Our tools for connection are greater today than ever before,
and our opportunities for entertainment are no less great. I actually know people with way over three
hundred TV channels on their cable box.
Add to that the possibility of streaming movies from Netflix or one of
their carbon copies (which we don’t use any more, by the way) and you have a
full slate of opportunities right in your home, and that’s not even counting
the endless options from gaming system manufacturers. You can be an all-star at virtually any
sport, exercise your hand/eye coordination, and do your duty defending the
country while saving the world from the bad guys while keeping track of the
number of kills.
Are all of these things bad?
Not necessarily, but they do provide us with an even better reason to be
intentional about where we choose to spend our time. Unlike money, we can’t borrow time. We all only have 24 hours in a day, and after
limiting our sleep, neglecting our children and spouses to squeak out a little
more, we still can only spend 24 hours a day doing anything. What’s my point? I recently read that the word “entertainment”
is derived from a Latin word which I probably can’t pronounce and won’t bore
you with, but the meaning of the word is “something providing a pleasurable
escape or a diversion for the mind.” My
natural response to reading this was to ask, “A pleasurable diversion from
what?” A quick look around our world
tells us just what people need diverted from. Pain, depression, strife, frustration, debt,
wars, rumors of wars, tragedies here and there, too much month at the end of
the money, broken relationships, bad politics, and the list goes on. But I would like to suggest to you that the
enemy of us all uses the problems of this world to get us to self-medicate on
entertainment. Why would he do such a
thing? Because thoughtless, mind-numbed,
busy individuals rarely recognize the fact that each of us was created with a destiny. Destiny literally means divine purpose. God, the ultimate Creator doesn’t make
useless, purposeless people. Each of us
has the DNA of our God-plan written right on our hearts. It’s not the sort of “have to follow God’s
will for your life” sort of stuff that we have come to see as undesirable, but
it’s hidden there in your heart, tucked neatly between your most significant desires and fond
dreams. When we get away from it all, we
at first find boredom, quickly followed by anxiety and hand wringing, followed
by the deeper questions of what are we doing with our lives. Not the sort of condemnation-oriented
thoughts like, “Jesus died for you, so suck it up and get out there and serve
him,” but the thoughts like, “What will I regret not having tried if I were to
close my eyes tonight and never open them again?”
Let me encourage you to take a self test. Go unplugged for 24 hours. Shoot, try even just twelve hours (not
counting sleep). Hang out with some good
friends for an evening (the real kind, not the kind from social media that you
may have never met). Ask yourself and
your friends things like “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?” “What’s the most exciting thing to happen to
you recently?” Endeavoring to recover your sense of destiny and encourage each other to
change the way you think. Help
each other, not in the sort of “have to spur one another on to do things which
we should do but don’t want to do,” but be encouraging each other to move forward
in relationship with Jesus, the one who said, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life.
I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do
it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won't lay anything heavy or
ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me
and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Matthew 11:28
P.S. I love it when
people post on my wall, even in the middle of the night J.
