A few years ago, I was told a story out of the New Testament about Christ’s final hours. From this story, I learned a lesson that transformed the way I view others, difficulties, and how I cope with them.
Everyone has moments of great anxiety, stress, or doubt. Life is tailored to test every individual according to his or her specific weaknesses. It is interesting to note that people rarely struggle with their strengths. Everyone has empty, pensive moments that leave us asking or wanting to ask, “Why?”
The lesson taught by Christ himself to his best friends shifts our prayers away from the question, “Why?” to the new question, “How can I thank you enough?”
The night before Jesus was crucified, and a matter of minutes before he trudged across Jerusalem to a lonely spot on a hill called Gethsemane, he spent some time with his closest twelve friends and Apostles. He taught them essential lessons about their dependence on him, about how to truly love, and about what he was asking them to do once he was gone. It was the most intimate setting in which he had spoken, and a lot about his personality and his loving care comes out. If you want to get to know the Savior, read John 13-18.
During this time, he said, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” (John 15:12-13). He said so knowing that he would shortly be doing exactly that.
He knew that it was going to hurt more than he could possibly imagine. He had been preparing for it all his life—physically, spiritually, and mentally. The weight of the stress, the worry, and the monumental nature of the task of atoning for the sins, mistakes, and pain of every creature bore down on him so much so that his soul was “exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death,” (Matt. 26:39).
Yet in the midst of this time of great anxiety—while the Savior had a score of reasons and probably a right to be worried and concerned about himself—when he stood in the face of heartache like no man has ever known, he looked outward.
He washed his disciples’ feet. In the ancient world, washing someone’s feet was considered a high honor because of the lowness of the task. Callused, blistered, dirt covered feet were all they knew as they walked the dusty roads of Judea. Jesus gave them a great symbolic service that night. When he was at his most painful moments in his earthly life, he gave the most care to those around him—even the one who betrayed him.
Jesus served in suffering. He did not become a cocoon of self-pity, but became a beacon of hope to those who do ache.
Christ explained why he did this in very simple language.
“I then, your Lord and Master… have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” He served in suffering. That is the instruction given by his example and words.
To this, he adds a promise. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them,” (John 13:14, 15, 17).
This promise was not conditioned on any time period. He did not say that we would be happy sometime afterward. There was no other condition to the promise once we have done these things in actively thinking of others. It is says simply you will be happy. Even if it is only for those moments at which we lift another person up by giving our time, our talents, our knowledge, our attention, our consideration, our compassion, or our affection, we are promised joy.
At our lowest points, where do we look? Do we look inside ourselves for the secret to happiness? Or do we look away from ourselves to find that the door is already opened?
The secret to happiness is not to worry or think about being happy—it is to be concerned at making others happy. When that happens, we become more like Christ, and these words of our Best Friend to his best friends take power in our hearts to lift us out of whatever situation we may be in, if only for a moment—but that will be enough to get us through the day with a smile.
After all, are we not here to be happy?
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