See also essay “Man is Become as God: Spiritual Capitalism & Why Life is Hard”
Topics: salvation, suffering, joy, fear, Joseph Smith, Celestial Kingdom, lament, Jesus Christ, merit, grace, works
The thing that we fear most is joy. That is what we avoid. When we use drugs and alcohol it’s an obvious giveaway that we like to be happy but we’re too ashamed to do so and are right State of Mind. We don’t like to act like children because we take ourselves too seriously. The thing that everyone agrees we’ll bring the most Joy is to see God, yet this is also the thing that people fear the most. Indeed we are more afraid of heaven than of hell. Joy is available to any person who really wants it. But it’s not to be had in worldly ways, men whom have “had it all” will attest to that.
What do we do about suffering? We avoid it and have as little of it as possible and try to help other people to also have as little of it as possible. Suffering is a part of life and everyone will do plenty of it but no more than is necessary. That is the key of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that’s why the angel said to the Shepherds I bring you good tidings of great joy, but the Angels were afraid they saw that bright glorious person so much joy that it scared them and so the angel had to reassure them look I’m here solely to bring a happy message.
Sometimes we get discouraged and think that we’re not worthy of joy. That we have made so many mistakes and that were so incapable of the ideal that we should find some little corner to make a fire in rather than participate in the party. But the truth is that no one is Worthy of full Joy. That is where Jesus comes in he is our older brother who has agreed to give us a hand up at our moment of greatest crisis when we realized that truly we are never going to measure up by ourselves. So this happy news allows us to be jovial and joking and happy and to not take ourselves too seriously.
A lot of people criticize to Joseph Smith because they said he was too childish and not very serious when around other authority figures and they said that he was lazy because he was always making jokes etcetera, but he accomplished more in his life than ten men. People of Jesus’s day also criticized Jesus because they said Jesus wasn’t doing enough of their type of preferred chores he wasn’t productive enough in the religiosity the formal worship. Jesus was more worried about building God’s Kingdom. Jesus was a man as the scripture says a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. This makes it so that we don’t have to be. He gave us a gift and the last thing he would want us to do is not use that gift.
It is also lamentable to consider that many cling to the joy they have and won’t move on to a higher in fear that they will lose what they have already got. The Celestial Kingdom, aka the highest heaven, requires obedience to the Celestial law. Many live a lower law, a terrestrial or telestial law, and think “ah this is a pretty good place, I’ll get comfortable here.” And they won’t stretch themselves to live the higher law, wherein higher happiness is available exclusively. They also might say, “well I see a way to help the world in this way, I’ll stay here.” Refusing to give the higher help. We must remember the words of the prophet, that “to obey is better than to sacrifice.” God’s plan for how to help the world is in every way better and more effective than our own little ideas and grooves about how to heal the world. Yes, we have agency and creativity and those are inspired of God and we should pursue our ideas and follow our hearts, but when those things are in contradiction to the plan of God, we can identify them as false flags for happiness, and quickly trade them in for more lasting solutions.
