A Christian Perspective on Leisure — Part 3 May 21, 2012
Years ago, I remember a young professional woman in ourchurch asking what I thought about her peer group’s tendency to jet off to someforeign location for the weekend, enjoy themselves, and then return just intime for work on Monday. Untethered by marriage, home ownership, or churchinvolvement, they had taken “living for the weekend” to a whole new level. Iclearly remember my emphatic reply: “We live in a culture that works Mondaythrough Friday in order to recreate on the weekend. But that’s exactlybackward. The reason we engage in recreation and leisure is so we are able torecharge our batteries for work the next week. Leisure exists for the purposeof work.”
I wonder if you would agree. More importantly, I wonderif God would agree. Must leisure perform some function or accomplish somematerial good in order to be legitimate? Or is leisure valuable for its ownsake?
For the last few weeks, we’ve been drawing on thecreation story to sketch in a Christian perspective of leisure. Once again,we’ll find that our questions about leisure are answered way back at thebeginning of all things. Genesis 2:9 says, “And out of the ground the LORD Godmade to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.”Notice that not all the trees were functional. Not all produced food. Some weremerely “pleasant to the eyes.” Apparently, God endorses beauty for its ownsake.
In fact, when we look at His creation, there are hostsof non-utilitarian “excesses” in God’s good world: color, texture, variety.Paul definitely noticed, admonishing us to “set our hopes… on God, who richlyprovides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim 6:17). In other words, my counselto the young jet setter was flat wrong.
Here’s the crux of the matter. Our attitude towardleisure derives from our view of God. God is the Giver of all good things. Hegives them so we can enjoy them. Thus, their misuse consists, not in enjoyingourselves as we partake of them, but in trusting in them and idolizing them.
What is your view of God? Do you take time to enjoy Hisgood gifts, or do you feel that inner compulsion to be always driving, alwaysworking, always getting one more thing done?