FALSE FASCINATION IN ENTERTAINMENT

This holy fascination, the hunger for the revelation of Einstein’s “something deeply hidden,” has been placed within each one of us by God. Mankind has worked hard to fill it with other things. The Greeks had their theaters and the Romans their coliseums.

Today, our suburbs are dotted with multiplex theaters, temples of false fascination. Unable to reproduce the celestial beauty of God, the heart of man has always reverted to earthly entertain- ment. America is unique among world cultures in that the enter- tainment industry commands a major portion of our economy and a greater portion of our time. It is the economics of supply and demand on an emotional level, but in this case the supply does not begin to truly fulfill the demand. Today’s blockbuster is forgotten in a week. We alternate between being fascinated by and bored with entertainment. That which we thought we could not do without becomes suddenly unsatisfying, even repulsive.

Scripture tells us the story of Amnon, who was sinfully fas- cinated with Tamar. Completely convinced that she would ful- fill his needs, he plotted and planned until he had a moment alone with her and then forced himself upon her. In the human sense, he got exactly what he wanted, but the nature of pursuing earthly pleasure is graphically revealed in what happened im- mediately afterwards.

Then Amnon hated her exceedingly, so that the hatred with which he hated her was great- er than the love with which he had loved her. (2 Samuel 13:15)

The very object of Amnon’s desire, the thing he thought he craved so much, became repulsive to him. She was yesterday’s blockbuster, last week’s hit song, a means to sating his lust that was no longer fulfilling, and so he cast her aside. We do the same thing with all manner of entertainment today. Once it’s experi- enced, it’s over. And we feel all the more dissatisfied for it.

While I am not against entertainment, I am gravely con- cerned about the primacy of place it takes in our society. As we increase our intake of earthly entertainment we dull our capac- ity to be fascinated by God. It’s not that we don’t want to see God, we just can’t find Him among the barrage of information to which we’re exposing ourselves. One does not have to be a spiritual giant to recognize the long-term implications of

gorging on earthly entertainment while neglecting and dulling our ability to be fascinated with God Himself. It would be hard to find many in the Body of Christ who feel positive about the entertainment culture in which we live.

We must likewise acknowledge the segment of entertain- ment that is more than just unsatisfying, but overtly destructive. As we attempt to fulfill our innate desires through movies, mu- sic and other forms of entertainment, we are touched in deeply personal places. We open up our innermost being to ultimately damaging messages, only to find ourselves frustrated, broken and abused by these forms of entertainment. One example might be the young man who feeds himself a steady diet of music that reflects ungodly attitudes towards women. Unknowingly, that young man is setting the stage for a failed marriage by allowing those messages to form who he is on the inside. By exposing our hearts to some forms of so-called entertainment, we feed our souls with attitudes about people and relationships that can take years to undo.

Rather than acknowledge their hunger for fascination, and accept that God is the answer to that hunger, some people turn away from God all together. They blame their problems on the desire for fascination itself, rather than on the unhealthy way in which they’ve fulfilled their desire. This is something akin to re- penting for breathing. We were made to breathe. We were made to be fascinated. The problem is not with the desire, but with at- tempting to fulfill the desire in a wrong way, which then brings frustration. Trying to scourge oneself from the sin of breathing will have the same success rate as attempting to escape fasci- nation. By ridding themselves of entertainment, by turning off their televisions and avoiding movies, they successfully insulate themselves from certain unhealthy fascinations. But this purging of influence will never fill the void remaining in their hearts. While earthly entertainment may have been junk food, at least it was food. They may not have been healthy in partaking of it, but at least they weren’t hungry. After a few weeks or even months of this total lack of fascination, they realize they’re

terminally bored. They removed the useless influence but failed to replace it with being fascinated by God. Confused, they plop themselves back on the couch and grab the remote control, tell- ing themselves that the whole thing was a legalistic phase…

It is a prime trick of the enemy to leverage the God-given desire for fascination to entice us into actions that end up dull- ing our perception of the fascinating beauty of God. Whether it’s entertainment, a sense of power, or another cheap replace- ment, we find ourselves exhausted with our pursuit of everything except the face of God. The Apostle Paul wrote of his earlier fas- cination with his religious crusade as a persecutor of Christians. He said his zeal drove him…until He had an encounter on the Damascus road that stopped him in his tracks.

I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:8)

The lesson from Paul is clear. No matter what is fascinating our hearts now, it is far less valuable, profound and lasting than the superior pleasures of Jesus. The drive for position or enter- tainment will fall by the wayside as we begin to see the beauty of Christ Jesus. We have a never-ending capacity and longing to be filled with amazement and for wonder to touch our spirit; and God has a never-ending capacity to fill it. He has all that it takes to keep us energized for billions of years, and even then we will find we are only in the shallows of the vast ocean of His beauty.

God is orchestrating a divine revolution to turn people’s pur- suit of fascination upside-down. He is revealing Himself as the One who truly satisfies. At the end of the age, God’s people will be more fascinated with Jesus than at any other time in history (Revelation 22:17). They will be enthralled by what they see in Jesus. It will change their very beings as they are moved by the beauty of God on His throne. For the first time in their lives,

they will sing with full understanding, “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Oh Lord” (Revelation 15:2-4). God will release an impartation of beauty to people whose lives have become smoldering ash heaps of broken humanity. In His first public teaching, Jesus clearly laid out what He came to do. Intrinsic to His mission on Earth was bringing beauty to the downtrodden. Isaiah prophesied, and Jesus later quoted:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tid- ings to the poor…to proclaim liberty to the captives…to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning… (Isaiah 61:1-3)

It is not uncommon to find people who have reduced their lives to rubble. Usually the pursuit of earthly fascination has made a significant contribution. Having been created to marvel at the glory of God, many people instead live bored, aimless and destructive lives. They have no revelation of God. They graduate from high school full of promise and, fifteen years lat- er, find themselves spiritually bored, disconnected and isolated from God’s people, addicted to pornography, alcohol or making money, and in the ruins of a second or third marriage. Sure, they have reasons for their addictions, boredom and ruined family relationships…they usually center around unmet expectations. Their God-given desire to be fascinated was never met by this or that job, this or that church or ministry, even this or that spouse. Now they sit in an absolute wreck of a situation. But God says that their current reality does not need to be their life- long or eternal one.

Jesus came to offer an incredible trade—beauty for ashes. God looks at the ashes nobody wants and says, “Don’t throw them away! I want them! Give them to Me and I will give My beauty in exchange for the useless mess into which their lives have devolved.” God Himself is the alternate reality for those who are broken and beaten down. In the revelation of His Son,

Jesus, a way is made for people to find joy and the fulfillment of their heart’s longing. Their lives can be changed through pro- gressive encounters with the beauty of God as seen in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6).

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