The Trouble With Entertainment

As I sat and watched the corruption mounting and the line between the good guys and the bad guys blurring - blood and guts spilling in techno-coloured HD, I heard myself thinking - 'and why exactly do I enjoy watching this stuff?'

I remember the first movie I ever went to see in a theatre - Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Dennis Hopper and others. I presented my case for going to my father - who was not happy that I was asserting my newly arrived at adulthood by making, what he felt, was a bad decision.

That was the first of many, many movies that I have watched, enjoyed and tolerated.

Don't get me wrong. I love movies. I love to escape into the wonders of space, intrigue, mystery, drama, comedy - even documentary. I can lose myself a well told story and sometimes even in a second rate story - I so much want to make it work.

But after 35 years of watching movies am I better for it? I'd like to think that some of them have helped to form who I am - in a good way - to dream big dreams, to imagine what could happen if.... Some movies have helped to bridge conversations with people about God and how Jesus relates to us, including us in his story. Some have helped me rethink why I believe what I believe and how to relate to others through faith building story telling, imagery painting, character development and refinement - my character building and refinement, too.

But, to be honest, I also know that some of them have helped to nurture angst, anger, lust, greed - not all that godly of a quality to mix into the Jesus-in-me cocktail!

And that's the trouble with entertainment. It mostly doesn't exist to teach and to train - just entertain. Thankfully some does teach and train and stretch our perceptions and dredge up our compassion. But many only exist to entertain. And entertainment is its own reward.

I'm not against entertainment, relaxation and fun - quite the opposite. But sometimes I think that I need to hear what Paul said again in the paradigm of my culture, my society.

1 Corinthians 10:23 "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. 24 Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. (NIV)

Or as The Message puts it:

1 Corinthians 10:23 Looking at it one way, you could say, "Anything goes. Because of God’s immense generosity and grace, we don’t have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster." But the point is not to just get by. 24 We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.

At the end of the day, I know that Jesus isn't going to ask me, "Did you or did you not go to movies?" But he will want to know if I helped people along the way through my life. And when it comes down to it, helping people, engaging with them - be it in conversation or practical acts of love and kindness - is what he is concerned about.

The trouble with entertainment is that it is seldom more than self-serving. Maybe it's not a "sin" to see a movie like my Dad thought it was. But I also don't think that it is always good or necessary - especially when it takes us away from engaging with people - helping them live well!

Kingdom of God is not always easy to understand or desire!

Tim and I ministered at a church in our local area this last weekend. Tim did an awesome job of leading the congregation in worship Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Saturday evening, in particular I was moved by the worship and the intimacy of the Lord during that time. So much so that it changed how I presented my talk (don't you hate that when you've got it all planned out and God throws in a monkey wrench?).

I'm not sure how people would have responded to what I had originally planned to say - but a number of people came up to me later to mention how what I had shared had connected with them like never before - God had somehow broken through!

I don't understand how or why brokenness communicates things of eternal value much more clearly than a well rehearsed presentation - but it does. I don't know why weakness demonstrates itself more strongly than strength - but it does. I don't know why humility communicates more clearly than boasting - but it does.

In God's kingdom, nothing we would ordinarily pursue or seek to present ourselves as amounts to anything. So why is it that we so avoid being humbled, being weak, being broken? Is it because we live in a world that honours the opposite and so we, in spite of what our theology might teach us, have bought into its ideology and we seek to gain it's applause rather than God's comparatively weak "Well done, good and faithful servant"?

Teach me to love your kingdom of God and to learn its rhythms and rhymes, letting them be etched on my heart and witnessed in my being.

2007 month 1 almost over already!

Wow! I had planned to add to this blog regularly and now a whole month has slipped by. Where does the time go?

Time.

If we don't treat it as something precious, it slips away and we though we morn its loss we cannot recapture it.

So my desire for this new year is to make the most of the time God has given me. To not squander it nor try to squeeze every once of life out of it in sheer desperation - but to enjoy it, to utilize it for the benefit of God's kingdom.

Last night I spoke at Tyndale University College & Seminary Chapel. The group was mainly Tyndale students. Colin led in a wonderful time of lifting our praise and worship to God in songs of celebration and intimacy. And God moved and impacted people there.

Awesome!

This morning I awoke the memories of God's faithfulness to me as I spoke and He led last night. Will I allow him to lead me again today in the mundane of writing a blog, catching up on emails and going to the optometrist? Do I limit God's faithfulness because I only depend upon it in the "crunch" times? Only ask for it when I am in front of people? Only depend on it when things are falling apart?

Lord, teach me your faithfulness today! Teach me dependency upon you for each moment, each circumstance, each conversation, each thought!

Three and Four More Sleeps

It's Tuesday, Dec 19th. Only three more sleeps before our daughter flies in from Halifax and four more sleeps until our eldest son flies in from Vancouver. Then, together with our middle child (the stay at home son), we will be together as a family once more.

It seems strange how quickly life stages pass you by. You are just barely used to the kids invading your otherwise self-determined lives when you have to get used to how to live with relative peace and quiet again - and looking forward to those times when the house is filled with laughter, and noise and activity.

Don't get me wrong. I do enjoy the fact that our kids are all grown up! I celebrate their move on to adulthood and all the experiences that we have (hopefully) prepared them to face. But there are times of longing for the times when I, as a dad, was depended upon for much more than what I am now... but that's life - I guess.

I wonder if God feels the same way when we get all "grown-up" and don't need to depend on him like we did when we were younger (or younger in the faith - before we figured it all out). I wonder if I will fill his "house" with joy and laughter this season only to fade away again into the quiet oblivion of mediocre faith - just getting by with what was good enough last year, in the new year.

I pray that I will press in more, pursue more of him, long to know him more - like a child longs for Christmas and a parent logs for the time when the family will be together again.

Only three and four more sleeps...........

First day on the Blog

Here I am sitting and listing to Tim playing piano through his headphones (mostly just clicks on the keys!) and setting up my first blog. In a day or two the new makeusholy website will be up and running so I wanted to get this blog in place so my website can link to it. Check it out at www.makeusholy.org.

Gareth