I believe I do love Jesus, but most of the time I’d rather spend time being entertained than spend time in God’s word. How do I break this hold that entertainment has on my heart?
That’s a very good question. And I think it’s especially relevant because we live, I think, more now than ever, in a day when entertaining kinds of things are immediately accessible.
I was thinking the other day of the difference between our temptations and, say, 250 years ago, the day of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards would write about the folly of young people getting together to do “frivolous conversation” or other worse things. (“Bundling” it was called: getting in bed together and keeping your clothes on, that sort of thing. Just spice up life a little bit. Life gets boring in New England 250 years ago.)
Today we carry in our pockets radio, television, internet, and games, and anything that would be titillating, fun! And “fun” is a word in the church today that’s just rampant! It’s an adjective, it’s a noun, it’s a verb, because we do ministry in order to fit this mentality.
I’m deeply concerned about that. I want to stand for seriousness about God, instead of making him palatable by making him “fun”! Turning him into another piece of entertainment.
So this question is, “How do you break free from that kind of addiction?”
- Recognizing it is a huge step in the right direction.
- Seek the Lord earnestly about it. Pray like crazy that God would open your eyes to see wondrous things out of his law.
- Immerse yourself in the Bible, even when you don’t feel like it, pleading with God to open your eyes to see what’s really there.
- Get in a group where you talk about serious things.
- Begin to share your faith. One of the reasons we are not as moved by our own faith as we are is because we almost never talk about it to any unbeliever. It starts to feel like a kind of hothouse thing, and then it starts to have a feeling of unreality about it. And then the powers of entertainment have more sway in our life.
And so those would be some of the things, but ultimately it’s a gift of grace to feel the glory of God.
One last suggestion: think about your death. Think about your death a lot. Ask what you’d like to be doing in the season of life, or hours or days, leading up to meeting Christ. I do that a lot these days. I think about the impact of death, and what I would like to be found doing, and how I would prepare to meet him and give an account to him.
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
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I’ve read several things by Piper on this topic–all are convicting in a good way, calling and inspiring me to live for something more than TV and movies, or books or magazines or inane chatter. (But it is so easy to stay in the shallow end!) And getting serious takes effort.
We have several friends with whom we enjoy bobbing from deep to shallow and back again; it’s wonderful to know that at any moment, we could call and lay out the deep stuff of heart and soul, and because the path has already been trod, we can go there easily. I want more of that! Thanks for sharing here as a reminder.
Erin, a few weeks ago I heard someone say, “You only have today.” I started thinking a lot about that idea. We are not guaranteed tomorrow or even the next moment. How do I want to spend this moment that will leave a lasting legacy if I don’t have another moment to live. For me, I think the most important calling that God has placed on my life is as a wife and a mother. The legacy that I want to build with my right now is that of a God-fearing wife and mother. I have desires to pursue other things, but they should be done as a side, not as my main thing.
If we really lived as if today could be my last, I think the chatter, the TV, the internet, the entertainment would lose its value quickly. I think the only thing that I would find valuable on this Earth is my relationships.