Called to care

"Desire is the only requirement to serve.  We don’t need any special talent or skill, or look a certain way, or come from a particular part of town.  We just need the desire to serve."

I remember as a missionary reciting D&C 4 every day.  I recited it so often I could do it in my sleep.  Now, after being home more than two decades, I’d need a little prompting to get through it, especially verse 6.

Notwithstanding, I’ve always been impressed with the idea embodied in verse 3: “Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work” (D&C 4:3).  Think of that.  Desire is the only requirement to serve.  We don’t need any special talent or skill, or look a certain way, or come from a particular part of town.  We just need the desire to serve.

Over the past year, the Church has emphasized ministering to one another.  We’ve each been called to serve in a higher and holier way, but we’ve always been called to refine our devotion to God through service to our neighbors.  And all we need is the desire to serve.

Lately the program has touched on the need for LDS singles to adopt a personal ministry.  All that requires is the desire to serve.  And we all have some cause we can serve, because we’ve all been called to care.

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Choose to serve

Why do singles adopt the personal ministry they do?  I mean, no one’s forcing them to adopt anything.  I’ve just been encouraging it since 2016 because I want to help LDS singles everywhere live happier, more joyful lives.

And that’s just it.  Joy in the Journey Radio is my personal ministry.  I embraced it as such because I wanted to.  And so has every LDS single who’s adopted a personal ministry.  They adopt their personal ministry because they want to.

That desire to serve propels any meaningful effort.  And that’s an essential ingredient for happiness.  Happiness is giving your all to the right things for you.  When you give your all to the personal ministry that’s right for you, you can’t help but be filled with happiness.

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Choose to be happy

That means happiness is a choice.  We choose to be happy irrespective of our circumstances.  If that sounds impossible or just plain wrong to you, please open your mind while you walk with me a bit.

Happiness comes from giving your all to the right things for you.  A personal ministry is one of those right things.  All you need to embrace a personal ministry is the desire to serve in that way.  That’s a choice.  And because you choose to want what in the end brings happiness, happiness must itself be a choice.

Now, just going through the motions won’t bring happiness.  Life on autopilot can never bring happiness.  Only when we give our all to what’s right for us will we find the happiness we crave.

It’s that choice to give your all to the right end you choose that unlocks the happiness encapsulated in every moment of living.  And you can choose that regardless of your circumstances.

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Embrace the simple solution

We sometimes speak of choices as belabored events lasting stretches of time, but the actual choice takes less than a second to occur.  Why then wait to be happy?

The choice to adopt a personal ministry takes less than a second.  The choice to give your all to the right thing in front of you right now takes less than a second.  The choice to be happy takes a less than a second.  Why then don’t more of us just turn it all on?

Pride masquerading as disbelief often obstructs our way.  We don’t believe it could be that simple.  We want to believe it’s more complicated because that would explain why we didn’t see it before.  We don’t want to appear to be idiots.

But we aren’t the first to travel that road.  The Old Testament tells of a servant who wisely advised his unbelieving master, the captain of the Syrian army, to put away his pride and follow the simple instructions of the prophet: “If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?” (2 Kings 5:13) That captain washed and was cleansed.  Likewise, we should not discount the solution before us because of its simplicity.

In fact, the beauty is in the simplicity.  When you truly believe it can be that simple, when you feel God’s love inviting you to make that choice, and when you do what that requires — choose to give your all to all the right things for you — then you’ll find all the happiness that God has wanted you to have all along.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

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You can listen to the monologue from today's episode of Joy In The Journey Radio here.  Please also feel free to continue the conversation by leaving a comment below.  Want to hear more?  Listen to the whole show by going to the show page for this episode.