Count It All Joy: Finding Peace in a Troubled World

By Sherrie Mills Johnson

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:2‚4 Find hope in the face of any trial with this uplifting and inspirational book by BYU professor and popular speaker Sherrie Mills Johnson. Filled with scriptures, personal experiences, and doctrinal insights, Count It All Joyoffers a unique perspective on the difference between necessary pain, which leads to growth and progression, and unnecessary pain‚ the kind that's so pervasive in our fallen world. Whether you're up against trials, temptations, or temporary setbacks, you can learn how to seek refuge in the Spirit. Written with clarity and vision, this is a must-read book that will teach you how to focus on the things that really matter and find your inner joy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cedar Fort Publishing & Media
• Release date: Feb 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781462115693

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Painting Targets

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

In days of old, a master archer made his living traveling about the land, demonstrating his great skill with a bow and arrow. He thrilled the crowds by performing daring feats of accuracy, after which he challenged local archers to a contest that he always won.

But one day, he proudly entered a small village and discovered targets painted on fences, sides of buildings, trees, and anywhere a target could fit. Startled, the master archer pulled his horse to a stop and stared at the spectacle, his astonishment arising from the fact that in the center of each bull’s-eye was a perfectly shot arrow.

Disconcerted, he began to inquire as to who the amazing archer was that never missed the exact center of his target. The busy shoemaker answered his inquiry by rolling his eyes and impatiently waving him away. The sweating blacksmith responded with a loud laugh but no answer. Finally he approached the baker who was taking loaves of steaming bread out of a stone oven.

Who is the hunter who never misses? the master archer asked.

The baker smiled, breathed in the sweet aroma of his bread, and said with a chuckle, The archer you seek is Old Tom, the town fool.

How can you speak so disrespectfully of one with such talent? the master archer cried. I must meet this man.

I speak no ill, the baker replied as he slid the hot bread from the wooden shovel and onto the counter. Let me show you. Pulling off his apron, he motioned for the master archer to follow him out the door and down the road.

They hadn’t gone far when they spotted a man armed with a beautiful polished bow and a leather quiver full of arrows. The baker reached out his hand to stop the master archer, and together they watched as Old Tom pulled an arrow out of his quiver, strung it on his bow, and shot it into the side of a shed. Without noticing the baker or the master archer, Old Tom slowly walked to the shed, picked up a pot of paint, and began drawing a target around the arrow.

The baker chuckled. You see? Our town fool, Old Tom.

I love this story for the humor, but even more for the life lesson it teaches me. There is a Master Archer who shoots the arrows (the circumstances) of my life, but I am the one who gets to draw the target. I can draw targets around the arrows like Old Tom and be content with the circumstances, or I can draw my targets fifty feet away and fret and vex and stew about a life that doesn’t meet my expectations. The choice is mine, and even a fool is able to understand which way results in happiness and which results in misery.

At first, this may seem like an exaggeration or oversimplification, but I had a real-life experience many years ago that illustrates this. One sunny day while running errands with one of my daughters, we passed the city park and saw a group of her friends gathered and having a fun time. My daughter burst into tears and said, There are my friends, and they didn’t invite me! When we reached home, she ran to her bedroom, buried her head in her pillow, and spent the rest of the afternoon painfully sulking.

The very next week, I was again running errands, this time with a different daughter, and as we passed the same park, we saw a group of her friends having a good time on the playground equipment. Mom, stop! she cried. My friends must have called while I was gone. I want to stay with them. So I stopped, and she got out and enjoyed the afternoon with her friends.

Certainly one of our God-given privileges is the right to choose what our attitude will be in any given set of circumstances. We can let the events that surround us determine our actions—or we can personally take charge and rule our lives, using as guidelines the principles of pure religion. Pure religion is learning the gospel of Jesus Christ and then putting it into action. Nothing will ever be of real benefit to us until it is incorporated into our own lives.

—Marvin J. Ashton[1]

Each daughter encountered the exact same situation, but one chose to be miserable and the other happy. It wasn’t the situation that caused the emotion; it was the way each daughter chose to paint her target.

In Romans 8:28, we are taught, All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. If we really believe these words, then we will find the good in life and have a positive attitude. But life has a way of discouraging us and making us forget the promise.

Deciding to paint our target around the circumstances of our lives is more than just good advice. The Savior instructed His followers, Let not your heart be troubled (John 14:1). The Greek word that is translated as troubled in this verse is tarasso, and it means, To cause one inward commotion, take away . . . calmness of mind, disturb . . . equanimity; to disquiet, make restless; to stir up; to trouble; to strike one’s spirit with fear and dread; to render anxious or distressed.[2] When we see the definition of troubled, it becomes clear that Jesus is instructing His followers to not let any negative feelings into their hearts. Why? The chapter goes on to explain, In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you (John 14:2). We don’t need to worry about the distressing things we encounter in a telestial world because He is preparing something better for us! As He said, These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

The Apostle James understood the importance of finding peace despite the troubles in our world. In the King James Version of the Bible, James tells us, My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (James 1:2). I love that verse, but it is even clearer in the New Revised Standard Bible, which translates it, My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy. When we learn to draw our own targets and live with what is, life does become more joyful. We see things in new ways and are able to drop the negative feelings that trouble us so often.

Our spirit and our body are combined in such a way that our body becomes an instrument of our mind and the foundation of our character.

—Boyd K. Packer[3]

Vexation is the word I use to summarize all the negative feelings that attempt to sink us into despair. Vexation means, To be in a state of trouble, distress, or agitation, and that’s what all of those negative emotions do to us. As the Savior said, Let not your heart be not troubled! James also said, Count it all joy! They wouldn’t give us that admonition if there were no way to avoid vexation. The big question then is: how? How can we live in a telestial world with all the negative, horrid things we encounter here and not be vexed?

YOUR VEXATION

The answer is simple, but before we get to it, I’d like you to stop, find a piece of paper, and identify what is vexing your life right now. Begin by writing, I feel, and then describe the negative emotions that vex you, such as sadness, anger, jealousy, resentment, worry, or fear. Once you have done that, take as much time and paper as you need to explain why you are feeling that vexation. For example, I feel angry because my sister has always been favored by our parents. It started when we were young. She got all these presents for Christmas, and I got only two, and they weren’t even things that I wanted. Spell it all out, and get the emotions onto the paper. Don’t miss anything.

Once you’ve done that, tuck the paper into the pages of this book so that it is readily accessible. We will come back to it later. But now to answer the question:

How can we live a life without vexation?

Live in truth.

Chapter Two

What Is Truth?

Behold, my brethren, he that prophesieth, let him prophesy to the understanding of men; for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls.

Jacob 4:13

In great frustration, Pilate dealt with the mobs that demanded the death of Jesus Christ. Unable to understand why they wanted Jesus killed, Pilate questioned Jesus, hoping to substantiate the charge of treason and be done with the matter.

Art thou a king then? Pilate asked.

Thou sayest that I am a king, Jesus responded. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

I imagine Pilate looked intently at the Savior as he, in total exasperation asked, What is truth? (John 18:33–38). But he didn’t wait for an answer. His turbulent life might have had a different end if he had.

Earlier in the book of John, the Savior explained, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:31–32).

Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained the freedom that the Savior referred to as, "Free from the damning power of false doctrine; free from the bondage of appetite and lust; free from the shackles of sin; free from every evil and corrupt influence and from every restraining and curtailing power; free to go on to the unlimited freedom enjoyed in its fulness only by exalted beings."[1]

This can be summarized as being free from the effects of the natural man. Alma explained the bondage of the natural man to his son, Corianton, by saying, "And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness" (Alma 41:11; emphasis added).

Gall is something bitter to endure, and part of this gall of bitterness is the negative feeling that confronts us in mortality—the vexation. Anyone who has experienced vexation recognizes it as a dark and dreary bondage. It is something all of us long to be free from.

A certain amount of these vexing feelings is experienced by all people because vexation is part of the telestial, mortal experience. Saints learn how to alleviate vexation, but the natural man stays shackled in vexation’s bonds. He lives his life a victim of pain and suffering without realizing that breaking free and overcoming those feelings is part of what he has come to earth to learn to do.

Joseph Smith was a beautiful example of this. Knowing that he was facing death—that the circumstances of his life were dire—he still faced it without being vexed. In his own words, I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer’s morning (D&C 135:4). Being the captive of negative feelings, being in bondage to vexation, is one of the things the Lord performed the Atonement to free us from. We don’t have to live miserable, troubled, vexed lives.

SO WHAT IS TRUTH?

This brings us back to the question we need to answer: What is truth?

As Latter-day Saints, the first answer to the question seems obvious. Truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ. But there is more to the principle of truth than we usually take into account.

In the Doctrine and Covenants, we find a very succinct definition of truth. It says, Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come (D&C 93:24). While this verse obviously includes truth as the gospel of Jesus Christ because those principles are what is, was, and will be forever, there is much more to this definition than gospel principles.

The issue is truth, my dear brothers and sisters, and the only way to find truth is through uncompromising self-education toward self-honesty to see the original ‘real me,’ the child of God, in its innocence and potential in contrast to the influence from the other part of me, ‘the flesh,’ with its selfish desires and foolishness. Only in that state of pure honesty are we able to see truth in its complete dimension.

—F. Enzio Busche[2]

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

—John 17:17

We are meant to learn and grow through that opposition, through meeting our challenges, and through teaching others to do the same. . . . The Lord will not only consecrate our afflictions for our gain, but He will use them to bless the lives of countless others.

—Dallin H. Oaks[3]

TRUTH IS VERITY

Let’s pretend you suspect that your son sneaked out of the house after curfew. The next morning, you confront him: Tell me the truth. Did you leave the house last night? In this situation, the truth you are asking for is not a doctrine or principle of the gospel. You don’t want him to respond, Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother or, Thou shalt not bear false witness. Those are gospel truths that could apply to the situation, but they are not the answer you want.

As a matter of fact, if your child responded with either of these answers, you’d probably accuse him or her of being impertinent. You don’t want a Sunday school lesson, you want to know what happened, the verity, or what was. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines truth as the body of real things, events, and facts, and that is the truth you are seeking from your child—the verity.

Let’s use one more example. This time you are summoned into a court of law because you were an eyewitness to a robbery. You are called upon to testify, and you take an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. A lawyer then begins by asking you to explain what happened. As you respond, you tell what you saw. You say, The man with a ski mask pulled a gun and demanded that the clerk give him all the money in the drawer. Those are the facts. That is the verity or reality of what happened—the truth. When lawyers ask you for the truth, they don’t want you to explain that, according to the Ten Commandments, the man shouldn’t have stolen the money. In a court of law, what the thief should or should not have done according to gospel principles is not the truth. Truth is what is.

The Gospel rises above every man-made division of truth, for it embraces, frankly, all truth, and places every fact in its relationship to the whole system of truth. Truth does not come unbidden. It must be desired, sought for, toiled for.

—John A. Widtsoe[4]

Whoever is ready for truth, at any cost, finds a recompense, a joy in life obtainable in no other way.

—John A. Widtsoe[5]

When we come to gaze on the fitness of things that are now obscure to us, we shall find that God, although he has moved in a mysterious way to accomplish his purposes on the earth and his purposes relative to us as individuals and as families, all things are governed by that wisdom which flows from God, and things are right and calculated to promote every person’s eternal welfare before God.

—John Taylor[6]

OUR QUESTION

This brings us to an important question: What did Jesus mean by truth? Did He mean that the celestial and eternal truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ will make us free? Or did he mean that acknowledging and accepting the verity of life will make us free?

The answer is both. Jesus taught, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:31–32). When we analyze that statement, we see that Jesus seems to be making a distinction. In this instance, He is using the term my word to mean His gospel and all it contains, and He is telling us that if we follow His word and become His disciples, then we will understand and be able to deal with what is, what was, and what will be without becoming troubled. This is part of the test of mortality: to learn how to implement celestial truth in a telestial environment.

We all know that not everyone in this mortal, telestial world lives the gospel truths. Not everyone wants to keep the commandments or wants to be honest, loving, and caring. The verity of what we experience in mortality often falls far short of gospel truth.

As you ponder this aspect of truth, you soon realize that things as they are means that murder, robbery, accidents, war, terrorism, sickness, death, calamities, depression, mental illness, physical disabilities, disappointment, pain, fear, and a number of other negative things are truth in this telestial world. These things are our reality right now. They are our verity; they are "things as they are" (D&C 93:24; emphasis added). While those things won’t exist in a celestial world, they very much are in a telestial world. But His promise is that living His word will allow us to know these truths for what they are and be free from the bondage they can create.

POSITIONAL TRUTH

As we begin to see that the verity and reality of a telestial world are truth, we begin to realize that gospel or celestial truths are absolute truths, but that verity or telestial truth is positional truth. Gospel truths are forever. They are eternal–they always were, always will be, and currently are truth. They fit the definition we read in Doctrine and Covenants 93:24. But verities, or truths, of this telestial world are dependent on place, and they change with perspective. For example, it is truth—a verity—here on this telestial world that each day the sun rises in the east, and each night it sets in the west. I see it. It is real. But it is a positional truth because its reality depends upon my position in the universe. If I were to change my position by traveling into outer space, the sun would always be visible. It would not rise or set. It would be a constantly shining star.

Likewise, things such as terrorism and sickness are also positional truths. They exist here in a telestial world, but they will not exist in a celestial world. We’ll talk more about these telestial truths in another chapter, but for now we need to recognize that when we leave this mortal world, our position will change and so will these negative conditions. Because many telestial things are positional, I am going to speak of them as telestial truth as opposed to the celestial or eternal truth of the gospel.

As we learn more about truth, we begin to see a connection between telestial and celestial truth, but I am convinced that at some point all of us will see how these are not two distinct truths but that they relate and are integrally connected as part of one great truth: the plan of happiness. Just as we will see the sun in a new way when we change our physical position, we will see telestial truth