If you'd like to read Part One, Part Three, Part Four or Part Five of this series, find the link and click.
Back again today in April 1972 with the talk,"Joy Through Christ" by Elder Marion D. Hanks. It's a shorter quote, so I'm pulling a little bit of the talk along with it for context:
The Quote (with context)
It is well to consider
where we are with respect to our Creator.
If we are out of touch,
if we have moved away from him,
then we are not as happy as we could be.
Something is missing.
And a prophet wrote: “… men are, that they might have joy.” (2 Ne. 2:25.)
Wherein have we erred if we are not happy?
Why are we less happy than we could be?
How can we have more joy?"
Sometimes the cultural or literary quotes from General Conference are used as a positive example, something that is in keeping with the gospel of Christ. Sometimes the quote is used to illustrate a belief that is more in keeping with the world and its beliefs.
Here, combined with the scriptural quote, is a positive example. But happiness is not a guarantee. Happiness is a potential gift. We can live in such a way that makes us more or less happy, and the gospel of Jesus Christ provides that path to happiness, even when life isn't going all that great.
The key is the last word Elder Hanks mentions here - joy. Joy is happiness that comes after suffering, or even in the midst of suffering, and that's what the gospel provides.
Epictetus and the Stoics
In fact, the philosopher Epictetus was a Stoic philosopher, and he did in fact say this - in his book Discourses:
Let not that which in another is contrary to nature
be an evil to you :
for you are not formed by nature to be depressed with others
nor to be unhappy with others,
but to be happy with them.
If a man is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault :
for God has made all men to be happy,
to be free from perturbation..."
Stoicism, as a worldly philosophy, often has a lot in common with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It emphasizes discipline and hard work and good works, caring for others. That DOES take you down a similar path.
What Stoicism lacks is the power to help others live this way.
The gospel of Jesus Christ isn't easy by any means. If anyone tells you it is, they're selling you something. I've lived with these requirements most of my life. Trying to live the gospel on your own is probably the hardest thing in the entire world.
But we aren't supposed to live it on our own. That's the key.
When Jesus Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he was arrested and tried and crucified, He through all that suffering opened a way for us to find relief from our own sins and sufferings. Our lives are hard, but He can help lift our burdens and carry them with us.
It's that blessing that helps me daily through fear and anxiety, through falling on my face mistakes, through all the uncertainties of life and the harms that others do, and it helps me pick up again and keep moving forward with peace in my heart.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, or if what I'm saying sounds impossible, you can find out...if you want.
Grab a nearby missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - the guys and gals with the name tags - and ask them. Or find a local friend or neighbor who's a member and ask them. They'll tell you...or if they don't know, they'll know someone who does.
