If you've seen the movie Gladiator you will likely remember the scene where Russell Crowes character slays four competitors with relative ease. The bloodthirsty crowd looks on with little reaction at the brutal death of the combatants. Crowe, disgusted with the "we're just killing people for entertainment" attitude hurls his sword into the the stands and demands "Are you not entertained!?"
Well, are you?
I think the question is a worthy one for us Americans. Us guys get home from work and turn on the TV. We play Angry Birds on the bus or during business meetings. Our wives know what the Kardashians ate for dinner and who wore what on the red carpet. We know the stats for every baseball, football and basketball player and what they are getting paid.
But we don't know or care about the 3,000 plus babies that we slaughter every day. We don't know or care about what the government is taking away from us or forcing down our throats.
And often the excuse is "It's to big for me to do anything about it" but yelling at the ref on your big screen seems to have such great effect in swaying him for your team.
Are you more concerned that Rob does (or doesn't) get voted off the island than you are about who your daughter is dating? Are the draft picks more on your mind than teaching your son what being a man is?
Of course some who are reading this are getting a little defensive. "What's wrong with entertainment?" "Our TV show is our family time." "Real men are into baseball, football, soccer!" I'm just asking the question. Is your entertainment taking the place of reality? Of your family? Of your (gulp) social responsibility? Of your time with God? Do you have balance? Have you taken a break from your entertainment to see if you are unbalanced?
So here I am asking these questions, but what have I done and from which direction did I ride in on my high horse? I cheered and jeered for Rob on Survivor, not missing one show in the first 20 seasons. Yes, seasons, not episodes. I watched the first season of 24 in a weekend, the second season the following weekend. And I've spent countless hours fighting imaginary bad guys on Xbox while ignoring my family and ignoring the world around me. So hopefully I've sent my high horse to the glue factory.
In all honesty what finally encouraged me to knock the dust off this topic that had been languishing in the dusty shelves of my brain was a series of posts on Facebook. If I recall I had posted about government theft of private property, an entire town in fact. There was a "like" or two at best. One comment. Then I had a series of posts about the Seahawks game. Likes and comments came in like water over Niagara Falls (30+ comments and 40+ likes anyway). There was so much passion and force behind the comments and really I got a kick out of it. It was good. And each one of those that posted are people that I truly love.
But then I posted about a serious matter. A senator or rep out of California was describing a gun he wanted to ban. His description was of something out of a science fiction movie and not an actual gun, though he was holding an actual gun and giving it sci-fi attributes. He wanted to ban something that he knew absolutely nothing about. Nothing. He knew nothing and was willing to use his complete lack of knowledge to remove his constituents right to defend themselves from a fool such as himself. After that display of foolishness I wouldn't have trusted him to put a toilet paper roll on correctly and yet he is still sitting in his office. And the comments on that posted initially were around one or two and maybe a like.
I hadn't posted any of those posts as a social experiment. But later it struck me that people have such a passion for entertainment and so little passion for living. I think its easy for us to get overwhelmed by it all. The gov alphabets (DEA,NSA,FBI,CIA) are all overstepping their boundaries, babies are slaughtered, wars rage, earthquakes flatten villages and cities, presidents are turning into dictators all across the globe and one is tempted to just curl up in a ball and suck a thumb. Or watch a game. Or unreality TV. Its a form of looking for a friend in the bottle. Its drinking away the broken heart. It is really a way to escape the trauma of life.
I write this blog to encourage Christians. I understand when an unbeliever says "I just like to be entertained,man". But I don't want to hear that from fellow believers. We have reason for hope! We have reason not to be apathetic. We are fellow heirs with an Overcomer. We can't take on the world by ourselves. We can't address every social issue or save every child from an the clinical executioner. We can't feed the poor or rescue the destitute. But we can do a lot more than sit on our asses and entertain our lives away. Because we have a Father who wasn't complacent we have an example of what we can do and a resource of encouragement. Some of us can adopt a child (and show them the joys of having a favorite football team). Some can make a small hot meal for some guy under a bridge. Some can make people aware that we have killed off babies (Not tissue. Not a non life form) so that we can have lives of convenience. Some can take our sons out camping, our daughters to their favorite restaurant. We can always serve our spouse more.
Be entertained. Be involved in celebration. Jesus knew how to have fun. Do enjoy the good things that our God has given us, by all means! But don't let those good things consume you. Let living, honoring and glorifying God be what consumes you. Improve your relationships,improve you neighborhood, improve your town and see what else God has planned for you.
Oh yeah. And GO HAWKS!
