As a child I got hooked on stamp collecting. With little to spend on the hobby, I still loved to order unsorted batches of stamps from around the world. I naively dreamed of someday finding something of value.
Some years later, as a 21-year-old Latter-day Saint missionary serving in Uruguay, I momentarily thought that day had come. We were visiting with an elderly German lady who wasn’t particularly interested in our message. But she did want to sell an old stamp collection. She knew of no place in Uruguay that she could sell it, but she wondered if we might want it. Looking at it, I saw that virtually all the stamps predated 1900. Having no idea of the collection’s value, but seeing exciting possibilities, I scraped together $60 for half of the collection. My companion put up an equal amount for the other half. We determined that if the collection turned out to be valuable, we would certainly share our proceeds with the seller.
Soon thereafter I returned home from my mission. I found a stamp catalog and looked up the value of the stamps in my half of the collection. I was astonished to find that many of them had a catalog value of hundreds of dollars each. Others were allegedly worth thousands! At their invitation, I shipped off my collection to the H. E. Harris company for their evaluation. I excitedly awaited their offer to purchase the stamps.
Weeks passed. I dreamed of all I could do with the proceeds. I thought of the surprised happiness the lady in Uruguay would feel when I sent her portion. Finally, the collection came back with a letter attached. I eagerly tore it open and proceeded to read. To my astonishment, the letter reported that virtually all my stamps were forgeries! They said it had been a common practice around the turn of the century to market facsimiles of valuable stamps. That way collectors could “complete” their collections. Rather than being worth thousands, my $60 stamp collection was worth absolutely nothing.
One could argue that the stamps did have a little value. They looked nice. Perhaps they could serve to play a trick on some friends. At worst, I could use the collection for fuel on a cold night. But it wasn’t worth the $60 I paid (perhaps about $600 in today’s money). Certainly it wasn’t worth the thousands I had envisioned.
Obviously, I was not the first victim of counterfeiting, and I was certainly not the last. In the US alone, there are an estimated $70,000,000 worth of counterfeit bills in circulation. More serious, in a recent year some $1,700,000,000 worth of counterfeit goods were seized at our borders.
Spiritual Counterfeits
Yet infinitely more serious is the emotional or spiritual counterfeiting which is rampant in today’s world. As serious as the counterfeiting of currency is, authorities estimate that only one bill in 10,000 in circulation is fake. But probably most of what passes for “happiness” in today’s society is actuality a poor imitation. Most of it is at best a form of “fun,” or “pleasure,” or “indulgence.” That is about as close to real happiness or joy as my fake stamp collection was to an authentic version.
Jesus Christ taught that deep and lasting happiness doesn’t come from pursuing it directly. Rather, it is the result of a lifestyle and service orientation that initially may not sound like much fun at all. For example, He taught that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35.) “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad.” (Matthew 5:11-12.) “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:19.) “Wickedness never was happiness.” (Book of Mormon, Alma 41:10.) Though a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” Jesus also had to be the happiest man in all history. One of my favorite paintings of Him is one with Him smiling.
Through a modern prophet the Lord revealed that joy is more associated with fasting than with eating. (Doctrine and Covenants 59:13.) The Church teaches that blessings come from the payment of tithing and offerings, even when resources are scant. Missionaries serve at their own expense for two years, working harder than they have ever worked in their life. But they come back calling those the best two years of their lives.
True Joy and Happiness
We find one of the greatest scriptural examples of the relationship between sacrifice and joy in the Book of Mormon. In Alma 26, Ammon, the king’s son, reflects on his and his brothers’ experiences during the preceding fourteen years. They had renounced claims to the throne and had given up a life of luxury. They embarked on the seemingly impossible mission of preaching the gospel to their enemies, the Lamanites. Collectively, Ammon and his brothers had suffered imprisonment, starvation, physical abuse, rejection, and “all manner of afflictions.” They had gone without any of the normal recreational and social experiences of youth. But with divine aid they ended up bringing thousands of their once antagonistic brethren to the true faith. In summary, Ammon declared, “Now, have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began.” All told, there are some forty references in that one chapter alone to joy, love, blessings, praise, singing, and light. All this was from experiences that most would have thought would have brought nothing but misery.
It’s much like what happens when we look into a non-reversing mirror. Apps are available both for Apple and for Android which will convert a phone into a mirror that lets us see ourselves as we really look. It’s quite different from seeing the reversed image which we normally see. You can get the same effect placing two regular mirrors next to each other at a 45-degree angle. Then look at your image in the second mirror as reflected from the first. While it’s interesting to see what you really look like, it’s a bit challenging to comb hair or put on makeup by looking into the non-reversed image. Having been conditioned to look in normal mirrors, we intuitively want to move our hand in the opposite direction of where it really needs to go. (Try it!)
Similarly, we intuitively assume we’ll be happier if we get more rather than give more. Or if we indulge more rather than abstain from harmful substances or inappropriate activities. Or if we pursue leisure and recreation to the exclusion of Church activity, worship, work, and service.
A Slow Learner
I partially learned this principle when I was seventeen and had been working long hours in the potato harvest. After breaking my wrist in a freak accident, I thought it was not all bad. Rather than have to work, I could enjoy the rest of the school’s potato harvest vacation sitting at home. Within a day or two I realized I would much rather have been out working.
I learned it all over again in the summer of 1963, when I had just returned from my mission in Uruguay. I arrived home in late June and planned to leave for school in September. So, the only summer employment I could find was hauling hay for sixteen hours per day in the hot sun. After some weeks of tedious work, the job came to an end. I had a month left before school would start. With no prospects of finding a job for just four weeks, I settled into what I anticipated would be blissful relaxation. I quickly discovered that the long days of hauling hay had been much more enjoyable. They wouldn’t be called fun. But they were satisfying, fulfilling, and led to a much deeper happiness than did my days of idleness.
I have had to relearn this principle repeatedly throughout my life. When I was a missionary, it wasn’t always particularly “fun” to knock on doors or talk to strangers. But I found it deeply satisfying once I had done it. No one has as much happiness from alcohol or indulgence as I have found from refraining. It is more enjoyable to me to spend Sunday in Church and in related service activities than in simply pursuing leisure on the “day of rest.”
Of course, a certain amount of fun, recreation, and relaxation is important. It gives us an opportunity for physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual renewal. Jesus didn’t always rush toward the multitudes. Sometimes He went in the other direction to escape them. Even He needed time to meditate and renew Himself. Joseph Smith, a modern-day prophet, enjoyed playing ball, running, pulling sticks, and wrestling. He said he didn’t want his mind always strung up any more than an archer would want his bow strung up all the time. Current Church leaders are happy people.
Recreation and leisure could be compared to dessert after a fine meal. It has its place, but it is not wise to eat too much of it or eat it exclusively. Physical nutrition comes primarily from the main course, not from the dessert. And for our spiritual health, we want to never forget that the scriptures teach that “Man is that he might have joy,” not that he might have mere fun. (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:25.) Or, as Joseph Smith so perfectly summarized it, “Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.”