Amusing Ourselves...to Death

It's Christmas Break, or the end of break really. So it's natural that I've been thinking about amusement. Everyone will want to hear all the fun things done over break when we all return. What will I have to say? I know some people will have went on vacations, or to the orchestra,or the bar, or to see a movie, or to go bowling, or out to eat, or to a concert; any number of things really. Is this okay? Yesterday some relatives were talking about a stingy old aunt and how she never spent any money on amusement or anything for her husband. While I do think it is wrong to be selfish, I think it is just as wrong to squander. Don't get me wrong- I've bought things I don't need over break- socks, a pair of jeans, razors, shampoo, a snickers bar- I didn't really really need any of those things. That is a tangent though- I want to talk about amusement. In the book I've been reading by Charles Finney "Power from on High", there is a chapter on "innocent amusement" (this can also be found on the web- just click the writing for a link). So here's what Finney had to say on it;

How are we to decide whether any given act of amusement is right or wrong, innocent or sinful?

I answer:

1st. By the moral law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," etc., "and thy neighbour as thyself." No intelligent act of a moral agent is innocent or right unless it proceeds from and is an expression of supreme love to God and equal love to man--in other words, unless it is benevolent.

2nd. The Gospel. This requires the same: "Therefore, whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God." "Do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

3rd. Right reason affirms the same thing. Now, in the light of this rule, it is plain that it is not innocent to engage in amusements merely to gratify the desire for amusement. We may not innocently eat or drink to gratify the desire for food or drink. To eat or drink merely to gratify appetite is innocent enough in a mere animal, but in a moral agent it is a sin. A moral agent is bound to have a higher ultimate motive--to eat and drink--that he may be strong and healthy for the service of God. God has made eating and drinking pleasant to us; but this pleasure ought not to be our ultimate reason for eating and drinking. So amusements are pleasant, but this does not justify us in seeking amusements to gratify desire.

Nothing is innocent unless it proceeds from supreme love to God and equal love to man, unless the supreme and ultimate motive be to please and honour God. In other words, to be innocent, any amusement must be engaged in because it is believed to be at the time most pleasing to God, and is intended to be a service rendered to Him, as that which, upon the whole, will honour Him more than anything else that we can engage in for the time being.


Wow! That's what advice you get when you drag up preachers from the 1800s. What could he possibly know? Well... I think that he hit a lot of things on the head, he comes from an entirely different time than our postmodern culture today. So instead of having fish assess the water in their own fishbowl his advice gives us a bird's eye view so to speak.

He said that no amusement is innocent unless it comes from love, unless the ultimate motive is to please and honor God. Okay, so in that case would watching most of the movies that are made today be a good form of amusement? Is watching people engage in premarital sex, unneeded violence, using His name in vain, or the assortment of other things most movies portray God-pleasing? Does this bring Him honor? Not really. Now I don't think, by any means, we should condemn anyone, including those in Hollywood. They, like all others in darkness, need a helping hand of someone who knows the light, that they as well may be guided out of darkness into God's marvelous light.

This new year, and every year after this, I am going to ask myself whether or not what I amuse myself with is innocent? Is it pleasing to Him? Is he happy with the way I am spending my time? He calls us to be good stewards- this isn't just with money- money we can earn more of, but time, time can't be bought back, there are only so many moments in any day. Let's use every single one of them in a God honoring way.