In my third year of high school, we had a stake reorganization. Wards going this way and that, best friends ripped unduly from their friend's bossom...It was pretty dramatic stuff. I still remember snickering at the song selection for the meeting. "Thy Will Be Done, Oh Lord", and even more dramatically, "I'll Go Where you Want me to Go". The split ended up alright for my family actually, and we found ourselves in a ward where I found a real home through my last two years of school. However, my father's comments our first testimony Sunday after the great divide have continued with me. He said, "I think Heavenly Father cares about our happiness...but I don't think he really cares about our being comfortable." Lewis mirrors this same sentiment in his early work 'The Problem of Pain'. He says,
"The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world...The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God."
If we get too safe, too comfortable, then what need have we for God? Going on he says,
"but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy."
Though life is often scary, hard and insecure, the swath of worry is often punctuated by joy. Where as security in the world creates distance from God, "a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony...have no such tendency." God gives us happiness, just in brief bursts rather than sustained harmonies. The long term joy is reserved for heaven.
Apologies...tonight is brief. Sleepy! But next time, maybe we'll get a little '4 Loves' mumbo jumbo, which promises to be good...:) Love!
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