Living for the weekend

Prepare yourself for a few deeps thoughts.

Why is it that we live our days working for those few and fleeting moments in which we can not think and not do? So often we are motivated by weekends, free time, or 5 o'clock on any work day. We hear it all the time: "I can't wait for the weekend," or "I sure am glad we have Thanksgiving break soon," or "Only a few more hours till I can go home," or "Thank goodness it's Friday."

While I'm not advocating a busy, chaotic, or workaholic lifestyle, I am questioning the eternal value of turning off our minds. Is that not when Satan will attack? when our defenses are down? And doesn't sin begin first in our minds as thoughts?

And when we finally sit down to rest, it isn't typically true, satisfying rest, but the rest of distraction and escapism. We feel off-kilter without our cell phones, like the feeling you get when you take off a long-worn ring. We immediately turn the TV on, open our E-mail, and surf the Internet--simultaneously. This isn't rest but distraction, a need to be in constant communication and interaction without ever leaving the couch. We are in a generation smothered by technology, a generation where technology thinks for us, so we don't have to remember directions or phone numbers or birthdays...or most factual information, for that matter. We bequeath those parts of our brains to cyberspace so we are left with partial brains partially thinking about a portion of reality.

I am also not suggesting that everyone should move to a remote place and become a philosopher. There is great good that comes from engaging the culture through watching movies, listening to music, or less interactively, napping. These are good activities, but they aren't the best, so they're not what we should be living for. It comes down to a question of motive and a question of engagement. By watching a movie, is it self-serving? Do I even consider my motives? Am I using that experience to draw conclusions about Christ or principles for godly living? the culture? to enter into conversation with others?

I find nowhere in the Bible where God instructs people to disengage. Often, however, He calls us to be alert, to examine ourselves, to watch, to pray, to take every thought captive, to avoid idleness. Far too often, I find myself living for that one moment at the end of the day when I can escape through reading or TV or some other form of relaxation. While there's nothing inherently wrong with reading or watching TV, there is one glaring problem: these are not what should motivate our living. To borrow from Paul, "For me, to live is Christ."