Finding and Maintaining True Happiness

What is true happiness?

I’ve been thinking a bit today about what happiness truly is and how we can achieve it. I have been reflecting on how much joy and happiness I felt on my mission despite challenges setbacks and trials!

One of my favorite verses in the Book of Mormon is the often quoted refrain: “Men are that they might have joy,” but what exactly do we mean we speak of joy. Why is it that we often found the most joy when things are most difficult?

I found a really great talk from back in 2005 that dealt with this topic beautifully. It is entitlted True Happiness: A Conscious Decision. Elder De Hoyos of the 70 argues that “wanting to” or desiring and striving towards joy is one of the key elements that help us achieve true joy. Furthermore, “Happiness comes as a result of our obedience and our courage in always doing the will of God, even in the most difficult circumstances.”

Therefore, when we are struggling and trying to do what we know is right despite the challenges that come our way, we are filled with the spirit and experience a sense of exhilaration and joy that is incomparable. That is why as a missionary, I experienced such highs of joy and such unparalleled moments of bliss.

Also, Elder De Hoyos declares that “Happiness is a condition of the soul. This joyous state comes as a result of righteous living… Yes, my beloved brothers and sisters, life is good if we live in such a way to make it so. Believing, desiring, deciding, and choosing correctly are the simple actions that define an increase in happiness and an increase in the inner assurance that transcends this life.”

Happiness is not something fleeting that comes in fits of bursts, but something that we can always enjoy as a constant companion. Indeed, happiness is something that we must rechoose each day. We have to desire joy and work hard to achieve it.

I’ve been thinking about this in the context of relationships and dating. Not long ago, I started dating Jessica and that has been a source of great joy and happiness for me. I think a big part of that joy is the decision to date fully in keeping with the standards and commandments of God. That is such a refreshing choice that allows the spirit to be present. Yet, each day is another opportunity and challenge to choose: choose to work hard and choose to show love to each other. It’s a chance to get to know each other better and to develop a relationship that could become eternal. I have a really strong testimony that if we continue to follow the spirit we will be led and guided onward. Each day, I have to do my part to pray and to study and seek out the Lord’s will. Each day, I have to face the challenges that come my way with courage and great obedience to the will of the Lord. Those same attributes that served me well on a mission are needed in courtship and throughout the rest of life!

Elder De Hoyos has a great quote by the Prophet Joseph Smith that I really loved

“The Prophet Joseph stated, “Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.”

Think about it! The object and purpose of our existence is happiness! Why then do we spend so much of our time not truly happy? The path ( and I might add the only path) comes from those attributes that the prophet mentioned: Virtue, Uprightness, Faithfullness, Holiness and Obedience. If we walk this road, we will draw closer to God and to those we care about. We will discover more happiness than we could have anticipated!

Wishing that the FAIR and Sunstone conferences did not conflict

Wishing that the FAIR and Sunstone conferences did not conflict

I attended sunstone this past weekend and had overall a very good time. I am going to blog later today about my reactions and feelings. As I got home yesterday, I found this talk from  the FAIR conference that blew me away. Frankly, it is more insightful and grounded in the divine feminine than anything about women’s issues that I saw at sunstone.

I can’t seem to imbed the video so here is the link

http://www.ourthoughts.ca/2010/08/07/“the-two-trees”-a-presentation-on-equality-in-the-plan-of-salvation/

A Real Mere Mormonism Part One

A Real Mere Mormonism Part One

During the Summer Seminar on Mormon Theology, Terryl Givens often spoke about his sense that there needs to be a Mormon Equivalent of Mere Christianity. Today I sat down and took a look at a recently published book entitled Mere Mormonism – A Defense of Mormon Theology written by Dr. Ronald R. Zollinger. I wouldn’t necessarily call the book an awful one. It is a fairly readable apologetic book. Just as in many works written apologetically, it manages to distort much of protestant and catholic thought as it presents its case. This is not particularly egregious or unusually. Its title, however,  is a complete misnomer.

The enduring genius of Mere Christianity is that Lewis starts from the absolute basics. He does not assume that his readers are active Christians or even believe in God. He is speaking (for the book was originally a radio production) in a way that anyone can relate. Moreover, he is articulating the absolute basic position of Christianity.  He does not cite from scriptures as a form of proof texting because he does not assume that his listeners even ascribe meaning to the scriptures. Zollinger’s book does none of these things. His is a typical apologetic work that assumes his readers are LDS or at the very least Christians well versed in the bible. He does not argue from first principles or logic.  I was very disappointed that this book could be given such a misleading title.

Although I am hardly qualified I have decided to attempt to sketch out what I think the beginning of a Mere Mormonism should be like or read like. In this first post I am just going to imagine how one would structure such an argument. I may then try to flesh out and give rhetorical shape to the argument. Feel free to comment or give me feedback. The argument below will not be fully fleshed out or perfected. Writing it has helped me to realize how difficult such a book is to write or argue.

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Lewis begins his Mere Christianity by acknowledging the fact that every human being in the world ascribed to some sense of moral right or wrong intuitively and that there is much more in common with human morality than what one would expect by chance. This might actually not be a bad point to start off from.

Indeed, we would suggest that the same laws of morality and good and bad that govern us actually govern the entire universe.  We find ourselves living in a staggeringly law abiding universe. Even those things that are unpredictable or chaotic merely seem to be beyond our present understanding and not utterly random. Nature is governed by some unalterable laws. As intelligent beings, we use our reason and our faculties to learn how to best manipulate those laws to the benefit. We have advanced to the point where we can create synthetic life and have a dramatic impact on the environment around us. Yet, we are also exceedingly limited. Not only are we unable to do so much, but  we often use our abilities to destroy rather than create. Given how much we have advanced in the past hundred years, it is not hard to fathom a being that is so much superior to us in our capacity that he would be able to do all things that are possible. This being would be a God because all of the elements would bend to his will due to his perfect understanding of natural law.

(Attributed of God—As a being existing in the universe God would be a physical being with some kind of a mass. He can be said to have a body although likely very different from our own. This does not necessarily limit the power of God.)

(No being can perform what are traditionally thought of by C.S Lewis and others as miracles. A miracle is an illogical proposition because it suggests a being outside of nature and not governed by its laws. Such a being would be utterly incomprehensible. Instead, what are commonly described as miracles involve manipulations of natural law above our current degree of comprehenshion.)

Human beings have an intense desire to create order out of a chaotic world. We organize religions and elaborate societies. We crave stability and desire to improve and tend to the world around us.  What would this improving tendancy look like in a being previously described as God. He or she would have an intense desire to build up unorganized matter and to help organize it so that it could reach its full potential.

Doctrine of free agency—Yet, because even God has to obey the laws of nature, he can not magically make everything perfect. He can not change the nature of things in an instant. Instead he must gradually shape the material of the universe to help bring it to its most ideal state. There is a difference between coerced and voluntary systems with voluntary systems far closer to the ideal. Coercion would distort the natural law of consequences as actions naturally lead to their logical conclusions. If intelligent matter was unable to choose and to reap the consequences of its choices, all would become a compound in one and cease to be differentiatable.  Moreover, we see in modern science that the mere attempt to control and direct the path of an electron leads it to a radically different path. How much more so for an intelligent being.

Thus, God would want to create a system through which potential intelligence could be shaped and brought to resemble him.  He would want to help unorganized matter receive a physical body and perfect their intelligence and use of said body. As a perfected being he could no longer increase in intelligence but would be glorified by his ability to help others reach his stature.

(There must be something about the logic of eternal gender but I don’t really know how to argue this at all)

Such a Deity would not be one without passions or emotions. He would sincerely care and love the intelligent beings that he is helping to bring to perfection. Moreover, he could experience particular connections and love to other being. Essentially, his relationship to us would resemble a familial relationship. It would logically follow that we might have an eternal mother as well as a father.

God would help to organize this matter and bring it into his presence. There is a certain amount of growth we can do while in the presence of masters and experts. Yet, there is also quite a bit we can only learn when we go out on our own. Thus, God thought to make a plan to help us further develop and grow.

Satan, Moses 1 and temptation to excess

Today in Sunday school, we began study of the Old Testament by reading Moses 1. Aside from the strangeness of starting to study the Old Testament by looking at another scripture, this was a fantastic lesson focused on how we are Children of God and the focus on this universe. While reading the story of Satan’s temptation of Moses, however, I noticed something that I had not seen before.

In verses 10 and 11, the God has withdrawn from the presence of Moses after a grant and personal revelation. Moses is left weakened and fragile. In this state, Moses reflects on the nature of man and emerges with a valuable sense of humility.

“10 And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.

11 But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him.”

Moses realized that compared to God we are nothing. He has just discovered that God is an infinite being of power whose presence he can but hardly endure.

The realization that I had was how linked this utterance of Moses is to what comes next

“ 12 And it came to pass that when Moses had said these words, behold, Satan came tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man, worship me.”

As soon as Moses makes his statement of humility and realizes his insignificance in comparison to God, Satan comes to appeal to this sense and insignificance and demand worship.  To me, this reveals something pretty striking about the way Satan works. Satan is a being that loves to encourage extremes. Moses has declared that he is nothing, and so Satan comes and calls him Son of Man and demands worship. Moses has come to this profound epiphany and here comes Satan trying to pervert it to his gain.

Satan does not care very much towards what vice he is able to tempt you. You can be sure, that if by contrast Moses had been exalting his stature as a Son of God after his encounter, that Satan would have played off of these feelings encouraging Moses to embrace his own divine nature just as he does when tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden (“ye shall be as gods”; Genesis 3: 5). Satan would have encouraged Moses’s pride and his arrogance just as fully as he presses his subservience and lowliness.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this in regard to how Satan manages to pervert our understanding of the atonement. Satan is a master of encouraging us to take extreme views: Either we do not need the atonement because we can do it on our own, or we cannot accept it because our sins and mistakes are too great. We must learn to find middle ground and to see ourselves as valuable without seeing ourselves as self-sufficient.

Indeed, I am quite convinced that finding this type of balance is one of the most important things we can master on the pathway to becoming like our father in heaven. Jewish thought often conceives of God as being driven by two competing attributes  Justice and Mercy. God cannot let either of these dominate to the exclusion of the other. He must extract justice and yet is also the God that Enoch sees weeping (Moses 7: 28). He has mastered the balancing act between these extremes. We too must come to avoid temptation to excess in our emotions and our attitudes.

“Heaven House” rather than “Hell House”

I just watched the movie Hell House which is a documentary about a “Hell House” put on around Halloween time by Conservative Christian Trinity Church in Cedar Hill Texas. Since Trinity pioneered this phenomenon several decades ago, the concept has spread across the country and many other major churches have made their own versions. The purpose of a hell house is basically to scare everyone that enters into accepting Jesus Christ. Thus, they portray vignettes of domestic violence, rape, suicide, abortion etc. in great graphic detail. Later, they show all of the characters roasting and being tormented in hell eternally. The only person that is ultimately saved is one that lived a “life of sin” but has a death bed conversion literally confessing his sins in the last minute of his life. It seems to me, that this way of teaching the gospel is absolutely dangerous and degrading. For instance, the hell house is very insensitive to rape victims. The devil character mocks them and often provokes these characters to commit suicide. Yet, instead of finding a loving father that understands their weakness and gives them comfort and forgiveness, they are cast into hell eternally and suffer. Ultimately this just seems inconsistent with the love of God and the very purpose of humanity. Though we don’t know every detail, I am so thankful for the additional revelation and light that we hold that allows us to live a life of joy rather than fear.

All of this led me to contemplate whether Latter Day Saints should offer a competing product during Halloween time. I think that someone should develop a “heaven house” that could show people the grandeur of Gods plan of salvation and encourage them to come to Christ by appreciating his glory rather than fearing the consequences. Just as in the hell house, there would be little vignettes, but they would be centered around the plan of salvation. Thus, we could see the divine council, the earthly minister of Christ etc. We could also see glimpses of the Glory that awaits us in the Kingdoms of God. Life situations could be displayed, but ultimately I think with a focus on how the light of Christ is constantly intersecting with our lives. Above all, I think that we would focus on God as loving father rather than cruel despot. I don’t know if there would be any audience for this, but I think it would be an interesting experiment. I imagine that people ultimately will achieve a deeper true conversion in their heart if they go through a process that focuses on love rather than terror and hell