Sacred Mundane: The Blog

As most of you know, these LiveDifferent Challenges are simply one way, each week, that we can challenge our culture’s way of thinking, acting, or engaging with the world around us, in hopefully creative ways so that we might better reflect the glory of God. This week, God has me contemplating amusement.

So I wouldn’t say I love all the things I inherited from my parents (let’s just say Jeff has smaller ankles than me), but one thing I am so thankful to get from them is my love of learning. I praise God that my parents somehow rooted in me an insatiable desire to learn and to grow, to avoid stagnation, and to keep moving forward. Just the other day I was telling someone about my unsual childhood as a homeschool kid: “playing outside” was really an undercover way for my mom to teach us about plants, road trips were filled with analogy and spelling games and a hundred questions from the backseat. Science fairs, bugs kept in jars, playroom carpet that had a chess board on it, cooking experiments…my mom was an absolute miracle worker for teaching children the wonder and awe of learning. She turned walking to the mailbox into a field trip! Her secret? She refused to simply amuse us. Instead of taking the easy road of sticking us in front of Sesame Street (and there’s nothing wrong with that sometimes!), she bypassed amusement and entertainment and taught us to think. And I think because of that, I truly love to learn and move and grow more than be amused. Thank you, Mom and Dad!

One of the ways I see this play out in adulthood is that I absolutely never watch TV. It’s not that I discipline myself to not watch TV, I just don’t even like it. It strikes me as mindless amusement at its worse. Now don’t get me wrong…amusement has its place. I enjoy movies every so often, I love love love to read, and I could ride Space Mountain a dozen times if there was no line. Movies are not evil. Books are not evil. Disneyland is not evil (although some would argue with me on that which is fine–I’m happy to lose the argument). But I would suggest that amusement is very dangerous. I suggest that Entertainment and Amusement, in excess, deadens our thirst and hunger for God and retards our spiritual learning and growth.

Let me explain my reasoning: The word “amuse” has several nuanced meanings in history (this comes from the 1828 dictionary): 1) to divert the attention of so as to deceive. 2) to occupy the attention of. 3) To entertain the mind agreeably; to occupy or detain attention with agreeable objects.

Basically, to amuse means to divert away from something of greater importance. It is essentially a playfully light distraction which keeps our mind from being engaged in weightier thoughts or activities. In a time where we need every faculty sharply attuned to the spiritual world around, amusement diverts the attention so as to deceive and keep us what truly matters.

Here is AW Tozer’s thoughts on The Great God Entertainment:

A German philosopher many years ago said something to the effect that the more a man has in his own heart the less he will require from the outside; excessive need for support from without is proof of the bankruptcy of the inner man. If this is true then the present inordinate attachment to every form of entertainment is evidence that the inner life of modern man is in serious decline.

…He has become a parasite on the world, drawing his life from his environment, unable to live a day apart from the stimulation which society affords him …

[However] No one with common human feeling will object to the simple pleasures of life, nor to such harmless forms of entertainment as may help relax the nerves and refresh the mind exhausted by toil. Such things if used with discretion may be a blessing along the way. …

[But] The abuse of a harmless thing is the essence of sin. The growth of the amusement phase of human life to such fantastic proportions is a portent, a threat to the souls of modern men. …

For centuries the church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was — a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attetion from moral accountability. But of late….we have the astonishing spectable of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churchs these days have become little more than poor theaters where fifth-rate “producers” peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise a voice against it.”

I know this is harsh! (That’s why I let Tozer say it instead of me…he’s dead so he can say harsh things.) But don’t you sense there is some truth to it? We desperately try to entertain our toddlers so they won’t get bored, then we try to entertain our kids with TV so we can have a break and not have to engage with them too much, then we entertain students in school so that they’ll stay and won’t drop out, then surprise–we’ve bred adults who are hopelessly addicted to the sedating effect of entertainment. I agree with Tozer that there is certainly some value in entertainment that harmlessly allows us to relax, ease tension, and rest. Holy Relaxation is what John Hwang used to call it, or Rest with Accountability. But I do wonder how much this gnawing emptiness in our souls is being artificially satisfied with amusement, dulling our aching hunger for the Real Thing–Christ Himself. It’s like responding to your hunger pangs by drinking a diet soda.

To connect back to how we began, it seems to me that this frenzied addiction to entertainment prevents us from ever really learning and growing. We numb our senses so that we no longer see the beauty and wonder of the simple and beautiful creation around us. We glut our desire for romance and sex with movies, TV and romance novels so that we no longer are satisfied with the simple and beautifully imperfect romance of husband and wife. We divert our attention from the pain and challenge of Truth, by amusing ourselves with light and playful trifles. And sadly, we do this in the church of all places.

So, to conclude, please understand that I am not saying all amusement is evil. God has spoken powerful things to me through movies and novels (see our last LiveDifferent Challenge). There is a time and a place. But just as alcohol can be used in moderation to cheer the heart but can be deadly when abused, so amusement and entertainment should be handled with caution. Our goal is satisfaction not sedation. The world offers entertainment to sedate us from the beautiful pain of life. Christ offers the satisfaction of living fully awake, fully engaged, learning and growing every moment, seeing Him in all of life,. actively involved in letting Him mold us and shape us. So the challenge this week is to sit down and evaluate where exactly your life is filled with entertainment and amusement, then just for this week, cut it out. Cut out the amusement just for a week, to let yourself full engage with the truth, beauty, and pain of life. Instead of entertainment, choose a hike, a nap, an hour picking flowers or taking a walk around the block. Read the Word. Ask God to touch those painful spots that you usually douse with entertainment. Ask God to give you a childlike wonder and love of learning, a desire to grow, to discover, to live full engaged with your senses heightened, not deadened. Ask God for satisfaction, not sedation. Then ask Him to wholly entertain and amuse your heart with the pleasure and joy of Himself.

Just a few thoughts here today because it’s sunny outside :-).  This week God has me on the contemplative kick of considering amusement (stay tuned for LiveDifferent Challenge 12 tomorrow).  As I thought about it and read, I remembered chapter from AW Tozer, my favorite dead author, who talked about the very subject. More on the tomorrow. But as I picked up his book, The Root of the Righteous, I ran a steaming hot bath, thinking I would savor the quiet evening alone with some practical kick-your-teeth-in theology from Mr. Tozer.  Well, as usual, I couldn’t get past the first page, because Tozer writes with such pithiness that each sentence is a quote–how can you read large quantities of it?! It’d be like eating a trough full of Lindt truffles.  They’re better eating only one and savoring it. So, I leave this thought with you (the gist of the book).  Tozer writes this:

“One marked difference between the faith of our fathers…and the same faith…lived by their children is that the fathers were concerned with the root of the matter, while their present-day descendents seem concerned only with the fruit.  This appears in our attitude toward certain great Christian souls whose names are honored amont the churches…Today we write biographies of such as these and celebrate their fruit, but the tendency is to ignore the root out of which the fruit sprang.  “The root of the righteous yieldeth fruit,”…Our fathers looked well to the root of the tree and were willing to wait with patience for the fruit to appear.  We demand the fruit immediately even though the root may be weak and knobby or missing altogether…There is no lasting life apart from the root.” 

And how true this is today!  We’ve become so obsessed with wanting the fruit (increase church attendance, victory over struggle areas, souls “accepting” Christ), we’ve neglected the root. As John Piper says, “God calls us not to be fruitful, but faithful.” We’re called to be faithful, God is the one who causes fruit.  We will be rewarded for our faithfulness (“Well done, good and faithful servant”), not our fruitfulness.  How well for our souls it would be if we focused primarily on the cultivation of the inner man and woman of the heart. On the inner death to self and embrace of Christ, on the emotional, fervant desire for God Himself, on the forsaking of all that is opposed to God, even if it seems for naught. 

Today as I tended my basil plant I thought of the reason this is so hard for us. No one sees our roots. No one knows if we even have roots.  We (and God) are the only one who knows whether we have roots or not.  Unfortunately we’ve become masters at stimulating growth, but often without the necessary care of our root system, which means we will inevitably dry up.  But for those with roots, this is the beautiful outcome:

 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
       which yields its fruit in season
       and whose leaf does not wither.
       Whatever he does prospers.  (Psalm 1)

Let’s tend to our roots and leave the fruit to the Heavenly Father. 

I had the best birthday ever…which totally caught me off guard.  You see, I have to admit that for some reason I always find myself feeling a little depressed at birthday time, and when it’s over, even if it was a fun time, I always end up feeling sad.  So this year, I started praying beforehand, because I could already sense the “downness” creeping in.  For a lot of people birthdays are no big deal, no cause for celebration, just another day. Well in our wonderful family growing up, birthdays were a time for celebration!  Not that it was about gifts, but my parents always let me have a party with my little girlfriends, and when I got older we always did a big family birthday party with my grandparents and Auntie Linda and “the boys”…so I have memories of being a little princess wearing a jeweled crown surrounded by my favorite people in the world.  No wonder adult birthdays are a little depressing, huh?  Anyway, it wasn’t even that I wanted a jeweled crown (ok maybe I wanted it a little), but it just always seemed like birthdays were frustrating becuase of the expectations. 

The same is true of any other big day that you plan to be perfect.  My friend and I have been reflecting on this because whenever we plan a big day as a family–hubby, baby, and us, we get all excited and pack up the diaper bag and head out into the world, and then what happens?  We get in a fight with our spouse, the baby’s poop blows up up to his shoulders, and it rains the whole time we’re at the zoo.  Or, the whole day turns out “ok” but just without any fireworks and we come home exhausted with a vague sense that it wasn’t a whole lot better than a normal day at home.  So, contemplating all this, I started praying a few days before my birthday that God would make the day not be about me.  Jeff was going to be gone from 7am-6pm at class all day, so I knew I’d be at home without a car, and it was supposed to rain and be cold.  And, I decided that was going to be just fine.  I began to see the parallels of our expectations about “big days” and our expectations about life.  I do the same thing with life.  I begin to envision what I hope for something, and next thing I know it builds an expectation about it, and so when that thing doesn’t happen exactly as I envisioned it, I’m disappointed.  So instead, recognizing this was a metaphor for my life, I began praying for expectancy without expectation (this is not original to me, Paul Young coined this phrase in The Shack).  Expectancy without expectation means that we have the same eager anticipation of blessing, but our eyes are focused on God instead of the circumstance. With expectation, we fix our eyes on a future event, envisioning what it will look like. WIth expectancy, we fix our eyes on Christ, envisioning His perfect  character, recognizing that whatever comes from His hand will be good.  Beautiful transformation! 

So, I must say, I was stunned by my birthday.  I’ve never, in my life, received so many calls from friends–friends who I don’t think have ever called me on my birthday (ok, I think facebook helped too).  My husband was the first to wish me a special day, then later when I came down for breakfast I had a rose waiting from my dad.  My dear friend Janae took me to Starbucks and the outlet mall and since I’m not buying clothes for myself, I used some of my birthday money to buy Jeff clothes–and it was way more fun than getting stuff for me!  Even though I forgot the stroller and my wild boy was terrorizing Banana Republic, she helped me corral him, and even played hide-and-seek in the khakis while I purchased Jeff’s clothes.  That’s a friend!  She wrote me a card that practically brought me to tears and even gave me some sassy summer pants since, as she said, “no girl can go a year without clothes” :-). Dutch and I went on an adventure to the Dollar Store to get cups and pitchers for Jeff’s 30th bday party.  My in-laws called and sang to me, then after a delicious lunch at home, Dutch fell right asleep and I had the whole sweet afternoon alone in blessed silence to write and read to my heart’s content.  Then my parents and I drove into portland to meet up with Jeff after his class and Dad treated us to an amazing dinner at Newport Seafood Grill where I totally splurged and had tiger prawns (yum!). Yes, Dutch had some colorful moments such as throwing his magna doodle across the table, but all in all it was so sweet.  Dad even secretly told the waiter about my bday and he surprised me with a heavenly chocolate souffle with whipped cream and candle.  I swear I could feel a jeweled crown materializing on my head. 🙂

Afterwards, Jeff and I decided that Dutch’s bedtime was invalid for the day, and we strolled leisurely through mall 205, getting Dutch a bike helmet and basil for my herb garden, and then Jeff took me to goodwill and said that since goodwill was my one allowance for special occasions in my clothes fast, his present to me was him buying few a few things for me and letting me pick them out.  So, hopefully ya’ll don’t feel like I cheated.  I got 4 shirts and a skirt from goodwill for a total of $35, which was my birthday present. 

So, not that you were dying for a play-by-play of my birthday, but I share that with you because I want to somehow convey the sweet love of God.  He treated me like a princess, and yet He also taught me how to take my eyes off myself, my expectations, my envisioning of the future, and to look to Him, the Giver of all good gifts, the one who knows exactly how to fill and satisfy every crevice of our hearts.  He is so good.  The lines have fallen to me in pleasent places (ps 16:6), I am so thankful.  And my prayer is to look to God with expectancy without expectation for the road ahead.  I have no idea what this 29th year holds, but I know Who holds it.  

I know not all of you are obsessive writers like me. You all are probably able to function somewhat normally, going through the day responding to circumstances without sudden flashes of supposed inspiration which sends you rushing up the stairs two-by-two to grab your laptop. You can probably watch movies without jumping up and frantically groping in the dark for a pen so you can scratch “fight for milk” on a napkin. You might even be able to look away from the computer screen when your spouse slides into bed next to you. It must be nice.

As for me, I love to write. So for my birthday my mother-in-law (a brilliant writer) got me a book called Writing on Both Sides of the Brain by Henriette Anne Klauser. The gist of the book is brilliant–she explains that basically all of our dread of writing stems from the fact that we are taught to write and edit simultaneously, rather than letting ourselves loose with words without worry for conventions, then going back later to edit and rework. (My problem is actually that I never, ever, go back to edit. My writing is plenty free, but could use some editing!)

But what is true of writing is also true of life. How many of us are terrified to actually risk doing something because we are afraid we won’t do it just right? She tells a fabulous story about a little boy who wants to write a story about a mouse and a motorcyle but he doesn’t know how to spell motorcycle, so he writes a story about a mouse and bike, but somehow when he’s done it wasn’t quite the same story he had in his heart. Sad! But so true. He was afraid of seeing his teacher’s red marks slashed across his paper, and was too insecure to ask how to spell the word. So he produced a less work, and in essence wasn’t true to what was in his heart.

I live like this! Ugh. How often do we feel that stirring in our hearts to do something, but we procrastinate or hesitate because we’re afraid how it will all come out. Klauser tells a story of a woman who decided that whenever a new opportunity came up, whether to learn how to change the oil in her car or to learn to dance the salsa, she would pretend that she was 8-years-old. Rather than fearing looking dumb, she insisted that kids were allowed to learn new things without fear or failure, so she would too. With the adventurous courage of an 8-year-old she would tackle the latest feat.

Finally, Klauser explained that brilliant Russian pianist Franzk Liszt produced not only Tarantella, Don Juan Fantasy, and Liebestraum (I am so ignorant I’ve never heard of these), but also more than 700 works, most of which were “uneven in quality, superficially composed or down-right dull.” The point? Even the greatest writers and composers spend the majority of their time writing…well…trash. Can you allow yourself to writer trash? Can you allow yourself to try something and do it poorly? Can you allow yourself to write for the world to see knowing that misplaced modifiers and dangling participles may be there as well? Yes, there’s a time for editing, but I dare say we live our lives doing a little too much editing and not enough time creating…or living. Be willing to write some trash. Leave the editing for later.