I had a good conversation over the weekend about the poisonous of entertainment in our culture. Stimulus is provided innumerable ways 24/7. I often feel that I "earn" the right to relax, tune-out, and laugh for a half hour episode of something on television after a hard day, or in magazine or book, or in facebooking and emusicing. The list goes on. The temptation is real. And deadly.
Why?
1) "While cultivating a God-centered perspective on recreation and entertainment takes effort, it is absolutely necessary if my entire life is to have the aroma of the One who
taught us to store up treasures in heaven (Matt. 6:19-21), that our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3-4), and that it is God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy (I Tim. 6:17)." --Alex Chediak (Bold text is mine). So we want to look like Him. We want to honor Him.
2) We want to be salt and light. What about when salt looses it's flavor? Isn't it thrown out? Is uncritical, undisciplined entertainment "being conformed to the world?" Well, do NOT be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind! (Romans 12:2)
3) We are at war! Indulging in something that let's your mind coast in neutral is ripe ground for sin.
4) Entertainment pacifies, but it doesn't satisfy. It is temporary. It is like building sandcastles, when you could be using bricks. I don't want to look back on years of my life (even hours of my days) and see nothing...
There are more reasons. We have brains for a reason-- to reason! Not just to sink in quicksand that looks "solid-enough." And I'm not judging. I'm really preaching to myself. Recreation and relaxation are necessary. But let's press pause and think about how we engage in it.
