Enjoying God’s Gifts

As I was reading for one of my classes, I was really impressed about what the Author was saying. The text I was reading from is called "The Liberated Imagination" by Leland Ryken. Our first assignment was to read about the purpose of the "arts" (music, visual art, poetry, etc..) Going into this I had no clue what it was going to say, but I was pleasantly surprised! The book talks about how the Bible says that pleasure and enjoyment are of God. Solomon writes, "I know there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that it is God’s gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil." (Ecc 3:12-13) He also writes, "Behold, what I have seen to be good and to be fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life which God has given him, for this is his lot. Every man also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and find enjoyment in his toil – this is the gift of God." (Ecc 5:18-19) So the Bible is pretty clear, (there are more verses too), that pleasure and enjoyment are a gift from God.
But not only this, the "arts" are a gift to be enjoyed and take pleasure in! God has created us as creative beings in His image. Just as He delights in His creation, we can delight in our creations. Things like music, poetry, drama, television, and games are all facets of our God-given creativity and are for our enjoyment. In Paul’s first letter to Timothy he says, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." (1 Tim 6:17) From this verse we can see that our rich creativity is a gift from God for our enjoyment, as long as we don’t put our hope and trust in that rather than God. To elevate the arts, whether music, television, games, movies, or any such thing above God’s rightful place in our lives is idolatry. The freedom to enjoy things as the gifts that they are comes with a responsibility not to worship or elevate those gifts above the One who gave them.
Learning this was very refreshing for me. Most of you probably know that I’d be the first person to tell you that you are wasting your time or that your time could be better used, if you told me that you were listening to music that isn’t spiritual, or watching TV or movies that had nothing to do with God. But just because a form of art that we enjoy using, whether we are the audience or the creator of the art, isn’t spiritual or done as a ministry, doesn’t mean that we are wasting our time! God gave us beautiful and pleasurable things in life to enjoy! In fact, those of us that look at people who take time just to enjoy the beauty of life as wasting their time are very similar to the Pharisees in mindset. This is something I need to learn because until now I have been a little off balance in my perspective.
I’m still figuring a lot of this out, but I thought I’d share it with you, and I hope that it provokes some thought in you as it did for me. God Bless!