Entertainment: the elephant in the room
I’m not writing to tell you that entertainment is a sin. How could it be? Things aren’t sins. Our rebellion and transgression against the love of God are sins.
As a matter of fact, this article is not about sinning at all. It is about finding Joy in the presence of the Lord. Entertainment can be great. It can give us something to gather around as a community and share some fellowship. It can give our minds and bodies some much-needed relaxation after a long day of work.
The problem is when we allow it to be a substitute for joy. If we wander away, for nearly any period of time, from seeking the joy that is found only in the presence of the Lord (Psalm 16:11), then a natural (carnal) course of action seems to be filling our lives with more entertainment.
From there, it can easily become the thing we long for. So many of us who call ourselves Christians, myself included, have found ourselves longing, literally longing, for the time of day that we can just sit down and __________________. Fill in the blank: watch TV, play video games, surf the internet, watch YouTube, check social media, etc. Some of us don’t even long for that time of day, because it consumes us. We do it all day. We find it…enJoyable.
And there’s the rub. Sometimes, we can enjoy these things (i.e. experience them with Joy) without ever finding the Joy that Jesus wants us to find only in His Presence. Jesus said that he wanted us to be with Him where He is.
John 17:24 (NIV) “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”
That should be what fascinates us and captures our gaze: a Holy God wanting to show us His Glory—not the dull glow of a computer monitor. The fleeting things that we so easily fix our eyes on in our day-to-day lives cannot begin to compare with what Jesus wants to reveal to us. The inexpressible and glorious joy that is available just beyond the veil of our human eyes can be fully ours, if we fix our gaze on what we cannot see.
1 Peter 1:8-9 (NIV) 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
So, like I said, this article is not about sinning at all. It is about finding Joy in the presence of the Lord. I urge you to cultivate in yourself a longing for only Him. These lesser joys, that may not be sinful in and of themselves, will be found lacking in light of Him.
DISCLAIMER: I published this same article on an earlier blog of mine, but every time I stumble across it I can’t help but think of how relevant it still is. So, I’m reposting it here. I’ve also updated the text of this blog post again on 4/3/2025 to make it clearer and more relevant to today.