Joy in Christ

Continuing from yesterday, though we learn in the gospel that significant suffering and trials will come to us in this life, we also know that the Lord intends for us to be happy.  The Prophet Joseph taught, “Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 255–56).  The Savior taught His apostles shortly before His death, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full….  Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 15:11, 16:24).  Similarly to the Nephite disciples the Lord told them that they could have “fulness of joy… yea, your joy shall be full” (3 Nephi 28:10).  Though the scriptures certainly teach that we can go to a “state of never-ending happiness” in the world to come, they are also clear that we are meant to have happiness in this life as well (Mosiah 2:41). In the Book of Mormon Lehi taught, “Men are that they might have joy,” and Nephi wrote that his people “lived after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 2:25, 5:27).  Jacob spoke of the “happiness which is prepared for the saints” and his son Enos similarly referred to the “joy of the Saints” (2 Nephi 9:43, Enos 1:3).  Ammon experienced the “exceeding joy” that is for “the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness” (Alma 27:18).  Abraham sought the Lord because he knew that “there was greater happiness and peace and rest” awaiting him (Abraham 1:2).  Mormon spoke of how God did “all things for the welfare and happiness of his people” (Helaman 12:2).  In fact we call God’s plan that we are to follow in this life “the plan of happiness” (Alma 42:8).  So, if he wants us to find joy and happiness in this life, why then does the Lord allow such trials and tests and suffering as I wrote about yesterday come upon us?  Why does He even bring them upon us as He did upon Abraham? 

               I believe the answer lies in the fact that the challenges and suffering that we must pass through are in fact essential to obtaining the real happiness the Lord wants us to have.  This is one of the things Lehi was trying to teach Jacob when he said that “there must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things,” for “if not so… happiness nor misery” could be brought to pass.  If Adam and Eve had not fallen “they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery” (2 Nephi 2:11, 23).  We cannot know true joy if we have not experienced misery to some degree.  Without the opposition in this life of suffering and struggle and trial our happiness would be superficial.  There is a great difference between the “happiness” found by lying in the sun on the beach all day and that found in working through serious difficulties and overcome challenges with the help of the Lord.  As the Lord described in our day, speaking of why He allowed Satan to tempt us, “if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet” (D&C 29:39).  Without some suffering and pain and testing we cannot know the sweetness of real happiness.     

Earthly trials do more than just provide us a contrast to help us appreciate happiness, though.  The greatest joy in life is found in coming to know the Lord and becoming like Him, and often that can only happen as we face with His help the difficulties of life.  As the handcart pioneer Francis Webster stated about the experiences of those in the Martin and Willie handcart companies, “We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation….  [Yet] every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives, for we became acquainted with him in our extremities….  The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay.”  The fact that we must face difficulties and pain in this life is not at odds with the fact that God wants us to be happy.  If we can learn to turn to God in all of our problems and pains, we can indeed be filled with His joy even in the midst of serious challenges.  It’s significant that Mormon would make this statement about the Nephites when they were in the middle of the great war with Amalickiah and the Lamanites: “But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni.”  A lack of problems does not bring happiness, but being “faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord” no matter what our circumstances does (Alma 50:22-23).  After being persecuted for the Lord’s sake the apostles Peter and John “[rejoiced] that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” (Acts 5:41).  Their joy was in Christ, not in a comfortable, easy life.  The gospel does not offer us a pain-free existence here in mortality, but it does promise that whatever “manner of afflictions” that we face, they can be “swallowed up in the joy of Christ” (Alma 31:38).