Came across an excerpt from the book Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment by Richard Winter (in Critique magazine, issue no. 1, 2003 (http://www.ransomfellowship.org)
In this fast-paced culture we find it hard to slow down and be still. Even our leisure times often get packed with endless activities. “Perhaps you can judge the inner health of a land by the capacity of its people to do nothing,” wrote Sebastian de Grazia in 1962, “to lie abed musing, to amble about aimlessly, to sit having a coffee—because whoever can do nothing, letting his thoughts go where they may, must be at peace with himself.” The biblical command to rest for one day of the week is an important God-given principle for our health and sanity. We neglect it at our peril. Some people feel very guilty if they are not doing something “worthwhile” with their time. They cannot rest with a clear conscience. The Christian understanding of the sabbath is that it is given by God as a symbol of our being able to rest in his presence with easy consciences. Knowing that we are forgiven and accepted by him, we do not have towork to earn our salvation because Christ has done all that was necessary for us to have a relationship with him. We can, as the Bible says, “enter God’s rest” (Heb 4:1-11). We need to take time for our minds and bodies to re-create and recover from being driven so hard. This also allows time for a renewal of perspective.
Leisure time is often when we rest and relax, but it is also good for us to know how to play well. We live in a time when entertainment comes to us while we watch, and though that is not all bad, it is important forus to engage in active as well as passive play. We listen to music, we watch sports on television, we go to movies—but how often do we make music? How often do we get out and play a sport ourselves or go hiking, climbing, biking or sailing?
Some people think of Christians as being joyless and sober, suspicious of any earthly pleasures and preoccupied with spiritual things, of being too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. On the contrary, when truly understood, Christianity sets us free to enjoy leisure andpleasure in the way God originally intended. It affirms the goodness of the creation, of food, of drink, of beauty.
