This week's Come, Follow Me lesson focused a lot on how we can experience joy, despite our afflictions, and that works well enough for those of us who don't suffer much, but I wonder how a message like that might sound to someone who suffers much more than I do.
They say that happiness is affected more by our attitude than our circumstances, but our circumstances aren't all that bad, especially compared to others'. I suppose I should only speak for myself, but I've got a pretty decent life. I'm not rich, but I don't suffer from poverty either. I never worry about not having enough food to eat. I never worry that my utilities might get shut off. And when a problem arises that I can't solve on my own, I'm confident that I hire someone to solve it for me, assuming I don't already know someone who'd be willing to help me for free. All told, I live in fairly terrific circumstances. Sure, I can experience joy and happiness despite my circumstances not being completely perfect, but what about those who are far worse off than I am? What about those who experience true poverty and affliction? What about those who experience constant pain and/or fear for their lives? There are countless people, in this country and many others, whose situation is far less agreeable than mine is. Can they find joy and happiness, too?
Perhaps, if they consider the eternal perspective. Life is short (on the eternal timescale), and those who faithfully endure afflictions they didn't deserve will receive great blessings in the afterlife. If one believes that, perhaps they can bear their afflictions with enough patience that it's possible for them to see the silver lining to their suffering and perhaps even experience some joy.
It's easy for me, a person who doesn't suffer much, to say that attitude is everything, and there are some people who, historically, experienced joy, even in the face of terrible suffering, but I think that experiencing such joy in the face of such suffering takes more than just a positive attitude. I think it also takes a certain amount of belief in the fact that, in the end, everything that is unfair about life will be made fair through the power of the Atonement. Those who experienced unearned suffering will be compensatarily blessed, and those who caused unearned suffering will receive their just desserts. If one believes that God is ultimately kind and fair, perhaps one can experience joy, even in mortality, despite the fact that mortal life usually isn't kind or fair.
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