BYU-Idaho's Big Problem

BYU-I’s Big Problem

Brett Stone Looking for Trouble

BYU-Idaho has a big problem. It’s not the dozens of professors who have quietly given up higher paying, higher prestige positions to teach here. It’s not the plethora of new state of the art buildings and facilities constructed in less than a decade. It’s not even steeply discounted tuition. 

Our big problem is that we don’t have a big problem. Although we might not like to admit it, we humans crave opposition. We need it. How else can you explain passionate rivalry sports games, mountain climbing, putting a man on the moon, or even (gasp) complaining about things that, when we honestly stop to think about them, really don’t matter much?

So it is with BYU-I. In all reality, we’ve got it about as good as it gets. Yet that is precisely the challenge we face. A common opponent or problem unites people, minimizes differences, and helps people stretch personally and collectively to achieve extremely difficult objectives. 

BYU-I students face almost none of that. This isn’t to say there’s no room to improve or that we shouldn’t honestly identify and strive to overcome more routine problems. But any honest assessment would show our problems are, if not very small, at least very different. There’s no rivalry with the University of Utah, no Communist Russia to beat to the moon, no frozen wilderness to cross in hand-carts. In response, we often complain about things that, relative to our situation, are as big as we can inflate them to be. 

How can you overcome a problem that doesn’t seem to exist, you might ask? Looking outside ourselves is a good place to start. Once we realize how many real challenges other groups and individuals face, it becomes easier to see how small our own problems really are. 

“Losing” ourselves, individually and collectively in serving others and helping them overcome their difficulties is one sure way to win the fight against inflated problems. Whether it’s teaching English in Peru, donating blood, or just offering to help a roommate or spouse with their homework, the challenges we need, and the solutions, are all around us. 

Besides feeling “warm-fuzzies”, recognizing this big problem and learning how to fight the good fight now builds us in another important way. The world as a whole is experiencing truly “big” problems. Once we graduate, those problems will be ours by inheritance and it will be our task to face and help solve them. 

Some may question the ability or destiny of “simple” BYU-I grads to help change the world. But, to paraphrase a very wise man, “The work of the world is not done by geniuses...”

We have a God-given responsibility and opportunity to help develop solutions to the world’s biggest problems. BYU-I’s big problem is also its most amazing opportunity and is anything but non-existent. We’ve just got to see it for what it really is and then go to work.