True happiness and pure joy are not found in cheese coneys, chocolate fudge, fame, fortune, power, wine, beer, bourbon, scotch, cocaine, marijuanna, LSD, rock music, rap music, country music, classical music, motion pictures, digital devices, cell phones, shopping sprees, sporting events, military conquests, runner’s euphoria, venereal pleasures, sexual orgasms, dopamine, anandamide, endorphins, endocannabinoids, or any other good of the body or the senses.
They are found in God alone.
We can learn this difficult lesson by experience and reason, as St Augustine did, or we can learn it far more easily by education and faith in a reliable source of wisdom, such as a good mother, like St Monica or the Catholic Church, or a good book, like the Confessions or the Bible.
But those who fail to learn it ultimately find only sadness and sorrow.
© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.