The Lord said: “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39) God has everything. Why do you think he described his work and his glory in terms of the growth of others?
God has all power. Why do you suppose “He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world”? (2 Nephi 26:24)
Isaiah wrote that in spite of the tremendous suffering Jesus would endure here, there would come a point where it would seem worthwhile to him:
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his <u>seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall</u> prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53)
During the Lord’s mortal ministry he prayed for those he ministered to in their presence. Afterward, he said, “...Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.” (3 Nephi 17:20) In saying this, Jesus did not mean that all the negative aspects of his experience had magically disappeared from his perception. Rather, he was making a statement of the value he derived from what he was experiencing in that moment. To him, the greatest value he could (and can) experience was leveraging all he had done to bless those who would receive it. This momentary event was sufficient to fill him with joy—to make everything up to that point worthwhile.
God chooses to define his happiness in terms of the happiness of others his actions create.
If we want to obtain maximal joy—the joy God possesses—the only way to obtain it is by adopting his views, character, and works. That means complete charity—complete submission to the benefit of others, at any cost. It means that you arrange everything you are and can be, and everything you do and can do, to maximize the benefit you can give to the world.
Arbitrarily derived joy tends to be self-focused. People like this fix their happiness on what they find joy in, rather than what provides joy to others. This limits the joy they experience to what is inside of them, which will always be far less than the sum total of what is inside everyone else.
If your motivation is limited to your own progression, you will hit an absolute limit in your progress. This limit is far less than the quantity of darkness that exists in this life. If your primary motivation is anything but the benefit of others, you will collapse far before the journey is over. You will quit before you overcome all things. At some point, your selforientation has to shift to altruism. Most won’t dare reach this point. Of those who do, most will only think they do. Life will not hesitate to blast you with ample situations to illustrate where your heart really is.
Life is somewhat like figure skating. You can be quite amazing on your own but, simply put, there are things you just can’t do alone. If you really want to execute the flips and tosses and spins, you have to find someone to do them with. You can magnify your joy by finding others who receive the light you have and/or people from whom you can receive light. Like an electric arc, what you have with them will be far greater than what you could experience alone.
If you desire a fullness of joy, you likewise must acquire sincere empathy for others. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Lord taught that we are responsible for all those for whom we could do good (see Luke 10:29-37). How many people will you allow yourself to consider your fellowmen?
“He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.” (Proverbs 14:21) How much will you allow yourself to care for your fellowmen?
Serving others is not a box to check. “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.” (Mosiah 2:17) True dedication to the benefit of others will expand joy far beyond the finite bounds of what an individual can obtain in any other way:
9 ...and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.
10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me. (Alma 29)
24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
25 Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors.
26 For because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God. (Alma 36)
When you help others encounter more joy, your joy breaks through the limit of what you can experience from your own growth. You experience the joy of those you help, the joy of those they help, and so on, in an eternal chain.
A single man, no matter how productive, can only do so much by himself. If he turns his labors to inspiring others, his limit of contribution will expand to include the amplified works of those he inspires. If he can show them, in turn, how to inspire others, his contribution and his joy become unlimited. As long as your sense of happiness is derived from what you alone feel, your happiness will be limited, or finite. When you learn to rejoice in the joy of others, your happiness becomes unlimited, or infinite. Serving others is the way you achieve unlimited happiness—there is no other way.
We have lost the ability to experience joy vicariously. Jacob said:
Behold, my beloved brethren, I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and lift up your heads forever, because of the blessings which the Lord God shall bestow _upon your children_ . (2 Nephi 9:3)
Jacob invited his audience to find great joy in these promises, quoted from Isaiah, even though the people he was speaking to would never experience their fulfillment, and those who would were many generations in the future.
It is good to learn to value the happiness of others and to experience it vicariously through them. With that vicarious capability comes the necessary opposite—you also feel the sorrow of others. If you have understanding that exceeds theirs, you will feel commensurately greater sorrow, because you will be aware of all the things they are doing and not doing that detract from their happiness. They may be lumbering along in blindness to the fact that they are about to encounter some awful things that they could avoid if they just put their trust in truth. You will feel all the pain of what they have not yet experienced, plus more because you will know it could be avoided. For you, it will be as if it is already occurring, even if it is a future event.
A story from the life of Enoch illustrates the role of concern for others in your search for joy. Enoch “received a fulness of joy” but only after “the Lord showed Enoch all things....” (Moses 7:67) Included in “all things” was his view of the suffering of men and the salvation of those who would seek and follow God. In order to receive a fullness of joy, Enoch first required the ability to experience the feelings of others as if they were his own. Only after he perceived the sorrow of men and God could he comprehend and receive the joy accompanying their salvation (see Moses 7:28).
Rejoice when you suffer afflictions. When you trust God and use each trial as a way to learn what you lack to overcome it, you will also acquire knowledge that you can then share with everyone else you meet. You will find limitless joy in the possibility that your toil prevented them from having to endure the same:
And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me! (D&C 18:16)
Our suffering for others is required, because it is the only way they can perceive how great love God has for them. It is through seeing our pain and toil for them that they realize just how much God loves them. Through that sacrifice, they are enabled to then love others according to their increased understanding of how God loves them. In doing so, they will receive a fullness of joy.
Paul taught:
1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
2 Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
3 For even Christ pleased not himself... (Romans 15)
How deep and how wide will you allow your heart to expand? Will you permanently prevent your heart from waxing cold? Will you suffer to the greatest depths for the benefit of others without quitting?
The only way to obtain a fullness of joy is to love others as God has loved you:
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. (John 13:34)
Do this, and you will have joy, abundant and everlasting.