By Krysyan Edler
Krysyan is the assistant editor over newsletters for the Deseret News and also writes about sports.
Faith in God is everything to Taysom Hill.
While on a recent episode of the “Case Studies” podcast, the former BYU quarterback spoke openly about his faith and shared that he believes God has a plan for him and his family.
“It’s hard to think about my life without thinking about God, you know? I’m trying to find a way to articulate that, but I know that God is there,” he said. “I know that he has a plan for me.”
Hill’s faith was the factor that led him to choose to go to BYU after coach Jim Harbaugh left Stanford, where Hill had signed a national letter of intent.
“I’m a man of faith. That means a lot to me. My relationship with God and Jesus Christ means a lot to me,” he said on “Case Studies.” “As you look at BYU and what it represents, and then you have the opportunity to go be a starting quarterback there, like that meant a lot to me, and I recognized how unique and how significant that opportunity was. And that felt like so much more than football.”
Why Taysom Hill chose to serve a mission
While in high school, Hill felt a lot of pressure to not serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He admitted that people found reasons for him to choose football over a mission every day, but a mission was non-negotiable for him.
He wanted to give back to God for blessing him with his athletic abilities and success.
“As a naive 18-year-old, a mission was non-negotiable for me,” he said on the podcast. “I was gonna go, and it’s a little bit silly, I guess, to say this, but I, as an 18-year-old, I was like, I’m going to go give back. Man, I’m gonna go serve a mission because I recognize, like, how, like, fortunate I have been.”
He later learned that serving a mission was more than that after experiencing a lot of growth as a missionary.
“My perspective on that has obviously changed, but I will say I’ve had too many experiences to let me know that God is there and that He’s there for me,” he said.
How Taysom Hill sees God in his life
Hill considers himself “a man of prayer” and has seen God’s hand throughout his life.
“As I look back at the things that have happened in my life and what’s led me to being right here, right now, I just cannot deny that God’s hand has been doing all of this,” he said on “Case Studies.”
He especially sees divine intervention when it comes to him attending BYU and meeting his wife, Emily.
“I’ve just had too many experiences that let me know that God is aware of me, that I look at my life and how I ended up at BYU, and I had a very special and sacred experience to let me know that Emily was supposed to be my wife,” he said. “I look at my life and how I ended up at BYU, and I know that a big part of that was because I was supposed to find Emily.”
