Why do we do things we do? Does everything need a spiritual justification? Are we actually suspicious of leisure? Many of us think either that we ought not take leisure at all or, that if we do, it must have some other spiritual justification to make it worthwhile. There are many areas of hesitation, reservation, and concern when we think about leisure. We need to be set free by the Word of God. In order to help deal with the issues regarding leisure we will first consider problems stemming from our culture. Secondly, we will address problems from our own evangelical Christian heritage. And finally, we will look at a Biblical foundation. For many people in today's American culture, life seems to be nothing but work. There are several reasons for this.

Some people find themselves enslaved to work because of financial necessity. Others are enslaved simply because they are so committed to living at a particular standard of comfort and security. Many of these people find themselves unable to enjoy that standard because so much time and energy is being devoted to making the money to create it.

For many others, work becomes their identity. This "workaholism" gives them their whole sense of worth, meaning, and purpose. Consequently work, and even play when it is entered into, is of a very aggressive, competitive quality. Everything becomes a means of providing something to oneself and to other people. Such people know very little about leisure in the sense of genuinely relaxing. We may even feel guilty about it because we are not being productive, or are not proving something about ourselves.

Another problem from our culture is the attitude that the only reason one works is in order to play. This is exactly the opposite of workaholism in that play becomes an idol in the place of work. In this view, life is simply for personal pleasure, personal leisure, and self-fulfillment. These two kinds of pressures from our very deeply self-centered culture touch all of us.

We must next identify the problems that come to us from our own Christian heritage. Many non-Christians and perhaps some Christians have a fear that Christianity is only very sober and somber, and suspicious of fun, delight, and lightheartedness. As we think about this unwholesome approach to life, we recognize several ways in which unbiblical thinking has affected Christians.

First, there is a tradition of asceticism which is part of our Christian history. Asceticism tells us that there is no room to enjoy life in this world. Any of the pleasures of human existence are suspect-physical pleasures, the pleasures of family life, of creation, the arts, music, and entertainment. Asceticism says that all the Christian should be concerned about is his or her spiritual growth in relationship to God. It was thought that the purely committed believer ought to be one whose heart and soul were so entirely committed to God that nothing else really mattered at all. Life itself was problematic and seen as a kind of distraction.

All of us have heard sermons or talks, or have read books about the Christian faith which have moved in that direction. There is a kind of evangelical form of asceticism: that if I start enjoying things around me I am in danger of damaging my soul. The idea is that anything one really enjoys is suspect.

Another problem which we have in our Christian background is the thinking that especially physical pleasures are a cause of sin. They are seen as fleshy, worldly temptations that will arouse the sinful desire of our hearts and turn us away from the service of God. So whether we view the physical as just an insignificant distraction, or think that life around us is actually a temptation toward sin, either approach will have dramatic effects on how we think about our lives. There is a hymn with a familiar refrain which lilts that as we "turn our eyes upon Jesus... the things of the earth will grow strangely dim." Many of us are touched by this particular refrain, but how do we understand such a hymn? Do we really understand it to mean that if we love Christ with a whole heart everything else around will become unimportant and somehow dim to us? Do these words reflect for us a Biblical understanding of spirituality? Is there something really wrong with clearly seeing a sunset and thoroughly enjoying it?

Christians affected by this view will have the idea that any kind of cultural involvement (particularly in the arts) is unimportant or somehow a distraction. Many young Christians have been advised that they should not go into fields like art, music, literature, painting, and drama because those are unimportant worldly pursuits. Instead, they should do something which would give them more opportunities for evangelism and service to God. Others have been told that if they are not going to go into ministry, the they've got to have a serious and clearly useful secular job but certainly not something as frivolous as, for example, painting or music. This is the mentality with which many Christians have had to struggle.

We are made to feel that only if what we are doing has an immediate evangelistic value is it of some use. Or, that only if it has some spiritual purpose will it have value. I have even found myself saying things like, "I play squash with a friend every week and he is a young Christian and so this is really a time for me to disciple him and help him grow." Is that the reason why it is worthwhile playing squash? Or, "The person I play squash with is not a Christian so it gives me opportunities for evangelism." Or, "I work very hard as a seminary professor so I absolutely need this time to do something completely different physically so that I can get back to doing my teaching well." All of those explanations are saying that playing squash (or any other leisure activity) has no value in itself. It is only valuable as it serves something else. It either helps me to help somebody else grow spiritually, or to help someone else become a Christian, or it helps me to do my job better as a teacher.

Is this how we should approach leisure activities? If we are affected by asceticism, or the view that the pleasures of life are a temptation or distraction, we will certainly adopt this way of thinking. We will accept the subtle message that everything we do has to be justified by some other spiritual purpose. That in and of itself, leisure has no value or worth. I can't just simply say, "I play squash because I enjoy playing squash."

In developing a Biblical foundation for thinking about this subject, we must first say a little bit about God himself. What kind of God do we worship? While He is a holy, awesome, and majestic God, He is also full of joy and love and delight. C.S. Lewis captures this beautifully in his Narnia stories where the lion Aslan is terrifying and serious but he is also full of joy, and even full of fun and delight. Now that represents to us a Biblical understanding of God.

Secondly, we must say something about the doctrine of creation. Genesis 1 describes God's creation of the world and all its creatures. The most frequent phrase in that passage is that God looked at what He had made and He saw that it was good. God enjoyed it! It was attractive and beautiful, and He delighted in it. God rested to enjoy what He had made, not because He was tired, but because creation is enjoyable. This ought to give the Christian an affirmative understanding of life itself, in all its variety. We are created to enjoy what Gad has made. Life is a gift to us simply to be enjoyed.

Adam, before the Fall, was not supposed to find satisfaction only in a relationship with God. God created Eve for him. You can be quite sure that when Adam looked at Eve, even though he looked at her with a heart completely full of gladness and gratitude and rejoicing towards God, he didn't look at her and see her becoming strangely dim! He looked at her and said, "At last!" We're not only for fellowship with Himself, but for fellowship and joy with one another in every aspect of our humanity: physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

When I look at God, things in the world don't become dim, they become clear. The more clearly I see God, the more clear and valuable everything else becomes to me simply because it is God's creation. The ideal Christian is not a person wandering through this world as if it didn't really exist. The Christian is somebody who sees the value of what God has made. The more clearly I gaze upon Christ, the brighter everything in this world should become. This is what the doctrine of creation teaches us. God looked at what He made and it was good; the angles looked at it and sang for joy; and we should look at it and sing for joy, too.

Thirdly, it is important to look at the doctrine of the Fall. We live in broken situation. The reality of sin has brought damage into every area of human existence. It has destroyed our relationship with God. It has destroyed our internal reality and given us a sense of shame. It has damaged our relationship with other people, and with creation around us. It has brought a curse on creation itself. The fall brings brokenness to every aspect of human existence. It brings sadness, tears, and mortality to everything. That is the context in which we live. Does this mean that all the joy is squeezed out of life? The book of Ecclesiastes looks as if it is saying that everything is meaningless, because of the reality of our rebellion against God and the consequences of sin in this world. But there is another theme in the book of Ecclesiastes which teaches us, contra American culture, that we cannot have mastery over our lives. The truth is that we cannot even determine what will happen to us tomorrow, much less whether we will be alive, healthy or secure in ten years' time. For the believer, there is a right kind of commitment to an existential enjoyment of the good things that God puts at our hand at this moment. There is nothing better than to enjoy one's life. Despite the brokenness of this world, and while recognizing we cannot control our futures in any absolute sense, Scripture calls us to an enjoyment of life.

Fourthly, we must see the way in which the work of Christ impacts the subject of leisure. Christ's work is a work of restoration, and is not something which is to take us out of this life. Scripture does not teach us to understand salvation as somehow opposed to human existence. Christ came not against creation, but against the fall. Not against human life and all its richness and fullness, but against sin and its destructive consequences against that richness and fullness. The work of Christ is to be understood as restoring every aspect of human existence which was lost at the Fall. Christ's work of salvation is to bring joy where there was pain; to bring freedom where there was bondage, to bring life where there was death - to give life back to us. Not to take life from us.

In the Bible we find the most marvelous affirmations of the gift of life. God has declared that everything is good and to be enjoyed because He made it (1Tim.4:4). In the end, asceticism is a dreadful blaspheme against God. To think that the sunset should grow dim is dishonoring to God in the most serious way. He is the one who made it so beautiful. He made it for us to enjoy.

In Acts 14:17 Paul says that God delights to fill our hearts with joy-unbelievers as well as believers. For me not to delight in what God has made and enjoy thing I like to do, in the end, is deeply dishonoring to God. It is a rejection of the promise of the new creation and that Christ is going to remove the curse from this earth and is going to renew it. He is going to remove sin and all its consequences. We need to get used to enjoying things because we are going to be enjoying them for a rather long time. Actually, forever!

God has created us to really enjoy life. This is his gift to us. Everything that God has made is there simply to be enjoyed. Our God is a God of delight who has created us to enjoy our lives, our leisure, and every aspect of our humanity. Christ has come to redeem us that we might fully enjoy the great glory of His creation forever.

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