Climbing for Joy

I once had a dream I was climbing a ladder.  It was the longest ladder you could ever imagine and it went straight up the side of the sheer rocky face of the tallest mountain.  My ladder was just one of many.  I was discouraged by the great height I had to climb, but found that when I looked upward, I climbed faster.  I wanted to scale that ladder quickly, but I still could only do it one step at a time.  What was I climbing to? The top.  I couldn’t really see it, but I knew I wanted badly to get there.

Unlike almost all my other dreams, I still remember this one as vividly as the night I dreamt it decades ago.  This year I think I finally figured out what I am climbing for.  I recognized the answer in the words of C.S. Lewis, my favorite author.  He said, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”  My in-depth study of the Book of Mormon this year adds an exclamation point to that truth.  I now know that I am climbing for joy.  I think we are all climbing for joy.

I’ve been learning about joy, one step on the ladder at a time.  This is some of what I have learned through my Book of Mormon study this year:

1. Joy is "the most desirable fruit.” (1 Nephi 8:12) It is not merely happiness.  It is not merely the absence of pain.  It is not merely pleasure.  In fact, pleasures too often become the enemy of joy.
2. “Men are that they might have joy.” (2 Nephi 2:25) Heavenly Father wants each one of us to have joy.
3. Joy is a choice. Free agency is the gift that allows us to accept the gift of joy.  “But he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.” (Alma 29:5, Alma 22:13-15)
4. As we share our knowledge and testimony of Christ and the gospel plan with others, our joy can increase. (Alma 29:9)