"Creed or Chaos?" by Dorothy Sayers

"...it seems to me quite disastrous that the idea should have got about that Christianity is an otherworldly, unreal, idealistic kind of religion that suggests that if we are good we shall be happy - or if not, it will all be made up to us in the next existence. On the contrary, it is fiercely and even harshly realistic, insisting that the kingdom of heaven can never be attained in this world except by unceasing toil and struggle and vigilance: that, in fact, we cannot be good and cannot be happy, but that there are certain eternal achievements that make even happiness look like trash. It has been said, I think by Berdyaev, that nothing can prevent the human soul from preferring creativeness to happiness. In this lies man's substantial likeness to the Divine Christ, who in this world suffers and creates continually, being incarnate..."

- Dorothy Sayers, Letters to a Diminished Church. "Creed or Chaos?"

I strongly agree with all of this bar one point. Perhaps something can, and is, being done to prevent the soul from preferring creativeness to happiness. It seems to me that, at the very least, we live in an age which is trying very hard to make just such a shift. Or, maybe we are not being taught to prefer happiness - we are being taught that creativeness is out of reach for most of us and we ought to settle for the participation ribbon of happiness. Meanwhile, woe to those who are not even allowed to play the game.