Dare to dream
Life is full of disappointments. Don’t misinterpret these to mean that great things aren’t possible. Disappointments don’t indicate that your desires were false or unachievable. They only indicate you haven’t yet discovered what it takes to find the real, enduring object of your desire.
Even your greatest dreams are less than what God desires to grant you. Think of the greatest outcomes you could ever imagine for yourself in life. Now, realize that if you seek God with all your might, mind, and strength, what he will lead you to is unequivocally better than that.
Paul said:
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)
If you limit your dreams, you will unavoidably limit your actions. Without great hope in the future, you won’t be willing to do what it takes to obtain the best life you could otherwise have.
Don’t be afraid to dream. God will give you far more and far better than you can imagine if you will trust in him and follow him with full purpose of heart.
If you can convince yourself to dare to dream, the next step is actively thinking about what it might take to obtain what you seek. If you stop short by doing less than what you pictured, you already have the reward you are willing to receive:
1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, <u>They have their reward.</u>
3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, <u>They have their reward.</u>
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6)
To obtain what you seek, you must find and walk the path God has appointed for it:
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6)
Of paths and outcomes
A path is what leads to an outcome. An outcome is what happens as a result of traversing the path that leads to it. Typically, choosing an outcome will dictate the path you must traverse to arrive there.
Choosing a path only leads to the desired outcome when you know how to get there. This requires a perfect knowledge of the relationship between cause and effect under those circumstances, which hardly anyone has for hardly anything. Because of this, you can pick the outcome or the path, but usually you can’t pick both.
There is a path to every outcome. We do not get to choose what this path is, only whether to discover it and follow it.
God works by cause and effect. He knows the path to reach whatever outcome we desire. All things happen in this world according to the law ordained by God before this world was created.
Whether we recognize it or not, whenever we obtain any outcome, it is by traversing the path God has appointed to obtain it:
20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (D&C 121)
All outcomes are possible. There is a path leading to each one. The question is whether you are willing to do what it takes to get the outcome, and whether you are willing to receive the outcome in the package it comes in.
Choosing the outcome
Desires. Imagine for a moment that you could have anything you desire. What would you choose? Would you be willing to do anything to get it? If not, consider the possibility that you don’t actually want what you say you want. If there is anything you aren’t willing to do, then not doing the thing you aren’t wanting to do is what you really want, not the outcome you say you desire.
Perhaps you dismiss the possibility that what you most desire will require experiencing what you least desire. Maybe it’s not so unlikely. After all, your understanding of cause and effect is seriously limited compared to God’s. Furthermore, we claim to believe in a God that requires the sacrifice of all things. That especially includes the thing you least want to sacrifice.
You can have anything you desire. Or rather, you receive the outcomes of all paths you traverse: “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” (Matthew 7:8)
4 ...I know that <u>[God] granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he</u> allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction.
5 Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but <u>he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires,</u> whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience. (Alma 29)
Why is it necessary to know the difference between good and evil in order to receive according to your desire? Because “good” things are those which lead to better outcomes and “evil” things are what lead to anything else.
When you have the capability of discerning what benefits and what does not, you become responsible for the outcomes you receive. You are “given according to [your] desires.”
Wishes vs. desires. We get sloppy when it comes to differentiating between desires and wishes. You wish when you say you want something while being unwilling to do what it takes to get it. Desire, on the other hand, requires doing what it takes to obtain a certain outcome.
Saying you want an outcome is not the same as actually desiring it. For example, many people say they want to go to heaven, but do any of them live after the manner of heaven? How many actually keep God’s laws without deviation—a requirement to live in his kingdom?
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)
Wishes require the severing of the link between cause and effect. You will never experience anything that doesn’t have a cause, and you will never permanently obtain anything for which the price has not been paid. Fulfillment of desires requires finding the set of causes that produce the desired effect.
Temptations vs. desires. The Lord has instructed us over and over to ask him for what we need, promising that he will give it to us:
And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive - and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive. (Alma 7:23)
7 Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
8 For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (3 Nephi 14)
In spite of these and many other injunctions to ask for what we desire, most Christians tend to try to suppress their desires. They misunderstand scriptures such as “...bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love...” (Alma 38:12)
To bridle one’s passions is not the same as to quench them! To bridle means to steer:
For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body: Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. (James 3:2)
While God has commanded us to bridle our passions, he never told us that desires are bad. In fact, the scriptures suggest that passions are absolutely necessary to provide us motivation and endurance as we seek to fulfill our desires.
It is not in our desires that we sin, but in the means we incorrectly choose for fulfilling them. Temptation is not about what you desire, but rather describes a non-effectual path to that desire. For example, someone experiencing same-sex attraction may believe that their happiness lies in a homosexual relationship. If indulged, they will, in time, find that what they sought in a homosexual relationship was not to be found there. All good things come from God, and enduring good things can’t be found outside of the paths he provides.
God knows best how to fulfill what we yearn for. It is only when we subject our limited human understanding to God’s perfect understanding that we will find what we yearn for. Sooner or later, we will find that the path to actually obtain what we seek aligns perfectly with God’s commandments. We can either immediately trust him and take the shortest path to our goal, or we can assume we know better than him only to admit later that he was right all along.
Surface-level desires will contradict God’s commandments, because humans assign the fulfillment of their desires to things that can’t actually fulfill them. If we introspectively search into what we really yearn for, we will find that at their core, all human desires eventually arrive at joy. Those who seek joy directly will find it, and they will find it directly from God.
Those who do not seek joy directly will be waylaid by a path to something lesser—something that is fleeting and limited.
Temptation is found in anything that deviates from the path to the outcome we desire. Temptation is seeking effects in causes that do not produce them. For example, this is what James refers to as asking according to our lusts:
1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot <u>obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.</u>
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. (James 4)
Lusting is not the same as desiring! Lusting is seeking an outcome outside of the path God has ordained to obtain it. It is to seek what is not real; what is vain and fleeting.
In this case, the people James describes traverse a path that doesn’t lead to the outcome they wish for, then they are surprised at not receiving the outcome.
The wrong path will never result in the right outcome. As Alma put it, “...wickedness never was happiness.” (Alma 41:10)
Temptation is only possible when the information possessed is incomplete or incorrect. The cure for temptation is more or better information. It isn’t, as most assume, the stifling of desire. Desires are informed by, constrained by, and driven by information. If you sincerely believe a certain path can’t deliver the outcome that some think it does, you will not be tempted to traverse it, period.
If information is the cure for temptation, why doesn’t God give you everything he knows? Weightlifting provides a good analogy to understand this mystery. Suppose that the challenges of the world require strength to overcome. To drop 500lbs on your chest during a benchpress would not help you get stronger—it would kill you. In order to progress in strength, there is a gradual process that consists in structured lifting of progressively heavier weights combined with sufficient nutrition and recovery to grow. In the process of time, you can get to the point where you can lift heavy weights, but there is no other way to achieve this outcome.
You can only gain information as fast as you seek it, obey it, and value it. Those interested in this topic should read the author’s book, The Glory of God is Intelligence.
Discovering the path
Most people discover the path to the outcomes they seek through some combination of random guessing, educated guessing, and rational study and thought. All of these tools can result in successful outcomes. None, however, guarantees that every step taken is the most direct approach to the outcome sought. Even with the strongest rational thought process, one is limited to the value of the available information.
God knows every path to every outcome. When anyone obtains any outcome it is only because they have discovered and followed the path that God already knew. This is true whether or not the individual recognizes this is the case. As before quoted:
20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (D&C 121)
It is possible to discover the path to a given outcome without explicitly considering or believing in God. It happens all the time, all over the world. However, given that God already knows the way, and therefore possesses the most valuable information available, why not seek him, whatever your desired outcome may be?
We act as if we know how to fulfill our desires. We make decisions big and small every moment without having the slightest clue of how things will turn out or what we ought to be seeking. While it is true that a great deal of wisdom can be learned in this world, at the end of the day we must honestly admit that we are woefully inadequate in our ability to navigate this world.
The Lord informs us bluntly that our best thoughts will often be inadequate:
5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. (Proverbs 3)
Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works. (Jacob 4:10)
He knows the path to the outcomes we seek—we do not: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” (Isaiah 55:8)
Even those who appeal to God in their decision making tend to do so from the presumption that they have any clue what they are talking about. We ask God to intervene in our lives to make things happen as we imagine they will or ought to. We don’t even think to ask whether they can happen the way we imagine. We don’t submit to his perfect knowledge and wisdom of both what is possible and what is right.
When you seek any outcome in any but the way God has appointed, you can fool yourself into thinking you have or will receive it. However, the end of any such attempts will always be greater sorrow than you would have otherwise had. There really is no other way, and trying to force one or find a shortcut will inevitably result in more pain. Typically, the pain occurs during a violent snap back to reality from whatever illusion you have constructed. In other words, you go through at least as much pain as you would have if you had simply trusted God, but you gain none of the outcomes you would have acquired if you had followed God.
One of the many ways his “thoughts are not [our] thoughts” is in the limits we unceasingly place on the paths we are willing to consider to reach our desired outcomes. We insert all sorts of expectations and constraints on what we are willing to do to reach our desired outcome. While on occasion the path to our desired outcome does not hit the wall of our selfimposed limits, there are many outcomes from which we will be permanently cut off without being truly open-minded.
To avoid obstacles, you ought to consider what you really desire. Do you desire the outcome you think you desire, or is it more important that you encounter or avoid the criteria you have artificially set along the way? You ought to think of what you actually seek and not the packaging it might come in. You ought to think of outcomes and not the means to obtain them:
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. (Isaiah 55:2)
You ought to ask God about both, knowing that you will probably get to choose one or the other.
The scriptures are replete with examples of outcomes whose paths ventured into the taboos of those who sought them. Naaman the Syrian was miraculously healed from leprosy by God, but only after he went to Elijah the prophet instead of the king of Israel, and only after he bathed in the Jordan river instead of a Syrian river. His assumptions of what his healing would look like were completely wrong. If he had insisted on leaning on his own presumptions, he never would have been healed.
In order to obtain every good thing God desires to give you, you must let go of your preconceived notions:
9 For behold, by the power of his word man came upon the face of the earth, which earth was created by the power of his word. Wherefore, if God being able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command the earth, or the workmanship of his hands upon the face of it, according to his will and pleasure?
10 Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take <u>counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he</u> counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works. (Jacob 4)
How much we are willing to detour from our expectations will determine how many of our desires God can fulfill. Those who trust him completely will be led to blessings greater than they can imagine, while those who insist he lead them along paths they know will encounter only a small portion of the blessings he desired to give them:
42 And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them.
43 But the things of the wise and the prudent shall be hid from them forever—yea, that happiness which is prepared for the saints. (2 Nephi 9)
...O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. (2 Nephi 9)
Faith is not wishing. God is no genie. Contrary to popular opinion, which conflates faith with wishing, faith is to seek, discover, and do what God has said will lead to what we seek:
4 Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.
5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
6 Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.
8 Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in <u>the way.</u>
9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach <u>his way.</u>
10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as <u>keep his covenant and his testimonies. (Psalm 25)</u>
Another way of saying this is that the more you know God, the more directly you will traverse the paths to the outcomes you seek.
No matter what you desire, the best way to obtain it is to grow in your understanding of God:
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6)
The more of his knowledge you possess, the more outcomes you will know how to obtain.
Staying on the path
All things are possible, but not in all ways:
But it must needs be done in mine own way; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed... (D&C 104:16)
As the path wends along, it twists and bends in ways that are sure to defy your expectations. There are always conditions to satisfy, and the more significant the outcome, the more likely you are to be surprised by the requirements. If you want a happy marriage, you can get it, but maybe not with the partner your lusts desire. If you want carnal security, you can get it, but maybe not in the career you have a passion for. If you want salvation, you can get it, but maybe not in the religious tradition you grew up in.
The path may be outlandish, but it may be the only way. In Abraham’s case, he had a child only after he (and more importantly after his wife) had passed into old age. There was a way for Abraham and Sarah to have a child: it was through their aging to the point of impossibility. There was a way for Abraham’s son to have an immense posterity as promised to Abraham: it was through Abraham sacrificing him on an altar.
These were not peripheral stories paralleling the main interactions between Abraham and God. These were the very keys that unlocked the outcomes given to Abraham. For instance, in the case of his posterity through Isaac, the Lord said:
16 ...because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22)
Staying on the path requires letting go of what we already have and moving towards what we really want. The path to what you really want may not be totally clear at the outset, and it is very likely to change as you gain more information by traversing it.
Your estimate of the path changes as you learn more and more about the path. Be willing to allow it to change. Remember that the path must be subject to the outcome. It is the outcome you seek, not the path.
Jesus said: “all things [are] possible to him that believeth.” (Mark 9:23) Our challenge is that we are unwilling to trust God enough to traverse the unique, non-negotiable path to obtain them.
Because our hope is based on things we don’t yet fully understand, we ought to be prepared for it to be fulfilled in ways other than what we anticipate. Desire requires doing what it takes to obtain a certain outcome. Since you don’t know the way until you obtain what you desired, you should count on your understanding of what it takes to get it to change. When your understanding of what is required changes, you will have to decide whether you are willing to pay the new price.
To stay on the path, we must be willing to learn and change: in our expectations of how we will arrive, in what we are willing to do, and even in what our destination looks like. Step by step, God will increase our understanding through adding detail to it, correcting mistakes in it, and showing us course corrections to bring us closer to the outcome we seek:
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3)
He will help correct and improve any action or attitude that is not fully aligned to what is required to bring about the outcome you desire. When you walk “in the light,” you are constantly assessing and reassessing the path you have taken. God will give you more information to elucidate the efficacy of your path.
As long as you have not yet obtained your outcome, you can guarantee that something about your path is misaligned with the outcome you desire. Not having what you seek is a clear indication that you haven’t yet fully uncovered the path to get it.
You may be tempted to think that the difference between where you are and where you would like to be is just a matter of something you need to do . Many times, it is also about what you need to become (see, for instance, the chapter, “Joy is value”).
Although we don’t know the complete path until after we’ve traversed it, temporary targets for our hope are still very powerful in spite of being mere placeholders, as we don’t really know the specific circumstances of our general desires.
We won’t recognize the difference between outcomes and milestones along the path until we reach them. We ought to develop the capability of distinguishing between the two when we reach them, and the ability to maintain as great or greater hope as we reach each marker as we had earlier in the journey, in spite of the discernment provided by ever-increasing detail in our growing awareness.
We can hope for any number of situations. The details we add will give us strength as we make specific calculations about cost/benefit. However, we must always remember that it is very unlikely our desires will be fulfilled by God—who knows all things—in the way that we imagine— knowing almost no things. The core true principle is that no matter the details of why, trusting God with all your heart is always the path that will yield the greatest outcomes for you and everyone else.
The supreme target of our hope is provided by our knowledge of the character of Jesus Christ. Because we know he is all powerful, has all joy, knows the path to become like he is, and is capable of escorting mankind to it, we can trust that whatever he subjects us to, no matter how little detail we know of the future or how difficult the path, is precisely what is needed to lead us to greater joy.
Many times the path toward something better is through something worse. We shouldn’t require that current circumstances be indicative of eventual outcomes on a given path. Many, many worthwhile outcomes require temporary but intense hardship. In fact, this pattern is so prominent that it is mentioned frequently in scripture:
12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which <u>is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:</u>
13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with <u>exceeding joy. (1 Peter 4)</u>
2 And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end.
5 ...I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day. (Alma 38)
7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. (D&C 121)
Many times the adversity we experience is an unavoidable part of the path to the outcomes we seek. The Israelites’ path to freedom from Pharaoh was through temporary increased suffering during Moses’ plagues. God brought great riches to the Israelites through having Syria siege the city, then miraculously sending them away in haste, when they left great spoil (see 2 Kings 6-7). The path for the ancient Jaredites to reach the New World was through a long, dark journey on sealed barges through massive ocean waves (see Ether 6).
It is important to remember that it isn’t your current situation that you are after, but long-term outcomes.
All desires lead to joy
As people choose what they desire, and seek what they desire, they will discover themselves in a feedback loop. Depending on what they choose to desire first, they will find themselves in a cycle where each thing they choose to desire proves itself to be a milestone on the path to what they seek rather than what they seek itself. Just as springs form tributaries that flow into a mighty river, with each discovery, the individual will find themselves getting closer and closer to what they really yearn for, deep down inside. All desires move you closer on the path to eventual fullness of joy.
Suppose someone desires to be rich. If they seek riches with all their capability, they will discover that being rich does not fulfill what they really desired. If they are honest, they will have to admit that what they wanted was something more transcendent. If they are wise, they will realize what they really wanted all along was joy, and that they mistakenly believed it to be found in money. This same line of thinking applies to all desires but joy.
It is for this reason that the scriptures instruct us again and again to focus on becoming like God. God is exactly what one needs to be to have a fullness of joy, and a fullness of joy is the greatest thing one can desire.