Are You Settling for ‘Fun’?

The other day I was having some blood drawn at a clinic and, to create conversation, the woman drawing my blood asked how my day had been. I told her it had been a strange day because literally all of my planned appointments were cancelled. However, that freed me up to meet with my daughter-in-law and our grandsons to play at an indoor park. The woman’s response struck me as odd. She said, “As long as you had fun.” 

I wondered if she lives by this motto and how this motto is embraced by our current culture.  “Nothing else really matters, as long as you have fun.”

Consider activities such as binge-watching tv reruns & YouTube videos, pornography and overindulging in food. The list is long, but these are just a few of today’s popular ‘fun’ activities. These activities are focused on self and they always have negative consequences. Pursuing ‘Fun’ for fun’s sake is focused on pleasure and short-term gratification and precedes self-slavery. These types of activities are evidence of vices which enslave from the freedom to make better choices.

Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing bad about having fun, in the right way and at the right time. God gives us an entire day every week to rest and have fun with family and friends. But in the wisdom of His Commandments, God invites us to look beyond the momentary ‘fun’ and instead to adopt a long-term view of the virtues that free us from the slavery of vices. The Commandments direct us to the virtues which free us to make choices that offer much more than just a few fun moments and into the joy God wants for us and the joy that our hearts truly desire. 

Instead of watching a skin-flick, the virtue of chastity safeguards purity– and not just physical purity, but purity of heart, mind, and soul which ensures peace of heart, mind, and soul. The virtues of prudence and fortitude provide the strength to live a life of truth instead of being enslaved in a world of lies. Humility and generosity help to avoid coveting and being enslaved by the material things of this world allowing us to keep our focus on Jesus as the center of our life. 

Virtues allow us to think beyond the short-term momentary self-gratification and into the lasting joy that virtues offer to us and to our future generations. 

The world we live in embraces the short-term moto of, “As long as you have fun.” Think of all the negative outcomes this motto has led to. This perspective is blind to future generations and is blind to life after death. But God’s infinite love and wisdom offers us a much better mindset. One that promises rich blessings, abundant joy and authentic freedom for us today and for future generations. The Commandments offer a long-term view that looks beyond life here on earth and to eternity in heaven where He promises complete joy and a new world far beyond just having fun.

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(Suggestion: Several of the key points I made in this reflection are from Matthew Kelly’s book “The Long View”. This book is in my top-ten favorite books. Possibly because it is the easiest book I have ever read. But mostly because it has a such a simple yet profound message about the joy of virtues. I encourage you to purchase a copy and invest the fifteen minutes it takes to read it.

To dive deeper in your knowledge of learning and living the 10 Commandments on a daily basis in order to experience true joy and freedom, visit our 10 Commandments Page that corresponds to each of the 10 Commandments.