Follow Your Heart?

I was watching a sitcom the other day, and the show dispensed one of those nuggets of "wisdom" which many sitcoms are fond of. This was clearly the show's (or at least the writer's) worldview. It was one of those pieces of advice which, when the characters start to take it, immediately makes everything work out for them (because the writer writes it that way). The advice was this: "Just look into your heart and do whatever makes you happy."

This seems to be pop culture "wisdom" these days. We hear it everywhere -- movies, TV shows, songs -- and it's important to understand its implications.

There are two competing views of human nature. One theory is that humans are naturally good. Now, this sounds like it must be true on its face; we all know that humans have the capacity for good, and that many people are good and kind "by nature." However, we have to be very careful about this theory. Sometimes it's important to follow an argument to its logical conclusion to see if it holds up.

The trouble is this: if humans and human nature are inherently good, then the things people want should be inherently good. If evil is not inherent in our nature, then there's no reason we would have evil desires. However this brings us immediately into conflict with morality: every person, every day, wants things which they know to be immoral.

So if we follow this thread, here's where we end up: human nature is inherently good, so the things humans want are good; the things humans want are opposed to the things morality teaches that they should want; therefore morality is opposed to good. Thus morality itself must be wrong, and everyone should instead do whatever makes them happy, because that's what's really good.

When we see where this argument takes us, it becomes clear that it's not somewhere we want to go. We can clearly illustrate this principle with respect to children: how often does a parent make a child do something which will make the child unhappy? "Do your homework!" "Eat your vegetables!" "Clean your room!"

These are evil actions by the parent, if human nature is inherently good, because we're acting against what the child wants and what would make the child happy. But of course the parent is acting for the child's good in the long term: a child who never learns his lessons in school, eats poorly, doesn't clean up after himself, and generally doesn't obey authority may be joyful in childhood but will be miserable and a failure as an adult.

Further, there are things which we know deeply should be done even if they make us unhappy. Taking care of an elderly relative is often difficult, and frequently causes much sadness and little happiness. But even if you would feel no guilt for not doing so (i.e. assuming you would definitely be happier overall if you didn't take care of your relative, and you knew it), you would still feel that you ought to do it. Some part of us knows that we should do it, regardless of whether it makes us happy. How can this deep knowledge that we should do some things even if they make us unhappy be reconciled with our nature?

There is a competing view of human nature. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing." (Romans 7:18-19)

Christianity teaches that man was made in the image of God, and made with a good nature. Man chose himself over God, however, and evil infected him all the way to the core of his being. We have all inherited that fallen and evil nature.

In this view, then, man's desires are not necessarily good; indeed, they are frequently evil. It becomes apparent that if "the heart is deceitful above all things," then one of the worst things we could do would be to "look into our heart" (or at least to look only at what our heart wants).

If man is inherently fallen, and evil creeps into all of our wants, then morality opposes these desires because they are wrong. Thus morality is the better part of us, God in us, reminding us of what's right in spite of what we want.

Furthermore, it's important to think about the idea that a person should "do what makes you happy." In the earlier example we saw that a child is forced to do things which make him very unhappy in service of his lifelong happiness. How could the child have known or understood that concept at the time? In light of that, how can any of us know what will make us happy in the long run?

The opposite case is also worth considering. We have all experienced situations where something that made us happy in the short run made us very unhappy in the longer term -- we rush into a relationship which later ends badly, or eat too much and later feel sick, or buy something pricey which we end up using very little.

The only way you could hope to achieve happiness is to put your life in the hands of someone greater than yourself, trusting in that greater power to guide you to the things which can bring you lasting happiness. We must emulate the child who listens to his parents, even when obeying makes him unhappy. The child can rest assured that the current unpleasantness will benefit him in the long run, because he knows that his parents can see further than he can and have his best interests at heart.

In the end, advice like "Look into your heart and do what makes you happy" is fatuous. It's the world's wisdom, and if you follow it far enough you can see that it is foolish. "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (1 Corinthians 1:20)

Thankfully, there's real wisdom to be found: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)