Abundance vs. Disappointment – Sunday, May 16, 1982
The Savior said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”1 There is an abundance to righteous living that can be achieved by no other means, a satisfaction and security in knowing the truth and doing it.
But there is also an abundance of disappointment—disappointment that must occasionally come to us all. Without it we would not be challenged, nor would we have a comparison by which to appreciate the satisfactions of virtue and accomplishment.
There is a subtle contrast between life’s disappointments and being disappointed. Life is rich and various, full of opportunities for satisfaction—but not always the opportunity we had planned. We are often disappointed at events when life is simply offering us a hidden opportunity. Much of the joy available to us in life comes from being able to find satisfaction in the opportunities of the moment, taking pleasure in what providence provides.
Not long ago a man who had planned since he was a boy to complete as a decathlon athlete was involved in an automobile accident. He had been well on his way to accomplishing his goal, when the accident left him slightly paralyzed in his left leg. The paralysis was not serious—he limped only slightly—but it was serious enough to ruin his hopes of further competition.
How sad if such a mishap—however unfortunate or unfair—should have ruined his ability to take joy in the many continuing and uncompromised blessings of his life: His bright and charming wife, his children, his life itself. Happily, it did not. When he realized that his former goal had been made impossible, he redirected his energies to coaching, to helping children accomplish their dreams.
The abundant life is available to all, in spite of disappointment. Sometimes our disappointments demonstrate to us the ways in which our goals have been misdirected. The abundant life, is the life of Christ-like living, defined not so much by specific accomplishments as by the attitude, the understanding, the spirit, the general virtue of one’s soul.
1 John 10:10
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May 16, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,752