I appreciate why people write about deadly sins in this way.
But I myself was better able to overcome lust when I stopped seeing it as some big huge powerful evil force of nature that I had to fight like a dragon, and saw it for what it was:
stupid, a waste of time I could be using more productively, embarrassing, annoying, childish, and unnecessary.
As a young person I often thought that Catholics made the sexual act into something larger than life in all contexts. Sometimes, all the buildup about bad evil sin, or even the buildup about its serving good purposes in marriage, was simply overwhelming. At its worst it was like the monster on your back you would never get free of, and at its best it was an ideal that seemed impossible to live up to. I think the presentation of sinful sex as being so big, dark and forbidden actually made it look more exciting to some people I knew and encouraged them to commit sins and foolish behaviors, though I’m not sure if it ever worked that way on me because I would always come back to thinking “this is just stupid.”
I felt much better when I read that certain Native American tribes thought of lust as a joke, something that made a fool of otherwise strong men. When I put it in that perspective, rather than building it up like a Hollywood blockbuster, it was easier to overcome, set aside, dismiss.
