The Abundant Life

Joseph P. Wirthlin

The abundant life is a spiritual life. Too many sit at the banquet table of the gospel of Jesus Christ and merely nibble at the feast placed before them. They go through the motions—attending their meetings perhaps, glancing at scriptures, repeating familiar prayers—but their hearts are far away. If they are honest, they would admit to being more interested in the latest neighborhood rumors, stock market trends, and their favorite TV show than they are in the supernal wonders and sweet ministerings of the Holy Spirit.

Drink deeply of the living waters of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We often don't know the reach of a simple act of kindness. The Prophet Joseph Smith was a model of compassion and love. One day, a group of eight African Americans arrived at the Prophet's home in Nauvoo. They had traveled from their home in Buffalo, New York, some 800 miles away, so they could be with the prophet of God and with the Saints. Although they were free, they were forced to hide from those who might mistake them for runaway slaves. They endured cold and hardship, wearing out shoes and then socks until they walked on bare feet all the way to the City of Joseph. When they arrived in Nauvoo, the Prophet welcomed them into his home and helped each of them find a place to stay.

But there was one, a girl named Jane, who did not have a place to go, and she wept, not knowing what to do.

"We won't have tears here," Joseph said to her. He turned to Emma and said, "Here's a girl who says she [doesn't have a] home. Don't you think she has a home here?"

Emma agreed. From that day on, Jane lived as a member of the family.

We are all busy. It's easy to find excuses for not reaching out to others, but I imagine they will sound as hollow to our Heavenly Father as the elementary school boy who gave his teacher a note asking that he be excused from school March 30th through the 34th.

Those who devote their lives in pursuit of their own selfish desires at the exclusion of others will discover that, in the end, their joy is shallow and their lives have little meaning.

On a tombstone of one such person was carved the following epitaph:

Here lies a miser who lived for himself,
And cared for nothing but gathering pelf,
Now, where he is, or how he fares,
Nobody knows and nobody cares.9

We are happiest when our lives are connected to others through unselfish love and service. President J. Reuben Clark taught that "there is no greater blessing, no greater joy and happiness than comes to us from relieving the distress of others."10

The abundant life does not come to us packaged and ready-made. It's not something we can order and expect to find delivered with the afternoon mail. It does not come without hardship or sorrow.

It comes through faith, hope, and charity. And it comes to those who, in spite of hardship and sorrow, understand the words of one writer who said, "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."12

The abundant life isn't something we arrive at. Rather, it is a magnificent journey that began long, long ages ago and will never, never end.

9. In Obert C. Tanner, Christ's Ideals for Living (Sunday School manual, 1955), 266.
10. "Fundamentals of the Church Welfare Plan," Church News, Mar. 2, 1946, 9.
11. 1 Corinthians 2:9.
12. Albert Camus, in John Bartlett, comp., Familiar Quotations, 16th ed. (1980), 732.