About time for part III of this series. I must admit I almost forgot about it. Whenever I can’t think of something to write I’ll go back and reread my old posts, looking for ideas. Well – here’s an idea for ya, Tim! – Finish what you started!
In case you’re unfamiliar with the last two posts, this is a series of blog posts on the “Seven Deadly Sins”. The sins are pretty simple, and they’re things that are ridiculously common in the world today. Already discussed are wrath, greed, sloth, and pride. You can find the earlier posts here >> (Part I, Part II). That leaves only three left – lust, envy, and gluttony.
Lust is pretty much rampant in 90% of guys in America, myself included. Lust not only includes the random one night stands, but also just the lustful thoughts that so many of us have. Women are guilty of it too, by the way. Instead of looking at the opposite sex as individuals with value, we often look at them as sex objects. I know I’m guilty of judging a book by it’s cover. Look good? Ok. Not so good? Eh… Stay over there. How many problems does this produce? I bet the whole feminist movement would have been drastically different if it weren’t for men and women being so lustful. And think of the countless marriages that lust destroys. Lust, although it can be fun – can be dangerous.
I don’t know if any of the sins has received more news coverage in the last year than envy. Maybe you missed it, but it had to do with 99% vs 1%. Oh sure, “income inequality” was the guise, but envy was the reality. Some people were jealous of other people’s money. But where does this kind of talk get us? Instead of looking at what other people have, look at what they don’t have. Someone may earn a bigger salary than you, but they also might have a bitter ex-wife, and estranged kids because of their awesome paying job. Jealously leads to friendships ending, marriages getting tangled up over money and houses, neighbors fighting, and just unhappiness all the way around. Envy is a leading cause of hate, and hate is a leading cause of unhappiness.
And how could I forget. My favorite sin – gluttony. Well, America (and Australia too, actually) have taken this to a whole new level. In general, gluttony is just consuming too much. It doesn’t need to be food, but that’s just what everyone thinks of when they think of gluttony. Nickelback came out with a song late last year titled When We Stand Together. One line says “We could feed a starving world with what we throw away.” How true! But it’s worse. We could feed a starving world with what we overeat! Take some of your fat and give it to a starving kid in Africa. Do you really need 3 Big Macs?? Our health problems, many of our money problems, and once again, our happiness problems would be solved if we cut down on the gluttony.
As I’ve said before, I don’t mean to sound preachy. These are sins that we’re all guilty of. The point of this is to bring these sins to the front of our brains. Perhaps if we actually think about what we’re doing we’ll try to not do it so much. We’re always going to have sin in this world, but if we minimize the sin in our own lives, we can not only set an example for the rest of the world, but we can change our own lives for the better.
