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We are searching for the good life. It is a quest for life lived to the full,
as it was meant to be. This is the third message taking a serious look at
one of the world’s popular strategies for the good life – wine,
women and song. We have looked at the use of alcohol or chemical aids to the
good life (wine) and the role of sex and sexuality (women), now we are ready
to consider “song,” or entertainment.
In talking about entertainment we want to consider the things we use to occupy
our discretionary time and energies. Specifically, we want to pursue the question
of the place of entertainment as a means to achieve the good life. How do
those diversions, incidental activities, casual amusements or stimulating
experiences help us to achieve the good life? Our culture tells us that any
of those activities that bring us pleasure, or a good time are good. The road
to the good life is simply the pursuit of more.
The cultural response largely ignores – or rejects – the question,
“What does it matter?” So what? What I do to entertain myself is
my business. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just entertainment.
We want to call that kind of response into question from a Christian perspective.
That perspective affirms the significance of human choices and action. We
would offer a competing premise. That is, what we listen to, watch, read,
or focus our attentions on shapes what we become. The biblical perspective
on entertainment is shaped by a keen appreciation of its shaping, formative
power.
Philippians 4:8, for instance, gives us direction for a biblical focus of
our discretionary time and energies. Focus on what is true vs. illusion or
deception. Pursue a clearer understanding of reality. Seek what is noble,
that is, morally good. Focus your attention on the majestic, sublime, things
that are uplifting. Try to find the right, which gives to each its proper
due and produces proportion and balance. Desire the pure, the opposite of
shabby and sordid that elevates rather than demeans us. Seek what is lovely,
not just physical beauty but a winsomeness of character that prompts a positive
response. Pursue what is admirable, gracious and uplifting rather than the
ugly and false. Let your life be shaped by what is excellent, a Greek concept
describing life achievement at its highest. Focus on the praiseworthy, a quality
that merits praise and affirmation. Paul commends us to “think on these
things.” That is, reflect upon and allow these qualities of living to
shape your conduct.
Paul is not declaring a kind of bondage that restricts us from any forms of
“light” entertainment. But he is calling us to use the formative
power of the influences of your life in positively productive ways. It is
part of what he has in mind when he pleads, “Do not conform any longer
to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
(Romans 12:2) Our focus looks to the formative power of eternal, enduring
values. “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For
what is seen in temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians
4:18) God’s plan for our lives includes forming our character for eternity.
The biblical vision of the role of entertainment in our lives is not repressive,
but uplifting. It is not intended to inhibit your experience of the good life
but to help you find it. Entertainment does matter and the measure of entertainment
rests on its pattern of influence in our lives. When it lifts, enhances and
ennobles us as creatures fit to live productively forever, then entertainment
contributes to the high purpose for which Christ gave himself to realize in
us.
What kind of character is entertainment forming in your life? Are your casual
amusements and free time diversions reinforcing healthy, positive patterns
in your character? Or do you find yourself amused, but somewhat diminished
by the activities that entertain you. The Christian understanding of the human
person declares that what you do matters, even your entertainment. It is never
“just” entertainment. It is the shaping of the person you are becoming.
The way to the really good life is the way Paul describes for his own journey:
“One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what
is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called
me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b-14).
