Continuing from two days ago, Neal A. Maxwell wrote. . . .”But selfish people are forever taking their own temperature, asking themselves, “Am I happy?”
Our eternal happiness is insured, if we keep the commandments. But the finding of oneself is a process that is both gradual and constant’ it is an accumulative accomplishment; it is a patient process. We lose ourselves in righteous service and in wise and good causes through a thousand deeds rather than one spectacular act. Even Calvary came only after much service and after the seasoning from the special stress of the Mount of Temptation, the scourging, and Gethsemane.
Let us not be drawn off the straight and narrow path of service, as have some new converts to the religion of selfishness, by misplaced envy of those traveling in the other direction whose happiness is the mock happiness of selfish lifestyles. How ironic it is to envy someone who has a pretty figure but who is a spiritual cripple. The fleeing and transitory “advantages” such individuals seem to have dissolve even as the multitude drools over them. Sophisticated selfishness is still selfishness even when cleverness tries to pose as selfishness. Glibness by someone who leads a flawed life cannot cover, except cosmetically, the spiritual speechlessness that afflicts that person. Nor can large bank accounts fill the empty vault of the soul.
Think how different it would be if people took on that physical appearance which would reflect distinctly how well they are doing spiritually. How would some of today’s so-called beautiful people really look? A highly publicized movie star, if her life were fully represented in her appearance, might be ugly, perhaps with a hunched back, a prune face, and a withered arm. In contrast, think of Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, whose beauty was not seen by the multitude. Under such telling circumstances—when the outer person reflected the inner person—whom would we applaud? And who would really deserve our pity?
. . . .Are not the real heroes and heroines of today those who are givers rather than demanders, those who are selfless rather than selfish, those who share rather than grab, those who care about tomorrow as well as today, and those who do their duty quietly without accompaniment of crashing cymbals and trumpets?
The faithful but perhaps plump woman whose nails are worn but who is a giving mother, wife, and neighbor has a queenly beauty and a regal way, if we would but see her as she really is; her beauty will not be taken from her by the passing years. The paraplegic in the wheelchair who refuses to indulge himself in self-pity—his giving and achieving has genuine glamour. One day he will stand very tall and strait; he should do so already in our eyes.
(….The rest of this (‘intensive lesson’) was in zionwisdom under the post of May 21, 2019 titled *give, another look.)
~ from Neal A. Maxwell’s book ‘All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience’, 1979 Deseret Book p.60-62
