The Devil Wants Us to Be Happy

I hate advertisements! Well, we’re not supposed to hate. So how about this instead, the content and purpose of advertisements significantly troubles me. Yeah, that’s kinder and gentler.

Here’s the problem. Back in my corporate days one of my responsibilities was to approve advertisements, or more accurately, to provide feedback about them since I never approved of any of them.

Annoyed, the big cheese muckety-muck of our high-priced advertising agency once asked me why I didn’t like anything they produced. I couldn’t really put my finger on it but said something like, “It seems to me that we are encouraging bad behavior as an incentive to buy our product.”

He looked surprised and said, “Yes of course, that is exactly what we are doing. Don’t you know that all good advertising is based upon promoting the 7 deadly sins which drive human behavior?”

Well I know it now, and I don’t like it. Especially since it is so effective! And particularly when they are also able to make that bad behavior seem virtuous. Have you ever heard the term, virtue signaling? A topic for another time…

Anyway, when I first began to realize there is a difference between happiness and joy, the former being conditional and temporary with the latter being unconditional and lasting, I completely understood why we are so driven toward seeking happiness.

We are constantly bombarded by messaging telling us what we need to do in order to be happy. And it’s all based on those 7 deadly sins, here’s the list with my brief editorials as a refresher.

1. Pride – You are special and better than others.
2. Greed – Buy now, pay later, have it all.
3. Envy – Keep up with the Jones’s.
4. Wrath – Have it your way, or get angry.
5. Lust – No attachments, no consequences, enjoy.
6. Gluttony – Eat, drink, and be merry.
7. Sloth – Relax, you deserve it, you work so hard.

The beauty of these sins is that they do tend to make us happy, at least in the short-run. But their curse is that in the long-run there are negative consequences associated with them all. We get immediate gratification and delayed consequences. Unfortunately, our human nature is drawn to this.

To compound the problem, when striving to do the opposite, practicing the 7 heavenly virtues, we experience delayed gratification and immediate perceived pain. At least that is what we are programed to believe. It feels like we are missing out on all the fun and games. But then again, eternal joy should be worth the wait.

Here’s the thing about happiness and joy. Happiness is a worldly construct, while joy comes from heaven above. Which is why I say, the devil wants us to be happy. The prince of darkness wants us to focus on this world happiness and never make it to the joy of heaven.

The evil one wants us sinning and distracted from what really matters. He doesn’t want us playing joyfully on the playground of life. He doesn’t want us being good, doing good, and truly having fun. He is the playground bully.

But satan is crafty. Rather than strong-arming us to his will, he instead tricks us into willingly enslaving, and ultimately destroying ourselves in an endless cycle of pleasure and pain. And he is so happy when we oblige.

How about instead we annoy the father of lies by consistently choosing behaviors in alignment with the 7 heavenly virtues?! Yes, they will set us free to be the truly joyful people we are meant to be. As a reminder they are:

1. Humility (vs. pride) – Thinking of yourself less, not less of yourself.
2. Charity (vs. greed) – Generously giving of your time, talents, and treasure.
3. Kindness (vs. envy) – Doing for others with no expectation of reciprocation.
4. Patience (vs. wrath) – Knowing that all good things come to those who wait.
5. Chastity (vs. lust) – Respect for others, purity in mind and body.
6. Temperance (vs. gluttony) – Eating to live, not living to eat.
7. Diligence (vs. sloth) – Love what you do, do what you love. Use your time wisely.

While the deadly sins are the root of all of our bad behavior and problems in this world, the virtues are the origin of all goodness and solutions to our problems. Plus, added bonus, they just might be the key to opening the narrow gate to eternal joy.

As C.S. Lewis once said, ““Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”

I think the same applies to happiness and joy. Aim at Joy and you will get Happiness thrown in: aim at Happiness and you will get neither.

Be Virtuous, Aim at Joy!