on the phone the other night to check the story. The one I talked to said that he was weeding in the row next to Dad through much of the day. He told me the same thing that others who were there that day have told me. He said that the pain was so great that Dad was pulling himself along on his stomach with his elbows. He couldn’t kneel. The pain was too great for him to kneel. Everyone who has talked to me has remarked how Dad smiled, laughed, and talked happily with them as they worked in that field of onions.

Now, this is the joke Dad told me about himself, afterward. He said he was there at the end of the day. After all the work was finished and the onions were all weeded, someone asked him, “Henry, good heavens! You didn’t pull those weeds, did you? Those weeds were sprayed two days ago, and they were going to die anyway.” Dad just roared. He thought that was the funniest thing. He thought it was a great joke on himself. He had worked through the day in the wrong weeds. They had been sprayed and would have died anyway.

When Dad told me this story, I knew how tough it was. So, I said to him, “Dad, how could you make a joke out of that? How could you take it so pleasantly?” He said something to me that I will never forget, and I hope you won’t. He said, “Hal, I wasn’t there for the weeds.”

Now, you’ll be in an onion patch much of your life. So will I. It will be hard to see the powers of heaven magnifying us or our efforts. It may even be hard to see our work being of any value at all. And sometimes our work won’t go well. But you didn’t come for the weeds. You came for the Savior. And if you pray, and if you choose to be clean, and if you choose to follow God’s servants, you will be able to work and wait long enough to bring down the powers of heaven.

He accepted a What Test priesthood assignment… but understood it as a “Who Test” opportunity for service to our Lord and Savior.

Summary

What I’ve been trying to describe is the abundant life… a life filled with Who experiences which the Savior hopes for all of us… a life filled with Who experiences which lay up for [us] treasures in heaven, ₂₁ For where [our] treasure is, there will [our] hearts be also.⁴

Footnotes

1. The Holy Bible, The Gospel According to St. John 10:10.
2. The Holy Bible, The Gospel According to St. Matthew 6:33.
3. The Holy Bible, The Gospel According to St. Matthew 6:19-21.
4. The Holy Bible, The Gospel According to St. Matthew 6:19-21.