It’s the same old lie. And it leads to the same old deathful dead end. Leave the good, time-tested way, and there’s a better path just over there. But there is no life, there is no story, apart from our Creator. So is it worth it? To get married? To follow Jesus? The answer is yes — 

Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with ever fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
-C.S. Lewis
Recently I saw someone on social media putting the question to their followers, “Is it worth getting married?” Not, should I get married. Not, is it a good thing to get married. But is it worth getting married? In other words, will entering into the institution of marriage result in a net gain for my life? Will submitting to the constraints of monogamy pay off in the end? Will marriage help actualize my potential? Will it benefit me financially? Will it boost my instagram followers?
And it’s not just marriage, either. Lately it seems like many people are asking questions about things that used to just be common sense. “Is it worth it to tell the truth?” “Is it worth it to work hard?” “Is it worth it to have kids?” “Is it worth it to join a church?” “Is it worth it to follow Jesus?”
As Christians, it’s true that we should have an answer ready for anyone who asks. But it’s also true that, as Rosaria Butterfield observed, “It’s impossible to give a good answer to a bad question.” And as it happens, the “Is it worth it?” line of questions happen to be among those which are uniformly bad. Not because it’s wrong to want good reasons before making a decision. But because the questions themselves demonstrate a critical blindness to the story we find ourselves in.
The Story We Find Ourselves In
Not only are stories important; they’re also inevitable. Every single person lives according to the story they believe themselves to be in. They are the means by which we organize, interpret, and respond to reality. “You are enough.” “Follow your heart.” “Nothing means anything.” “You only live once.” “C.R.E.A.M.” All of these are examples of stories — albeit little shriveled ones — which will generally persuade out decisions.
Except when we need to call in the advisory board at Meta Platforms Inc., of course.
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For the determined unbeliever, sheer denial of God isn’t enough. They must insist on defiling even the memory of God. It’s why Nero must not only invade the temple, he must sacrifice a pig to Zeus. It’s why Mark Studdock must not just be forced to deny God, but to “trample on [the crucifix] and insult it.” It’s why apostate churches must not just permit gay marriage, but must invite a drag queen to lead their service. It’s why it isn’t enough just to ignore the resurrection of Christ — we must insist on worshipping a demon in His place. We must insist on a day of trans visibility.

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.” (1 Corinthians 15:3–8)
Collectors, whether of motorcycles or moths, typically feature the most valuable parts of their collection in some prominent place. Nobody wants people leaving the Tower of London recalling only Queen Victoria’s collection of silver toenail clippers. Therefore, the crown jewels must be first and foremost in the treasury display.
Two days ago was Easter Sunday, on which we celebrate the most pivotal event in history. Because Jesus Christ has done the impossible, carrying our sins in his body, death is no longer the final word in once was. For centuries the events of holy week have been the crowning jewel not just for Christians, but for the West, which owes its entire system of law and governance to the basic truths set forth in the Bible, which stand or fall on the literal fact of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:19). In other words, the resurrection is the best and brightest piece in our collection. There is no gift we presently enjoy that doesn’t trace its roots back to the splendour of the empty tomb.
One would think such a treasure would, whenever possible, be brought into the light. Especially in the midst of such darkness as we find ourselves in today.
But one would be wrong.
Instead, our leaders decided to take the driest, most inglorious mouse turd they could find, adorn it with glitter glue, and place it in a bomb-proof reliquary. And here I’m talking about the so-called “trans day of visibility.” A day arbitrarily set aside in honour of the mass-psychosis that has taken hold of our nation. A day to remember the multitude of youth being shovelled into Molech’s arms by activist educators, virtue-signalling parents, and sycophant media shills. A day on which we must give extra-careful consideration to the TikTok “influencer” with a 5 o’clock shadow and a patterned dress trying to argue that parents don’t have rights over their own children.
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Our culture has been shaped by the godless notion that compassion means the abolition of consequences. Addicts should be given a free home and a safe place to kill themselves. Career criminals should either be released, or sequestered away in a resort prison where he can think about what a bad boy he’s been. Corrupt politicians should be allowed to weasel their way out of straight answers and accountability structures. But God will not be mocked, nor can the fixed order of his creation ultimately be undermined.   

What would you do if I told you that the most important part of wealth generation was . . . generating wealth? Would you be surprised? Would you look at me like I’d just told you that the wheels on the bus do, in fact, go round and round?
One might hope.
Sadly, we no longer live in times where we can assume general agreement on basic facts. Thus, instead of the time-tested formula for prosperity, otherwise known as labour → wages → reinvestment, we must languish under the auspices of “progressive” math, which looks like labour → taxation → redistribution. Which really just looks like an approaching renaissance of soviet-style living blocks.
One of the results of this new formula rollout has been the steady acceptance of what might be called “bailout culture.” Bailout culture develops when half-dead businesses, organizations, and institutions are supplied with indefinite transfusions of government money. What revived my attention on the topic was recently learning that Ontario has pledged 1.2 billion dollars towards “beleaguered colleges and universities,” but the truth is that most of Canada’s infrastructure has been consuming snowbank-sized quantities of government sugar for decades. Which explains why it’s so inefficient, unproductive, and hard to watch climb the stairs.
Part of the problem is that a hungry state never wants to let go of its vested interests, even when its skin is falling off in sheets. They also know they won’t have to. You see, it doesn’t matter how unproductive your interests are, so long as everyone is forced to use them. So good luck trying to sell milk outside of the Canadian Dairy Cartel — I mean Commission; which incidentally received 4.7 million of your tax dollars in 2021.
The other part of the problem is that most of us have been conditioned to believe regulated bodies can do a better job of running stuff than private-sector bodies. And we only believe that because we’ve been conditioned to believe the government is a lean, mean, organized machine, when really it’s more like the first UNIVAC computer, which spent thirteen hours trying to spell “hat.” Thomas Sowell puts his finger on the problem: “[R]ight now there is a widespread belief that the unregulated market is what got us into our present economic predicament, and that the government must ‘do something’ to get the economy moving again.”
What’s the government going to do about the housing market? What’s the government going to do about rental prices? What’s the government going to do about understaffed hospitals and schools? What’s the government going to do about the fact that I only had seven dehydrated carrots in my instant soup-powder mix? If you’ve ever asked any of these questions, you know the conditioning has worked.
How did we get here? As with everything, it starts with sin, which in this context looks like a dark and perverted desire to avoid responsibility. If people can be convinced that such a desire is justified, all it takes is some benefactor, in this case the state, to come along with an offer of “help.”
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Solomon presents us with the sum total of human existence—to eat, drink, work hard, and enjoy God. Pretty basic stuff. And don’t miss the last part: “For apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” Ultimately the good life won’t be realized without an encounter with our Creator. 

Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.—Fyodor Dostoevsky
When God put Adam in the garden, he did a remarkable thing. He set him to work. This fact is even more remarkable when we remember that Eden was already a paradise. There was lots of food (Gen. 2:18), water (Gen. 2:10), and gold (Moses is even careful to mention that the gold was good—no dragon curses here). There were no weeds to pull, no graves to dig, and no swords to sharpen. In one sense, everything was already done.
And yet Adam was told to “cultivate and keep” the garden. He was to work towards its further beautification. He was to be an active agent of dominion; organizing the raw material around him by means of his own creative labour. This tells us something else important: work wasn’t an intrusion. Futility was the intrusion (Gen. 3:19). Work has been God’s idea from the beginning. This fact is reiterated in passages like 2 Thessalonians 6:10–12:
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
Paul’s command to the Thesseloninans is a call back to the Genesis mandate. He reminds them that work is the proper sphere in which we occupy the majority of our lives: pouring foundations, changing diapers, hoeing beets, teaching math, and generating spreadsheets. For those who consider work above, beneath, or beyond them, the verdict is clear: let them not eat. If you don’t sow beets in the spring, you shouldn’t expect to eat them with cheese and beer in the fall. In the words of a famous ex-nun, “Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could.”
Not only is it reasonable to expect a labouring people to follow in the wake of a labouring God, it is also necessary. It is through investing one’s own labour that each person is able to earn their own living. “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground.” Sweat equity is the original and best kind of equity. Lincoln had it right here:
Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
The gift of labour also preserves us from the dehumanizing effects of idleness. Idleness—the state of NOT being at work—is fertile ground for sin. Which means we shouldn’t be surprised when diehard welfare states are also riddled with crime. The less people busy at work, the more time they have “to lie on their beds and make evil plans” (Micah 2:1). Through work, the effects of decay and are also kept at bay; roads can be repaired, lawns mowed, homes heated, and taxes kept low.
When only a small core of society is actually engaged in labour, the pool of capital (available wealth) dries up, and new taxes are introduced to replenish it. Which are then immediately sent back out to fund the magical endeavours of the unemployed.
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You can’t have good policies and a bad worldview. You can’t hate God and still do good to your fellow man. When you tear virtue away from its proper environment (God’s character and revelation), you aren’t left with the same virtue you started with. You have a monster that bears almost no resemblance to its former shape or purpose.

The modern world . . . is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. They have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone.
– G.K. Chesterton
We’ve all known friends who one day decided they needed to “start fresh.” So they grew their hair out and started offering didgeridoo workshops in their garage; they bought a farm and started raising Guinea Fowl; they abandoned their Honda at the edge of a wilderness in the hopes of finding their true selves lurking behind a bush somewhere.
Years later and you bump into them at a flea market. In the painful process of catching up you start to realize the awful truth; they desperately want you to believe their existential voyage has returned them to land whole and healthy. They’ve grown. They’ve changed. They’ve seen some things, man — they’ve done some stuff. So sure are they of their rebirth, we don’t have the heart to ask about their green yoga pants, neck beard, or why they’re missing an ear.
Wandering alone isn’t good for anyone. That includes virtues.
Stark Raving Virtues
If you want to know what a virtue gone mad looks like, look no further than one of the million “isms” staggering around with foam dripping from their mouths.
Environmentalism, for example. Ostensibly, NetZero fanciers want us to believe they’re the last line of defence against an imminent carbon apocalypse. According to the UN, we’re already “at least one degree Celsius above preindustrial levels and close to what scientists warn would be ‘an unacceptable risk.’”
Now, there’s already just enough vagueness in that statement for me to never want to leave it alone with someone I care about. But don’t you find “unacceptable risk” to be a fascinating choice of words? It almost feels like I’ve heard that exact phrase used in a different context, but that also involved experts and suffering. Questions arise from the shadowy recesses of memory and start chattering frantically at me: What criteria renders a risk unacceptable? What worldview do the individuals assessing risks hold to? What will the human cost be of responding to risks deemed to be unacceptable?
To be clear, my problem isn’t conscientiousness. My problem is the state attempting to legislate conscientiousness. This is a problem because:
A secular state is only concerned with expanding its power.
Without God, all the aims, operations, and policies of the state trend towards this singular end (Psalm 2:2).
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