Steven Wedgeworth, lead pastor of Christ Church Anglican in South Bend, Indiana, wrote a riveting piece last month in which he compared and contrasted the General Confession of Sins in three separate editions (1662, 1979 and 2019) of the BCP, i.e., the Book of Common Prayer. While there were notable differences between each iteration of the prayer, they all ended in pretty much the same way. The 2019 version ends with the following:
And grant, O most merciful Father, for [Christ’s] sake, that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.
The 1662 and 1979 versions of this ending are identical, save for the fact that they both substitute ‘now’ for ‘hereafter’ and ‘your’ for ‘thy.’ The 2019 BCP is thus left wanting in the aura department, though I am not too concerned about that. My concern is instead with the bolded word in the above quotation—the word ‘sober.’
I had a mentor in high school (Mr. Davenport, as we referred to him back then) who once told me that he thought of me as “serious about the serious things in life and casual about the casual things.” It was obviously a compliment—one that I felt I hardly deserved at the time. Nearly a decade later, I still struggle to think of myself as a serious person. I have witnessed myself make far too many unserious decisions to unreservedly associate myself with the ideal of sobriety.
Some might say I’m too much of a jester. I’m inclined to agree, although the label holds infinitely more weight coming from a Captain America1 figure than, say, from a Clavicular. While both gentlemen are known for amassing the bulk of their muscle tissue from serums rather than sit-ups, at least Steve Rogers did it to fight the nazis. Braden Peters, on the other hand, just wanted to mog harder. What is more, he thinks you should do the same.
“Most people are extremely jester,” he argues. Why? Because they “have completely misprioritized lives.” In his view, going to the pub with your mates to watch Sunday football is the “worst thing you could do.” Instead, “you should be on PubMed reading various different studies on how you can looksmaxx.”
This is what a sober life looks like for Clavicular: Set aside the booze, not because drunkenness leads to debauchery2, but because too much beer will increase your body's estrogen, thereby decreasing your SMV (sexual market value). Judging by the empty can of Old Style Pilsner currently sitting next to me, my stock must not be looking so good.
On a more serious note — see what I did there? — it almost goes without saying that Clavicular is confused regarding what serious things we ought to be serious about in this life. Just over six decades ago, C.S. Lewis came at the topic from an entirely different angle. “Joy is the serious business of heaven,” he wrote.3 But how can joy be serious business? I have found Dr. Peter Kreeft immensely helpful in answering this question.
“Joy is more than happiness,” Kreeft writes, “just as happiness is more than pleasure.”
Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self.4
The following graph, courtesy of Lauren Montgomery, sheds some light on what Dr. Kreeft is getting at.
To quote the psalmist:
“You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
— Psalm 16:11 NRSV
In other words, joy comes from abiding in the presence of God. If we must only be serious about one thing in this life, then let it be that. Everything else is secondary. Happiness is temporary, and pleasure is fleeting. Living for either leaves us unsatisfied, and optimizing one’s SMV can only yield so much ROI (return on investment—another one of Clavicular’s favourite phrases).
Yesterday’s verse of the day happened to come from the following passage in Colossians 3:
1So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, 3for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
I am convinced that if the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he does not exist5, then the second greatest trick he ever pulled was to rob mankind of joy by keeping our eyes fixed on temporal things.
Men great and small have been destroyed, and kingdoms ravaged, by the vain pursuits of pleasure and happiness with little to no regard for God. Sobriety demands of us to daily reset our gazes upon His face, knowing that happiness and pleasure will flow naturally from eternal life with Him. It is sobermaxxing, after all — not looksmaxxing — which truly fulfills the human heart.
Happy Fourth to my American readers🇺🇸
Ephesians 5:18
C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (San Diego: Harvest, 1964), 92-93.
Charles Baudelaire, The Generous Gambler (Le Figaro).
Love this!!