Our Father in Heaven encourages us to experiment with the Gospel of Jesus Christ - to find out if it's true or false.
The Book of Mormon prophet Alma teaches this principle when he says, "awake and arouse your faculties [meaning all your senses], even to an experiment upon my words" .
Of this great experiment, President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "Each of us has to face the matter - either the Church is true or it is a fraud. There is no middle ground. It is the Church and the Kingdom of God, or it is nothing" (General Conference, April 2003).
Serving as a mission president in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I felt like a gospel scientist with a lab of 350 young experimenters. These were our full-time missionaries whom Joyce and I came to know and love during our three years of service.
As part of this experiment, I expected lives to change. I expected testimonies to grow. I expected blessings to pour down from heaven upon the obedient and humble. And all of this happened in great abundance.
But there was an additional astonishing result that I did not predict from this experiment. And it happened time and time again.
Missionaries are required to send a weekly email to their mission president. I would receive about 150 such emails each week. And when a missionary had been serving for 9-14 months, I would often receive an email with the following first sentence:
"Dear President Murray, I've never been happier in my life."
This was a pleasant and wonderful surprise.
This sentence came from all kinds of missionaries. Those who were honor students in high school or all-star athletes - already familiar with the feelings of satisfaction that come from working hard and accomplishing goals. The statement also came from lots of regular young men and young women - those who had made it through high school, but had never really pushed themselves hard for a sustained period of time. And the statement also came from those who grew up in broken homes with pain-filled lives - where the parents were divorced, where the teachings of Jesus Christ were not utilized, where tension often filled the air and virtue, honor and integrity were unknown attributes.
"President, I've never been happier in my life."
This statement came from missionaries who eagerly entered the mission field with strong testimonies - and from missionaries who reluctantly entered the mission field with no real testimony.
Let's dig into this experiment more deeply. There are two things I want to investigate with you: (1) What was the source of this happiness? and (2) Why did it take 9-14 months for a missionary to experience such happiness?
It is my desire that each of you experience this happiness as young disciples of Jesus Christ. I will teach you how to become happy and stay happy as a promised consequence of proper choices, even when the world around you is falling apart. The things I teach are based on very basic gospel doctrines that are available and applicable to all. It is only when the gospel goes deep down into our hearts that we can find and keep the true recipe for happiness on a daily basis. And this will lead to ultimate success in this life and the life to come.
We often think that happiness is the result of being the recipient of good things. For instance, you study hard for an exam and you receive an "A" for a grade. Bingo! Happiness! You get up your nerve to ask that special girl out on a date. She accepts your invitation. Bingo! Happiness! Your home teacher arrives with a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies. Bingo! Happiness! Or perhaps you receive a letter in the mail from an aunt and she includes a check for $50. Bingo! Happiness!
But if this is the key to happiness - being the recipient of good things - then the opposite must also be true. The key to unhappiness must come from being the recipient of bad things. For instance, you study hard, take the test and get a C-. You get up the nerve to ask out that special girl and she laughs at you. Your home teacher never comes, never mind the cookies that never arrive. Your aunt sends you a letter full of sad and depressing news. No bingo. No happiness.
It's been my experience that there is more bad news than good news over the course of a lifetime. This is especially true for missionaries because they deal with so much rudeness, rejections and disappointments on a daily basis. We would therefore expect our worldwide force of 50,000 missionaries to be the most unhappy, depressed and disheartened group of people in the world.
With hearts full of hope and expectation, missionaries "talk to everyone" , inviting them to come to Christ. And they are met with 99% rejection. This means that for every one "good thing" , they receive 99 "bad things" . Imagine that! Flat out rejection of the most important invitation one can ever receive. How depressing is this!
Not only that, but missionaries are required to live a highly regimented life, full of unusual rules and regulations. They must arise at 6:30AM every morning. They exercise and then study for two hours. Their music must be "approved" music. They can't date, or instant message, or watch TV or movies, or go to sporting events. No secular sociologist or psychologist would consider this a reasonable lifestyle for 19-, 20- and 21-year-olds.
And with 99% rejections and the all these life-style constraints, I still received emails saying, "President, I've never been happier in my life."
What is the source of their happiness? Here is the first key learning from our experiment: The hypothesis that happiness only comes by being the recipient of good things is wrong! And finding the correct answer is important for gospel living because the Lord has plainly taught, "Men are that they might have joy!" (2 Nephi 2:25).
Do you remember Lehi's dream found on page 14 in the Book of Mormon? "Behold, I have dreamed a dream; or, in other words, I have seen a vision."
"I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste. And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies. And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field. And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy."
My dear friends: In this scripture we learn for the first time of the existence of HAPPY FRUIT - "a tree whose fruit was desirable to make one happy" ."And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted."
"Dear President Murray, I am the happiest I have ever been."
Here is a pineapple, a classic Hawaiian fruit. As you can see, this is real HAPPY FRUIT!
What happened to Lehi when he ate some of the fruit?
"And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit."
When you eat this fruit, it transforms your vision and your outlook on life. You literally feel different. You see different. You act and react different. You become happier than you've ever been!
So what does it mean to partake of the fruit? How does one do this? It means to come unto Christ. It means that you have accepted Christ not just as your Savior, but as your blueprint for life. You desire to act as he acted. You desire to react and he reacted. You desire to treat yourself and others as he treated himself and others. You choose to believe his words and to make them your words. Using scripture language, you will "deny all ungodliness" (Moroni 10:32). You will "becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him" (Mosiah 3:19). As the Apostle Paul taught, you have "put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27).
When you commit to truly live, breathe and act like this, then something astonishing happens: God changes you from the inside out! You are transformed. You become a "new creature" (Mosiah 27:26). You feel different because you are literally filled with the love of God.
To become the happiest you've ever been, you must change your mind about the way you deal with life. The Apostle Paul understood this so well when he taught, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). You must change your mind about the way you deal with life.
Even though you have changed, life will continue as it has in the past. There will be good days and bad days. There are good people and bad people. But now you are proactively dealing with life in a profoundly more positive, purposeful way. You are living as one who has come unto Christ. You are yielding to the will of God and it is making all the difference. You can honestly say, "Not my will, but Thine be done," (Luke 22:42). Because of your purity, desire and worthiness, God can now endow you with real, tangible power - emotional power, intellectual power and especially spiritual power.
The reason our missionaries were saying, "Dear President, I'm happier than I've ever been," is that they had yielded their will to God and were living His commandments. And as a result of this, an astounding personal transformation took place - time and time again - provided as a gift from God. It is important to note that faith always preceded this miracle. A missionary willingly chose to be obedient and to thrust himself into the work. Then, after 9-14 months of heavenly sandblasting, a great transformation occurred that changed one's life.
The fruit that makes one happy - in good times and bad - is the pure love of God that we feel in our heart and our mind. We receive this empowering love through our willing obedience to God's laws. And with this love we can endure any trial and overcome all challenges. It arrives when we let go of our own way of living and let God show us how to live. We must "let go and let God" .
But why did it take 9-14 months for the Happy Fruit to start tasting good? Why didn't our missionaries feel it the first couple days in the mission field?
The reason for the 9-14 month "delay" is the consequence something I call "Bad Thinking" . And it takes about 9-14 months of obedient living to clean up 5-10 years of Bad Thinking.
What is Bad Thinking?
We go through our teenage years discovering and sorting out how life works - or how we think it works. We get some of it right, but not all of it. But because we're teenagers, we're convinced that our view of life is 100% right. Bad Thinking is that part of our life view that is off track. And the pure love of God cannot penetrate our soul and transform our being until we're completely on track. Getting back on track means rooting out anything and everything that is incorrect in the way we live and the way we understand life. We must deny all ungodliness in our lives. This is what it means to come unto Christ!
Your outlook on life may be partly muddled by incorrect interpretations of events and situations from your childhood and teen years. You may be 60% right about "how life works" and, more importantly, "how Heavenly Father works" . But this is not a passing grade because it means that you are 40% wrong - you are seeing life through a blurry lens and misinterpreting what you are seeing. The Apostle Paul said it this way, "For now we see through a glass, darkly" (1 Corinth 13:12).
When a person is using Bad Thinking, he is placing a protective shield around him - so that he won't get hurt. His feelings won't get hurt. His pride won't get hurt. His ego won't get hurt. He won't be embarrassed and won't feel shame. There will be no pain or injury to body or soul. Not only will there be no pain, but there will also be no growth. There will be no outward charity. There will be no service and no sacrifice. No earthly pain... no heavenly gain.
When we are young, we are often vulnerable. People with power can take advantage of us through mental, emotional and physical abuse. The scars and terror of these actions torment us with Bad Thinking.
When we are young, we are often insecure. Bad Thinking leads to unfair comparisons, gossip, put-downs and insensitivity to others - all as a means of falsely building oneself up. Insecurity leads to lack of compassion, lack of listening and many self-centered behaviors. This can become a very bad habit.
When we are young, we also try to control things that can't be controlled. We therefore learn to use anger and to lose our tempers as ways of falsely trying to gain control of others. We blame others and refuse to take personal responsibility for our choices and weaknesses.
When we are young, we are also often confounded by fear. We are afraid to try new things, meet new people, or express new ideas. We are afraid that others might laugh at us, or that we might look stupid, or that we might fail. Perhaps the greatest obstacle for celestial growth is fear. Fear stops a person from moving forward. Fear can become a filter through which every thought must pass. The person consumed by fear is hiding from the future. All forward progress is stopped. The Plan of Salvation for this person has been thwarted. Such a person is living without trust and faith in the Lord. The scriptures teach , "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind," (2 Timothy 1:7). Where nothing is ventured, nothing is gained. I encourage you to replace your fear with faith. With complete 100% trust in the Lord. Replace your fear with faith.
And when we are young, we are all full of pride to one degree or another. Pride is competitive in nature and always pits you against the rest of the world. A prideful person must always win - thus destroying friendships and heavenly relationships. The prideful person says, "Not Thy will, but my will." This form of bad thinking creates an unwillingness to admit weakness and a failure to recognize and repent of our sins.
Bad Thinking can start when we're 10 or 12 or 15 years old. And then, like any habit, we reinforce it over and over, again and again, until it becomes who we are. Any and all forms of Bad Thinking prevent a spiritual awakening, retard our growth and block the flow of love. We are unable to feel God's love and we are unable to extend our own love to others. We are so self-protective and self-centered, that we believe the world rotates around us!
President Hinckley once said, "Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others... By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves," (Gordon B. Hinckley, "Whosoever Will Save His Life," Ensign, August 1982, 5).
When we avoid pain and responsibility, there is no gain. The Plan of Salvation - also known scripturally as the Plan of Happiness - clearly teaches that life on the earth is a time for testing. The scriptures speak of the Refiner's Fire and not the Refiner's Tanning Booth. Thus we know there will be painful trials, and yet when we are filled with the love of God, we can be happy even during times of personal earthquakes and tsunamis.
"President Murray, I am the happiest I've ever been."
Missionaries who express these words, after 9-14 months of missionary service, have stopped thinking about themselves, have turned to the Lord in all things and are anxiously engaged in serving all those around them. They have repented of their sins and transgressions and have been washed clean through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. They have become givers, not takers. When the love of God goes deep into our hearts, our character changes and we become newer, better people. This potential rests within each of us here today.
On my mission I saw the astounding results as young men and women yielded their wills completely to God and then, as a consequence of this choice, were rewarded with happiness of a depth they had never before experienced. They were eating happy fruit and had never felt better ever in their lives. If it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone because the formula for this experiment is so easy to understand.
My reason for being here today is to invite you to eat of the fruit that makes one happy! Get rid of your Bad Thinking. Turn to the Lord in heart, might, mind and strength. Repent! This literally means turn in a new direction! Breath different. Think different. Live different. And in a relatively short period of time you will become happier than you have ever been in your life.
Here at BYU-Hawaii you have the extraordinary blessing of living and being educated at a university that has been consecrated to the Lord. There are few places on earth as special as BYU-Hawaii. The same experiences that happened to our missionaries can happen to you right here, right now. I invite you to experiment with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Replace your fears, your insecurities, your pride and all the bad thinking from your teenage years with complete trust and faith in the Lord. You must Let Go of your old self and Let God show you, here a little and there a little, a new and better you. For within each of us is a child of God, waiting to become a man or woman of God. It might take 9-14 months, but I can't think of a better investment of your time.
The Savior taught, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it," (Mark 8: 35).
If you hold on to your old self, you will be like the grape that refused to be harvested and eventually became a wrinkled dried-up raisin that fell off the vine on a cold winter morning.
I say again, you must replace FEAR with FAITH. A life based on Faith is a life dedicated to destroying a self-centered view of life and dedicating oneself to seeking after love and truth all the days of your life - which is another way of saying seeking after the will of God. You place your trust completely in the Lord. You do it His way, not your way. You will follow the example of Nephi in word and deed: "I will go and do the things which the Lord commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandment to the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commmandeth them... And I was led by the Spirit NOT KNOWING BEFOREHAND the things which I should do." (1 Nephi 3:7, 4:6).
I would like to think that in a few weeks or months, President Wheelwright might begin receiving some unsolicited emails, or text messages, saying, "Aloha President Wheelwright, I have never been happier in my life!" I am convinced that when we are obedient and we yield our will to God, that everything that is supposed to happen in our lives... will!
When you eat Happy Fruit, you receive this great blessing, promised by Alma, about 500 years after Lehi's dream: "And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it might take root in you, behold... ye shall pluck the fruit thereof... and ye shall feast upon the fruit even until ye are filled. Ye shall reap the rewards of your faith, and your diligence, and patience and long-suffering, waiting for the tree to bring forth fruit unto you," (Alma 32:42-43 truncated).
If we could gather again in 30-40 years, when you are approximately the age I am now, I would ask for you to tell me about your lives. And I would hear heart wrenching stories of difficulties and tragedies, of deaths of children and loved ones, job failures, natural disasters, health challenges, wayward children, diseases of all kinds. Of course! This is the veil of tears that we must all endure well. And then I would ask for a show of hands - "Who is happy?"
It is my prayer and my hope that all hands would be raised for we now know that happiness is a gift that Heavenly Father bestows upon his obedient children. It is my promise that Happy Fruit can fill your soul again and again and again as you destroy all bad thinking, replace all fear with complete trust and faith in the Lord and let go of your old self as you discover and empower a newer, better self.
The restored gospel of Jesus Christ - that is, the set of beliefs, commandments, teachings, and scriptures restored through the prophet Joseph Smith - is God's desired "way of life" for each of his nearly 7 billion children on the earth today. There is a virtual blueprint for life available for each of us. It is called the Plan of Happiness. And it will work for each of us. Whoever you are. Wherever you are. No matter what your situation in life is. Come unto Christ is our invitation. The Lord knows you and loves you. He will fill you with His love, He will make weak things strong and He will open your heart and mind to His way of living and being. I testify that these things are not only true, but that they will make all the difference in your life! Mahalo. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.