Every day we search for happiness—every one of us. There is not one living person who does not desire to be happy. Unfortunately, very often we mistake pleasure for happiness and since pleasure is more widely available we desperately grab onto it and hope it will make us happy.
Drugs, alcohol, even over eating can be a source of momentary pleasure that does not bring us the lasting happiness we crave. The world is full of sources of pleasure that are appealing on the surface, but can’t deliver the soul-healing joy that we were created to experience.
David O. McKay, then of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (or Mormons,) once said, “You may get that transitory pleasure, yes, but you cannot find joy, you cannot find happiness. Happiness is found only along that well beaten track, narrow as it is, though straight, which leads to life eternal” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1919, 180.)
In Leonard Tolstoy’s book War and Peace, his character Pierre Bezúkhov learn “that man is created for happiness, that happiness is within him, in the satisfaction of simple human needs, and that all unhappiness arises not from privation but from superfluity” (trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude [1942], 1176.)
Here, Pierre is stating that it’s not for going without that brings us unhappiness, but excess. It’s not for having too little, but having too much.
Too often, we strive for more. We are a culture of overabundance and we are not any happier because of it. Rather, our obesity, our dependence on recreational drugs, is at an all-time high. We are drowning in our superfluity and we are not happy.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ can provide you with a plan for your own life that will yield you happiness unmeasured, without end. “The assurance of supreme happiness, the certainty of a successful life here and of exaltation and eternal life hereafter, come to those who plan to live their lives in complete harmony with the gospel of Jesus Christ—and then consistently follow the course they have set” (The Miracle of Forgiveness [1969], 259.)
Decide today to make Christ’s plan of happiness your own. Make it the blueprint for your life. Forsake the lure of fleeting happiness and grasp instead, that joy that is yours for the taking—a life well lived in the gospel of Christ, your feet firm on the narrow path that leads you to life and joy eternal.
