Hey all!
Greetings from Monday. I figured I'd stay on top of things this week so I'm writing this a little early.
*note: I wrote exactly five sentences on Monday.
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Man, last week was kinda tough. We set some really high goals and air-balled a couple of them, so the past few days went from excited to frantic to gloomy. I felt exhausted and full of doubt, and as I turned inward in self-pity my feelings of divine abandonment only increased. However, the Lord in His mercy picked me up and put me back in the boat just as He always does.
Sunday night, our local senior missionaries, the Halls, shared a message on our zone call about the joy of serving others, and I kinda goofed off with my roommates instead of paying attention. I felt bad about that, so after a long journal entry that happened to be all about joy and feelings of unworthiness, I decided to study the Halls' source material, a message by then-Elder Russell M. Nelson entitled "Joy and Spiritual Survival" after looking for any reference to happiness and joy I could find in the scriptures.
Not only were the two relatively obscure Book of Mormon books I studied (Enos and Jarom) packed with references to the joy of those who followed Christ, President Nelson's message was 100% exactly what I needed to hear.
Here's a few quotes from him:
"For Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ is joy! That is why our missionaries leave their homes to preach His gospel. Their goal is not to increase the number of Church members. Rather, our missionaries teach and baptize to bring joy to the people of the world!"
"It doesn’t seem possible to feel joy when your child suffers with an incurable illness or when you lose your job or when your spouse betrays you. Yet that is precisely the joy the Savior offers. His joy is constant, assuring us that our 'afflictions shall be but a small moment' and be consecrated to our gain."
"My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives."
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Says Elder Jeffrey R. Holland:
"I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him?"
Psalm 16:8, 11, a song the Israelites sang through years of war, famine, and enslavement:
“I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. … In [His] presence is fulness of joy.”
Acts 5:41, after the Apostles have been arrested twice in two days and then beaten by the chief priests and scribes for testifying of Christ:
"And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name."
Alma 28:8, where the sons of Mosiah choose to literally go on a mission to "the bad guys" and repeatedly get thrown into prison, starved, and/or forced to fight for their lives:
"And this is the account of Ammon and his brethren, their journeyings in the land of Nephi, their sufferings in the land, their sorrows, and their afflictions, and their incomprehensible joy."
2 Nephi 2:24-25, where Lehi blesses his youngest son after his oldest sons betray him, his homeland is destroyed, and he lies dying in the wilderness:
"But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."
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None of their lives come close to "easy." Not a single hero in any scripture story ever had a walk-in-the-park life, and no example of suffering was greater than that of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the one true Protagonist of our story.
So why in the world were they happy?
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My invitation to you all this week is to evaluate your habits.
Which ones bring you joy? Which ones don't? If you're habitually doing something that leaves you feeling hollow, unsatisfied, and further from God, then find joy in daily repentance and go do something better with your time.
"Seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written," and God will lead you to joy.
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"Oh! Tango Suerte" by Casiopea
"On This Day of Joy and Gladness" by the Tabernacle Choir (Oct 2016 version)
"Joy and Spiritual Survival" https://www.
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Love,
Elder Rigby
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