The Tragedy of Seeking the Unobtainable

…ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.

Helaman 13:38

I was listening to the prophecy of Samuel today while driving in my car and this verse stuck out to me.

What struck me was the tragic idea of a person seeking all the days of their lives for something that would be ultimately unobtainable.

How many today are seeking for happiness in iniquity? But what is iniquity?

Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines iniquity as “a particular deviation from rectitude.” But now what is rectitude?

The same dictionary defines it thus: “In morality, rightness of principle or practice; uprightness of mind; exact conformity to truth, or to the rules prescribed for moral conduct, either by divine or human laws.”

Seeking happiness in non-conformity to divine law is all the rage today. A spectrum of voices promises what cannot be delivered. Anyone who attempts to speak the truth is branded a villain and a target for arrows and stones.

At some point, yet again, the first part of this verse will come to pass:

But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late…

Helaman 13:38

Another verse applies:

And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great.

1 Nephi 11:36