Follow the Path of Joy by H. Wallace Goddard
LDS Social Services Seminar, 24 April 1993, Atlanta
"I had gone to scout camp every summer for several years. But one year was different from others. On the first day of camp a distinct impression came to me: "Your little sister has been bitten by a rattlesnake." Rattlesnakes were not uncommon around our mountain home and Lorene played outside often. I fretted: "Shall I ask my scoutmaster to hike out of our mountain retreat and rive me home? What can I do for Lorene? Will she die?" I was miserable. The camp lasted 5 days. Ever day I worried. Every day I wondered if I should ask to be taken home. It seemed like an eternity... but finally the week ended. As we drove up to the house my heart was pounding... There was Lorene in the front yard riding her trike. No one had seen a snake all week.
What had happened? Why had I been so sure and so wrong? The answer is simple (though I didn't think of it for 20 years): the devil. Misery is his specialty. And lies are his tools. He especially loves "low-grade" misery such as I experienced at scout camp: I had no peace as I worried and fretted all week but I was not so miserable that I got help such as wise counsel from a scoutmaster. I was trapped in my misery.
I witnessed an example of low-grade misery in a recent temple recommend interview. The good brother who had come to me for a recommend confessed that he did not feel worthy of a recommend. I asked him the reasons. Well, he still feels tempted and just doesn't feel that he is doing everything he can. Any sins or misdeeds? No. Just don't feel worthy. Reading the scriptures, attending meetings, wanting to be acceptable to God? Yes. And he began to weep. We talked about the voice of God. If there are things amiss in his life God will be glad to direct him in helpful, specific ways. He will invite him to repent and have joy. But God does not nag, chide, badger, bedevil, heckle, henpeck, plague, or scold. He invites, entices, encourages, teaches, guides, and loves. His feeling of unworthiness was probably a message from the devil, not Father. Father will give him support and guidance in repentance. Satan sends discouragement. Messages from Satan do no deserve our attention.
Sometimes we assume that the devil's objective is to get us to sin. But The Book of Mormon tells us that his objective is to make us miserable. Getting us to sin is one way he can accomplish that living, no hope in Christ, no faith in redemption, no love for others. In fact, it must be fiendishly delightful to him when he can get us working hard to be good while feeling miserable that we are not better. We don't have to sin to be miserable. We only have to believe Satan's lies.
Anytime the message we feel is disabling guilt, we may know that the message is not coming from Father. Even the godly sorrow associated with sin has a sweetness that accompanies broken-heartedness. We feel miserable that we would offend our dearest friend; but we feel the warmth of His infinite love. We feel hope. We feel in invitation to be clean. We feel welcomed. Even after committing sin, God greets the penitent as He did the prodigal son, with open arms and the royal robe.
The devil deals in all forms of misery including anxiety, guilt, doubt, hate and fear. A good friend was visiting in our home, expressing her feelings and asking for advice. "I'm so concerned. I have a nagging worry that our little boy is going to fall in the canal and drown. I worry about it all the time... We need to move to another neighborhood."
"By their fruits ye shall know them." The friend's anxiety is a good example of that nagging, disabling feeling that comes from Satan. It is possible that the family should move to get away from the canal. But instruction from God will come with sweetness and guidance. If her son fall sin the canal, she may receive specific instruction to take specific action. But God does not nag. Anxiety is disabling. It is not from God. When the devil can get us feeling both disturbed and helpless at the same time, he is fiendishly pleased.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith," (Galatians 5:22)
The devil uses not only emotions that are clearly negative, such as anxiety, but also emotions that we may mistake as useful, necessary, or from God. Built provides a good case in point. Guilt comes from the devil. Godly sorrow comes from Father. They may seem very similar. But the difference between them is the difference between their sources. The devil wants us to be discouraged, to give up, to hate ourselves, even to be absorbed in our badness. The Lord wants us to recognize that we are unable to be saved and cleansed without His help. As Moses said: "I am nothing, which thing I had never known." Mosiah talks of our nothingness, worthless and fallen state. But the Lord would have us use this awareness to realize our dependence upon God, to call upon His power, and to come to "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." He is fully able to cleanse, strengthen, purify, and perfect us. If the feeling we have about our sins causes us to give up, it is from Satan. If the feeling causes us to call upon Father in earnest humility, it is from God.
Doubt is another of the devil's tools. Nathaniel Hawthorne said of one of his friends: "He can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief." Just as the devil would have it. Neither enjoying the joy that the Lord offers nor feeling good about rejecting it. "Damned if the does and damned if he doesn't."
Think about times that you have felt doubt. Maybe you have read an anti-Mormon diatribes and wondered, "Are we mistaken? Are our beliefs as foolish as they make them seem?" I think the important questions is: If we were mistaken, would God ridicule us? No. God would lead us to greater truth. Doubt is not one of his derision and scorn. Doubt is a clear sign of his work. The devil would have us jettison the many witnesses and abundant joy we have experienced just because someone can parody our belief. He knows that double is easier than faith. He doesn't have anything better to offer. He only gives gnawing, miserable skepticism. But Father's messages of joy should be our guide. He testifies of abundant truth.
Satan also loves anger. He wants us to believe that our feelings of anger are justified. "I was angry because of what my neighbor did. After all, he needed to know that what he did was wrong. So I got angry and told him off." The implications is tat the neighbor will be better off for our anger, and that we are justified (even righteous) if we call them to repentance.
When the Lord said "Judgment is mine," I think He was saing that only one who knows everything and loves perfectly can be trust with judgment. Mortals ought to be very content to work with mercy. Many eyars ago it became clear to me that I do not have the right to try to correct anyone I do not love. If I am feeling indignant, angry, or antagonistic, I am unable to help.
Anger comes from the devil. We should ask the Lord for charity to replace judgment, anger, meanness and hate with loving, forgiving, understanding, and helping.
One of the most poignant examples of the principle of joy came in an experience with a beloved friend who shared with me his difficutly in making a career decision. He worried that he was not in tune with the spirit. He felt that the Lord would not guide him because he had disappointed the Lord many times over the previous 20 years. As he tried to make this major decision he doubted his own ability to get inspiration. He feared that he would make a bad decision and ruin his family and professional life. He asked my advice. Two suggestions came to mind:
1, CAST OUT ALL EVIL. Recognize that uncertainty, misery, and doubt (especially self-doubt) are from the devil. Cast them out.
2. FOLLOW THE PATH OF JOY. Take time for peaceful meditation. Consider the career options. Then, without defenses, excuses and worries, sense which course brings the greater joy. Don't let your worries block what your should can say to you. Your soul knows what is right for you.
The Lord said: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and yea shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matt. 11:28-30)
The Lord's use of a yoke must have been a very fitting metaphor for a chosen people that were chafing in submission to a gentile nation. The Lord does not promise that there will be no labor in pulling the load. But if I were called upon to pull a lad and if I were yoked side by side with my beloved Savior, no lad would be too great. I would be pleased to be yoked with Him.
Moroni says "All things which are good cometh of Christ." (Moroni 7:24) All things. If it is not good (purposeful, useful, joyous), it is not from Him.
The name "Satan" means "accuser" (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible). He has been called the accuser, slanderer, spoiler, and enemy. [See Bible Dictionary "Devil"]
The Savior poignantly describes His relationship with us in Doctrine and Covenants 45:3-5. It is very different from that of the "Accuser." Picture the scene He describes as He escorts us to the judgment bar.
Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him--
Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did not sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of the Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be gloried;
Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.
Jesus brings us to the judgment bar to plead our case, offering his suffering in paying for our sins. It is a sad perverion of His love that we often think of Jesus as an accuser rather than our advocate! He is the Prince of Peace. Not contention. He sends peace within people so that there may be peace between people. He is in the business of Joy.
George Q. Cannon has said:
Whenever darkness fills our minds, we may know that we are not possessed of the Spirit of God, and we must get rid of it. When we are filled with the Spirit of God we are filled with joy, with peace and with happiness no matter what our circumstances may be; for it is a spirit of cheerfulness and of happiness... Gospel Truth, p.17
May the Lord bless us to recognize His loving voice. And to follow it on the Path to Eternal Joy."
