1. Marion says:

    Becky,

    The Book of Ecclesiastes is my favorite book of the Bible. Unfortunately, this book (along with Song of Songs) have been the most overlooked books of the Bible.

    I feel it is the book that most people can relate to in our modern era. Wealth, Pleasure, Knowledge, Adversity, and Timing all are covered in that book.

    Solomon had it all and it meaningless without God.

    Modern Christianity has had this love/hate relationship with entertainment and then you add on top an American Protestant Ethic and entertainment is seen as suspect (to say the least).

    Even though Solomon laments about pleasure and riches…he doesn’t dismiss them entirely. But we have to proper perspective and without God these things even up being meaningless.

    I believe entertainment is important and it should be a part of one’s life (whether is reading Fiction, TV & Movies, Video Games or the Internet). But it shouldn’t dominate one’s life and that’s very easy to do in our culture.

  2. Erica says:

    Reading Proverbs, Songs of Solomon, and Ecclesiates I gather one thing, one idea: That Solomon was ultimately human. I have met people who are God lovers and somehow the pleasures of this world brought them down or caused their mindstance on things to change. What does this mean in relation to entertainment today? Perhaps after working, praying, studying, and fasting ,a brief respite into Gossip Girls, or Access Hollywood, or a nice small gathering at a friend’s home has become the 90% fruit of our lives. One must learn to balance-as I am learning.

    For example, I am trying to input more God in my life than wordly stuff. Have my daily prayers and meditations. Work hard. Study and afterwards watch a bit of TV or read a good book. The content in these media may be questionable at some point but God has giving me a brain to know what is real, false, and acceptable.

  3. Erica and Marion, I appreciate your thoughts. Again because I’ll be writing on this again next week, I’ll hold off giving my response just yet, but your feedback really helps me hone my thinking.

    Marion, it’s interesting that you say Ecclesiastes is your favorite book of the Bible. I wrote a post over at my own site some time ago about how it is my least favorite. 😮

    Because of that, I specifically asked God to help me understand what He wanted me to understand when I read it this time. In light of this topic, I ended up going over several chapters more than once, and I definitely learned more than I ever have. God is good to answer prayer! 😀

    Becky

  4. I think just like everything moderation is the key in this area. If entertainment becomes the new idol to bow down and worship, then repentance is in order and getting back to God is the goal.

  5. The thing about pursuing happiness is that we’re happiest when we’re doing what God has called us to do. I find the command to redeem the time to be quite convicting. How much time do I waste every day?

    I do think relaxation and entertainment are good, but the best of both of those things are filled with meditation upon the person and work of the Lord.

    Thank God for the Bible, and for the Holy Spirit who makes us able to understand it. We don’t have to wonder about what we should be doing. And even better than finding in the Bible what God wants us to spend our time on, we get to know God better as we read what he’s written for us.

    Ha, I’m fried on this computer and I was just about to click over to Netflix and watch a movie. I guess I’ll spend some time with God instead. He’s much more edifying to me.

    Thanks, Becky!

  6. Luther says:

    How can entertainment be a waste of time when the joy of the Lord is our strength ( joy is not always the same as happiness ) and there are pleasures evermore at His right hand?

    It can become a waste of time and even idolatrous if it takes away from our time with the Lord and hinders our spiritual progress. All things in moderation.

    Is it ironic that fiction writers are contemplating that entertainment may be a waste of time.

  7. […] one of the commenters to last week’s post noted, it’s ironic that a fiction writer is contemplating whether or not entertainment is a […]

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