Entertainment

A single day in Your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! (Psalm 84:10)

Entertainment is big business. Think about how much money is paid to movie and TV stars. Think about the salary a professional athlete can expect to earn. Think about the gross receipts generated by just one large concert.

What does entertainment cost you? How much do you spend on purchasing music or movie tickets? What kind of expenses do you run up for having an Internet connection or pay TV? How much of your paycheck gets spent on passes to sporting events? When you add up how much you spend on such things, you can see why the entertainment industry is so profitable.

But why do people want to be entertained? After all the bills have been paid, why spend what little money is left on entertainment instead of investing it for the future? We want to be entertained because we seek distraction. Work can be exhausting. Being a spouse and parent is frequently demanding. Every day is filled with problems and frustration, with the result that we feel battered and bruised, both physically and emotionally. Entertainment offers a break from that. Entertainment allows us to rest our bodies while we watch someone else do all the work; entertainment distracts us from our cares by making us laugh, or by showing us someone else with problems who we can root for, someone we can celebrate with as they achieve successes that we can only dream about.

The problem is, entertainment doesn’t solve our problems, it only encourages us to ignore them for a while. Not only that, entertainment drains our pockets of resources that could be better spent elsewhere. Back in the early days of our country, there wasn’t much entertainment to be had—no radio or TV, no movies or professional sporting events. Nevertheless, our ancestors had something that helped them deal effectively with the stresses of life; they had the community church. They had a place where they could leave the cares of the world outside on the steps while they received the words of Jesus, words that offered forgiveness and repaired relationships, words that offered strength and hope in the face of every problem. Church doesn’t distract you from your problems—it gives you what you need to face them with confidence. Church is not entertainment—it is God’s offer to pepare you for a better tomorrow.