What brings true happiness and joy?

This has been a topic of much discussion lately. In particular, Time magazine devoted a cover story to the subject, examining happiness, and the lack of it, from several angles. People, it seems, are in an endless pursuit of happiness. That is not surprising, nor is it necessarily wrong. As the prophet Lehi tells us, "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25).

But too many people confuse happiness and joy with other things, such as pleasure, elation, thrills or worldly gain. They strive for the types of treasures "where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal" (Matthew 6:19).

As the magazine notes, people in the developed world today have, on average, much more in terms of possessions than their parents had. In the United States, personal income has almost tripled since the end of World War II, when adjusted for inflation. People today live in homes that are about twice as large as the typical new house in the 1940s.

And yet the diagnosed cases of clinical depression are several times higher today than they were half a century ago. As Time puts it, "Money jangles in our wallets and purses as never before, but we are basically no happier for it, and for many, more money leads to depression. How can that be?"

Perhaps it is because, for many people, life appears to be a steady progression of challenges, loss and heartache where the only thing certain is an eventual death. Evil seems to press in on all sides, and death mocks the material possessions that society seems to value most. For much of the world, it appears as if sadness ultimately triumphs over joy, when the truth is the exact opposite.

Certainly, life brings with it trials and difficulties that can make anyone feel unhappy. These should not be minimized, nor should anyone take lightly the feelings of someone who is struggling through hard times.

But the road to happiness — a joy that transcends all misery — leads in a direction quite different from that which much of the world prefers to travel. To begin the journey on it, one needs to live the commandments of our Heavenly Father, the Author of happiness and the One who seeks our true joy.

President Spencer W. Kimball had to endure many physical hardships in life, including surgeries that made it difficult for him to communicate even as he was assuming positions of great leadership in the Church. Yet he was not an unhappy person. He taught powerful lessons of how joy and righteousness are synonymous.

"Do you want to be happy?" he asked. "There is only one path to happiness and it isn't like the road to Rome we hear so much about — that any road will lead to Rome. Happiness is a city where peace prevails, but you will never find it by going devious ways.

"Sin never brought happiness. Carelessness does not bring happiness. Casualness does not bring happiness — only devotion and consecration" (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball p. 155-156). That is a narrow road, which is why, as the Savior said, "Few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14).

Through righteousness and devotion, a person comes to know God and His plan for eternal joy. That knowledge comes with assurances that death is not the end of existence, and that righteousness leads to an eternal increase of the things that bring true joy in this life, such as family and personal relationships.

It also brings about a desire to do good unto others. Compassion, said a noted clinical psychologist quoted in Time, "has been linked to happiness." Indeed, selfishness appears to be the opposite of happiness and love, and a sure road to misery.

The search for happiness does not have to be endless. But those who have found it need to stand as guides showing the way to a weary and increasingly depressed world.