Sabbath Delights: Pleasure and Joy

There are many things I find pleasurable in this world. Freshly washed blankets, warm peach cobbler, and early summer air, just to name a few. But no matter how soft and beautiful the blanket, it quickly loses its fresh smell and eventually its soft touch. The peach cobbler, while perfectly delicious in the moment will leave an aching belly in its wake if I am not careful. And that morning air turns hot and sticky much faster than I'd like. These simple things are very real and very enjoyable, but don't last long.

In Sunday School today, we discussed what it means to be happy. Many in this world claim happiness in spite of their disregard for commandments and moral laws. People are ignorantly content with their freshly washed blankets, or so to speak. They do not see a need for more because they are already happy. The pleasures of this world are bountiful and nearly limitless, but they are also hollow and with unreliable. President David O. Mckay's sums it up:

There is meant to be so much more to life than a fun camping trip, round of golf, or even warm peach cobbler.

But unfortunately for us narrow-minded humans, joy is not as easily obtained as is pleasure. We must develop the capacity to feel it. It was once explained to me like this: when we experience pain it is as if a great reservoir is being dug within us. The deeper our sufferings the deeper the well. A large hole will remain carved by the injustice, betrayal or rejection we have endured. Because of Christ's sacrifice, however, that hole can now become a reservoir for joy. We can hold more of it because of the hole carved by suffering. Our capacity for joy is increased. That is part of the reason we need adversity in our lives. Because of him no pain ever need be permanent. Rather, that pain elevates us to higher ground.

Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles posted the following on his Facebook page:

"I spent some time during our summer break time reading C. S. Lewis’s "The Great Divorce." I was intrigued by much of what I read. One quote in particular that I... have continued to ponder is:

“[Mortals] say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say ‘Let me but have this and I’ll take the consequences’: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, ‘We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,’ and the Lost, ‘We were always in Hell.’ And both will speak truly.”

Rather than have our mistakes, disappointments, struggles, and trials push us “downward,” we can use them to help us build toward heaven. That is what it means to come unto Christ. As we allow His atoning sacrifice to redeem us, heal us, and strengthen us, we become what we came to earth to become."

How grateful I am to know, and believe, that because of him my time on earth has meaning and purpose. Because of him we can all find joy again.