It’s award season in Hollywood and I don’t watch those shows. I’m not familiar with what goes on there. For example, they had the music awards show on the other night. From the wall to wall commercials about that show leading up to it, I concluded I preferred songs with music in them. So, I didn’t watch.
But, I started to think about amusement and what amuses us in the culture and exactly what it means to amuse. The infinitive “to muse” means “to think” or “to ponder.” So, “to a-muse” must mean the opposite: “to not think” or likely at best “to pause from thinking.”
I’m a Sudoku puzzle guy and when I’m “working” a Sudoku my mind is diverted. But, I’m still thinking. I spend a lot of time thinking about the “truth” I’m reading on social media, though it appears to my bride that I’ve “checked out” of what’s going on in the rest of the house.
I don’t know why anyone would want to be lured by folks who are strung out on anything, much less stuff that encourages him not to think. It has been almost six decades since Pinocchio taught me that lesson. And yet, here we are with an entire subculture of people who already struggle to think for themselves and are being encouraged to go deeper into the “don’t think about it” reality.
For the young Christians whose sensibilities I’ve just touched, here are some verses for you to muse:
“Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. – 1 Corinthians 6:12
This verse has always convinced me that freedom is subservient to truth.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—THINK about such things. – Philippians 4:8 (emphasis mine)
No young person should ever claim to be “bored” if they are thinking about these things. The world is more than we can know. Still, this last admonishment is chilling:
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. – Roman 1:28
If you want your thought life “your way,” God will give you over to “your way” if that’s what you really want.
When it comes to Hollywood, I refuse to be amused. You won’t find me on that boat to Pleasure Island. Go ahead. Look it up. I’ll even let you use Wikipedia (just this once).
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. – 2 Corinthians 10:5