Are You Happy or Just Distracted?

BY HANNAH CANALES

What would you do if you had all the time in the world? My usual answer to this question is “I’d sleep in, workout, eat good food, write, and spend as much time as I can in the Word.” But as it turns out, when I actually do have “all the time in the world,” I never do any of that (except for sleeping in). 

This week I’ve had the absolute pleasure horror of doing nothing. Before starting my summer internship, I planned to relax—to do “nothing.” But as this week of relaxation comes to an end, I’m terrified that I’ve actually done nothing. Yes, I went on a walk and played tennis and went to my doctor's appointments and washed the dishes and swept the floor, but those tasks took a maximum of two hours out of my day, leaving  the remaining 22 hours for… sleeping. Okay, I didn't actually sleep for 22 hours, but I slept 12 hours every night and took one or two multiple-hour naps, totalling around 16 hours of sleep daily, leaving 6 waking hours to walk around the house aimlessly, doing nothing.

I don’t have social media, I don’t play video games, I don’t watch secular movies or shows, I don’t read secular fiction books, and I don’t listen to secular music. I grew up in a pretty strict Christian household, and although as a kid I hated all the rules, as I’ve developed my own personal relationship with Christ and grown closer to Him, I’ve realized that I no longer have any desire for secular entertainment. I desire heavenly things; my eyes are fixed on Jesus, and anything else in this world seems too trivial compared to Him. I will admit, however, that while I've made the choice of giving up all secular entertainment, I understand that not every Christian may feel called to do so—and it is easier for me to give up these things than it is for people who grew up with them.

Recently, I watched the 2019 animated film The Pilgrim’s Progress, a movie based on the book of the same name written by John Bunyan. I’ve read the book many times, but as I watched the film, a scene stood out to me in a way it had never before. The movie’s “Vanity Fair,” a scene where the protagonists, both on their journey to the Celestial City (an allegory for a Christian’s journey to heaven), encounter the temptations and worldly distractions that hinder a Christian’s walk with God. 

The Bible warns against vanity. The “Preacher” of Ecclesiastes states, “I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.” [1] Similarly, Psalms 89:47 states, “Remember how short my time is! For what vanity you have created all the children of man!” 

I had been thinking about the idea of distraction for a while, but when I saw that scene in the film, it finally hit me: entertainment can be a powerful distraction that the enemy uses to distance us from God. This may seem like a very obvious idea to some, but the reality is that most of us ignore this truth. We know social media is a distraction, and that secular movies and music can have a negative influence on our subconscious minds. Yet we still choose to entertain ourselves with these things. We choose these distractions because we want to be distracted. Isn’t that what the enemy wants?

If boredom is a lack of distractions, I think  we’re scared of being bored—scared of doing nothing even though we always say we wish we had a day off to do nothing. We’re scared of being alone with ourselves, facing our thoughts. That’s why I sleep way too much. Although I don’t have entertainment as a distraction, I use sleep as a distraction. And I’ve felt so guilty this week, wasting my days doing nothing, when I have multiple free hours at my disposal to spend time with Christ and ponder over spiritual things such as how to be more holy like God, how to expand God’s kingdom, how to love and serve God and others better. But it’s really hard to ponder over heavenly things. Our sinful flesh longs to live for ourselves, desiring things that are transient or fleeting. We seek to distract ourselves with entertainment to “turn our brains off” from the grave realities of sin, hell, and spiritual warfare. We scroll on Instagram and TikTok for a quick dopamine hit, when really our souls long for something more substantial and eternal.

Both the believer and unbeliever will realize we live in a broken world. So often we distract ourselves from sadness by consuming as much entertainment as we can. A lot of the world’s entertainment will make us feel neutral/complacent (but not sad!), so we keep distracting ourselves with the hope of finding some form of entertainment that will eventually make us extremely happy. But Christians, despite feeling the effects of a sin-cursed world, live with the peace of having real life in Jesus Christ, holding onto the hope that one day we will join Him in heaven and spend eternity together.

As Paul says in Ephesians 5:15-17, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” I challenge you this summer to make the best use of your time, setting your mind on spiritual things, prayer over what the Lord wills for you and completing that purpose. Be wary of wasting your time with distractions. 

I want to make it clear that I don’t believe all entertainment is necessarily bad. I’m not trying to say that we should pray, read Scripture, and sing praise 24/7 (although that should sound like a nice plan). God wants us to enjoy Him and the things He’s created, and we should use discernment in our entertainment in order to glorify Him. Although some forms of individual entertainment can be glorifying to God and are important to help us recharge (for example I love to go on solo runs while listening to worship music or choreograph to Christian music), I would invite you to think about the difference between entertainment that involves being in community (like playing a soccer match or playing board games with friends) versus entertainment that is solely focused on the individual (like scrolling on social media), which glorifies the individual instead of glorifying God. Which do you think is more pleasing to God? And that should be the end question: is my form of entertainment pleasing to God, or is it all just a Vanity Fair?