I just figured out life. Hah!

So. This is how it works. We are here to learn to find/have/create joy. There is no joy without growth. There is no growth without opposition. Therefore: not only can we find joy in adversity, but we cannot have joy without it. Or conversely; opposition and adversity (when survived) lead to growth, which leads to joy. Notice my word choice; JOY. Not happiness, which tends to be less deep and more temporary, and can come from things like comfort, pleasure, validation, sunshine and rainbows, etc. Joy, which is what God experiences and wants us to experience, must be earned, and it ain't no happy-meal prize. Which means that when they are handled rightly, the rough spots in life should end up being the best things that ever happened to us.

Does that make any sense?

Let's back this up. President Thomas S. Monson obviously understood this principle when he spoke in last month's General Conference. He related one of the most heartbreaking stories I've ever heard, about a woman who lost her husband to the violence of WWII and watched her four children die slowly of the cold and starvation of having to travel on foot from East Prussia to West Germany in the dead of winter. She dug the graves of her first three children in the frozen ground with a tablespoon, and for her last child, all she had left was her hands. When she arrived at her destination, alone and with nothing, she was in the advanced stages of starvation. President Monson said she spoke in a church meeting soon afterwards, "stating that of all the ailing people in her saddened land, she was one of the happiest, because she knew that God lived, that Jesus is the Christ, and that He died and was resurrected so that we might live again." President Monson closed his talk with these words: "My beloved brothers and sisters, fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith."

I think to many of us who were raised LDS, this principle is sometimes fairly obvious. Sometimes not. It's all through the scriptures (check out 2 Nephi 2 for instance), the words of the prophets, and for most of us, life experience. I don't know why this just seems so important right now. I mean, it always is, but right now the concept of the symbiosis of joy and pain seems especially pertinent.

Let's be honest. We live in kind of sobering times. A lot of people are scared. Fear and despair run rampant over the earth, corruption and deception and uncertainty ooze from just about every corner, and there are wars and earthquakes and all sorts of stuff going on, both at home and abroad. We live in the day prophesied when "the love of many shall wax cold, and men's hearts shall fail them." And no wonder. Life ain't getting any easier, and certainly no less complicated. But ladies and gentlemen, we have it good, and we have nothing to worry about. "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." I used to read that to mean that those who are sufficiently prepared will be able to avoid a lot of the hardships that those less prepared will have to face. Now I'm not so sure; I think it's not how much we can avoid or escape hardship so much as how we approach it, and those who are prepared shall not fear because: A. they know Who is in charge, and where to go for guidance, revelation, and light. B. They understand that they can choose how they react to adversity, both internally and externally (read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl). C. They understand that as long as they are doing what they know is right, nothing can ever be permanently wrong. (Conversely, those who choose not to live according to their better judgement will soon find that nothing will ever be permanently right. => Fear.) Those who are prepared know how to trust the Lord in all circumstances, and know that "all things shall work together for their good." Like my grandma used to say: "Everything turns out all right in the end, and if it ain't right yet, it ain't the end yet."

I did it again. I'm so preachy this week! But you know what I mean. Actually, I think this is mostly just for me; I've realized recently how grateful I am for the rough things I've had to go through - nothing hugely tragic or heart-wrenching, but you know. Everyone hits points in their lives when they feel like they are living by a thread. It's truly amazing how much richer my life has become after I've come out of those dark spots. And man, how grateful I am for the strength of that little thread!

So all I'm trying to say is, chin up. Be of good cheer, because you don't necessarily have to eke out a meager survival from those hard times if you do your best to squeeze every drop of wisdom you can get out of that lemon. And as to the future, guys, it's gonna be great. Crazy, but great. :)