The Paradox of Joy and Emotional Health (2 Nephi 2:25)

I knew that trying to begin blogging again as a full-time working husband and father of three with a heavy Church calling would be difficult and inconsistent. My summer was particularly busy, so my blogging fell by the wayside. But I haven’t given up and hope to still post a few more times this year.

I’m currently a facilitator for a weekly Emotional Resilience class offered through the Church’s self-reliance program. My wife and I took this class together in one of the first beta groups last year and got a lot of value out of it. In fact, it was one of the first catalysts in my taking the steps to move forward this year past many of the problems I’d been letting grow as outline in my posts earlier this year. In preparation for the class to begin, the bishopric in my ward asked my to speak in sacrament about mental and emotional health and to mention the class a resource for members. This blog post is adapted from the ideas I expressed in that talk. I don’t write down talks before I give them; I’ve found I give better talks when I just study the topic in depth and then speak by the Spirit, armed with some tabbed scriptures or quotes I know I’m likely to draw on. The advantage of writing this down on the blog is that I have more liberty to give the “director’s cut” without the time constraints of sacrament meeting, so I can share more.

I love studying paradoxes. Unraveling a surprising or difficult intentional contradiction is very satisfying. The scriptures are full of paradoxes, intentionally set up to make us think. An easy and well-known example of a scriptural paradox comes from the Sermon on the Mount when Christ counsels His followers to do good deeds “not… to be seen of men,” but rather “in secret” so that not even our other left hand will know what the right is doing (see Matthew 6:2-4). And yet, only a couple minutes earlier in the same discourse He told them let their light shine by acting so that men “may see your good works” (see Matthew 5:15-16). The key to this very blatant paradox is, of course, intent. He enjoins the shining of our light for the motive of glorifying the Father to lead others to them, while shunning the motive of doing so just to be seen ourselves.

A more complex scriptural paradox is wrapped up in a short but oft-quoted verse in the Book of Mormon. Second Nephi 2:25 states, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” This may not sound immediately like a paradox, but when we think about the two phrases independently, we realize how contradictory this statement can seem.

Let’s start with the first phrase, “Adam fell that men might be.” In many a Sunday School class I’ve heard discussion of this part of the verse focus on Adam and his choice in the garden of Eden. But while that is an important event worth studying, this verse isn’t actually about the man who fell, but about the fall itself. The fall did not just affect Adam and Eve. It affected the world itself and all of us who have come after them. We are all born into a fallen state in a fallen world. It is interesting that this lens reminds us that the fall was not a punishment because we know from other scriptures and notably the second Article of Faith that we are only punished for our own sins, and not Adam’s transgression. Therefore, any consequence of his choice that affects us is clearly not a punishment.

So, the fall is not a punishment; that’s great in theory, but it still can seem like one as we comprehend what the fall really IS. It was the introduction of nearly all forms of hardship into the world. It disrupted the peace of Eden with a natural world constantly at war or filled with dangers. Notably, it also meant a change to the physical bodies of mankind: we would now be prone to sickness, pain, and ultimately death. Adam fell to bring this state of affairs into the world, which was apparently necessary “that men might be.”

Let’s switch to the second clause now for a moment: “men are, that they might have joy.” I wish to clarify an occasional misconception often raised by this verse. It is not a “commandment to be happy.” It isn’t actually a commandment at all, but a statement of what we are working towards. When we interpret this as a commandment, we can draw dangerous conclusions. Notably, we may begin to believe that when we are not happy for any reason that it is because we have done something wrong or are somehow less worthy. God doesn’t have a vendetta against sadness or any other feeling. We know from countless scriptures that He feels those feelings too. In fact, we famously read that “Jesus wept” when he heard the news of Lazarus’ death, even though He already know he was going to raise Lazarus from the grave. So “having joy” does not preclude feeling a full range of emotion, because joy is not the same thing as happiness. I’ve come to understand joy in the scriptural sense as a state of spiritual and emotional completeness. It certainly contains great happiness, but also means we appropriately feel and can control all feelings rather than being controlled by them.

So herein lies the paradox. In light of our understanding of its phrases, we can restate the verse in a more verbose manner thus: In order for us to fulfill our purpose of obtaining joy, we had to pass from the paradisiacal Eden to the imperfect, pain-filled world of noxious weeds, thorns, and thistles, whilst inhabiting a fallen body subject to a profane, untamed natural man. We had to relinquish a seeming pinnacle of happiness in order to ultimately attain joy. We’ve already unraveled some of the paradox by better understanding what joy is—and that full completeness of spirit and emotion could not have been attained in the innocence of Eden.

Recognizing and then comprehending this paradox reveals some deep truths, specifically that out mortal trials are absolutely essential. So essential, in fact, that God would never do us the disservice of taking them all away from us, for in Eden we can’t find true joy. He does, however, help us learn to overcome of better carry those trials.

Specifically regarding the subject of emotional and mental health, the Lord, by way of the Fall, has given EVERYONE a challenge, though it is greater for some than others. The experience of emotion is a complicated dance between body and spirit which together constitute “the soul of man” (see Doctrine and Covenants 88:15). We know enough from the relatively light scriptural insight into the pre-mortal realm to know that we experienced emotions of both happiness (see Job 38:7) and sadness (Isaiah 14:12) and assumedly other emotions as well with only spirit bodies. And yet, we also know that our bodies have built-in systems of hormones and receptors which regulate how we experience those emotions, using chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. This is an essential part of a physical body, intended to work in this manner to enhance how we experience and process our emotions and feelings in order to be more like God, who also has a physical body. However, it also means we can be vulnerable to being controlled by the natural man and vice versa.

Because of the conditions of the fall, these physical systems are imperfect and untamed, even when they are functioning completely “normal” from a medical perspective. The natural man has man has been “an enemy of God” since “the fall of Adam,” and it lives in every one of us (see Mosiah 3:19). We are prone to uncontrolled anger, fear, and other emotions that can cause us to act against God even if nothing is wrong with our physical systems for emotional processing. Of course, sometimes our physical systems can be compromised. This may be obvious in the case of a broken leg, but often less so in the case of a broken serotonin receptor. And because we sometimes believe in the nonexistent “commandment to be happy” we may be prone to treating a physical condition as if it is a sign of spiritual failing, which will definitely enhance depression rather than solve it.

We thus have two main reasons we may face emotional or mental instability in this life at different times:

1.       The natural man not being made to “yield.” This will be experienced by EVERYONE at different points during their life.

2.       Actual physical problems affecting the emotional processing systems in our bodies, which will affect some people but not everyone.

There are a variety of options to address both of the above root causes. Sadly I’ve seen sometimes in the Church a strong cultural resistance to therapy or medical solutions, even to the second cause. If you broke a bone, nobody would find it unacceptable to go to the doctor and seek help. But for some reason getting help for our emotional systems, some of which may on occasion be only reparable with medication, is seen as taboo. There is a tendency to think a cast for broken bones but prayers for broken feelings. This makes no sense, and according to Brigham Young, it’s also poor doctrine. People would often come to him seeking a blessing for various ailments and he would always first ask if they’d seen a doctor for the problem. If they answered “no” because they simply wanted to be healed by faith, then he would refrain from giving them a blessing, stating, “That is very inconsistent according to my faith. If we are sick, and ask the Lord to heal us, and to do all for us that is necessary to be done, according to my understanding of the Gospel of salvation, I might as well ask the Lord to cause my wheat and corn to grow, without my plowing the ground and casting in the seed. It appears consistent to me to apply every remedy that comes within the range of my knowledge, and [then] to ask my Father in Heaven … to sanctify that application to the healing of my body.”

I’ve learned a lot this year about the importance of mental and emotional health and the healing journey has been remarkable. I’ve begun experiencing greater measures of joy as I’ve attended therapy and gotten help. It has strengthened me spiritually. I know that God truly desires to give us, as he states in Second Timothy 2:7, “power, love, and a sound mind.” We do that by working through and learning from our trials rather than asking them to be taken away from us. Remember, Adam gave up Eden so that you could have your trials! And with those trials we can ultimately cause that natural man to “become a saint” and find our fulness of joy.

I hope that if you are experiencing an emotional or mental health challenge, whether caused by spiritual or physical problems, that you are also able to seek and get the help you need. There are some great resources in the Emotional Resilience class materials the Church has produced, which you can access by following the link below. From there, you can download the PDF to get the manual; it also contains links to all the videos used in the course.

Emotional Resilience (churchofjesuschrist.org)