fun = wrong?

[ramidavis]

Our family keeps the . My father keeps insisting that fun, in any form, be it video games, sports, hunting (and even just shooting targets or clay discs) {i only hunt kosher animals, no boar or anything, and just 1 animal year, if that. Yes i eat what i take.} is just wrong, a waste of time, and even pagan, no matter how long you / i spend doing it. True, the romans gave us "the games" which we now now as the olympics. And they did it as a form of worship to their gods, and torture to people... I know that. But who says me and a buddy cant "see whos a better shot" or "get more coins in world 3" of mario? Is competition, of any kind, or fun of any kind, really such a bad thing? And no, i do not let my fun and games get in the way of worship, or work. I do them in my spare time, usually before i head off to my job, or sometime before bed. And not every day either. It is not like the games are a idol to me or anything... I just like to have fun. is that REALLY all that wrong?
Is competition/sports pagan?
My father claims all forms of competition, sports, and games should be done away with. He is even against a simple game of tetris or mario bros.
Its just a game, for fun. Make believe.
Am i not allowed to have some form of fun? Yes, i know the things in games are fake and not real. So if it is fake, whats wrong with that? will YH/\H hold me accountable for all the 'virtual lives' that i (or mario rather) 'ended' by jumping on them. Whats wrong with fun? My dad does NOTHING but work, and study and eat. He can not even joke or laugh about things. And he expects everyone else to be the same way. Should i just execpt his idea of "if it is not in the then you should'nt do it"?
"the greeks and romans invented games!" he yells. Even a simple game of chess, or 20/30 minutes on the game system playing tetris or mario gets him aggravated. Am i wrong for wanting free time, to just have fun? He also believes that competition is wrong. "Its just a modern form of war! Nobody should have a need to show that they are better then other a person" he has said to me on many days. If he had his way, we would work and study literally ALL the time. He has been known to spend upto 10 hours at a time studying the . Do not get me wrong though, i love the . But why is he against anything that even remotely SEEMS like it would be, you know, FUN?
Is the whole idea of "having fun" really such a great, evil thing, that nobody should ever get to do it? That seems to his outlook on it. All work and no play. Yes i understand people did not sit around much back in the days of the . BUT, surely, sometime or another they had SOME FORM of fun/entertainment. why hate fun?
As long as it is not an idol or more important to me then the and YH/\H, what harm is it?
does fun really equal wrong?

post edited for reasons of unintentional issues that may be offensive to some readers.

[David Ben Yosef]

Hi Rami,

Do you mind if I ask your age?

[ramidavis]

28, yes i still live with my parents, no i am not married. You never forget your favorite color, so why should i forget or 'outgrow' fun??
what you / i enjoy is part of who He made us. Can i help i like to have fun?
my priorities are YH/\H, , family, work, and fun. In that order. What is wrong with that? According to my dad, the fun. His would be more like this, it seems to me: YH/\H, , work, family.

post edited for reasons of unintentional issues that may be offensive to some readers.

[David Ben Yosef]

Jan 31, 2010 19:41:47 GMT -8 ramidavis said:

28, yes i still live with my parents, no i am not married. You never forget your favorite color, so why should i forget or 'outgrow' fun??
what you / i enjoy is part of who He made us. Can i help i like to have fun?
my priorities are YHVH, , family, work, and fun. In that order. What is wrong with that? According to my dad, the fun. His would be more like this, it seems to me: YHVH, , work, family.

Whoa....slow down there. I'm not telling you that having fun is wrong, because it most certainly is not. I asked your age for the simple fact that it is pertinent to the question. If you had still been a teenager, and living under your parents roof, I would be inclined to say listen to your father as commanded in . Which you should in any case. However, given the fact that your 28, you should stand up for yourself, and be a man. I don't know if you pay rent, or what. But if not, then you should expect less privileges than if you were.

But as far as just having fun goes, you should enjoy some fun when it pleases you, as long as you have your priorities straight. Which you obviously do, having listed them in order.

I would however, politely ask you not to type out HaShem's (tetragrammation) name, out of respect for the Jewish folk who might find it offensive. Thank you.

[Mark]

Hi Rami,

The first time I read through your post, it sounded as though your family had only been living a Observant lifestyle for a couple of years. Now I read and I'm not sure where I go that.

If this is true, there is very often a pendulum shift, going from a feeling of confused anarchy to needing to live in perfect compliance with every jot and tittle. Within months of being drawn to , I threw out every picture and likeness of any organic thing that was in my home. The sweater with a picture of puppies on it: gone. We had no coffee cups with pumpkins on them, like I'm drinking from this morning.

When people come to me with enthusiasm and excitement and say, "I get it! is for me! What do I do now?" They expect me to give them a checklist with the 613 mitzvot. Instead I tell them, "Do what you're told. As you are reading Scripture and being drawn closer in your relationship with Him, you will be molded more and more into the likeness of Him. He will give you direction: putting new things in your life, sluffing off those things that are superflous."

That ought not suggest that in any way I am advising you to minimize the authority or instruction of your father. When Scripture commands us to honor our father, the audience is not only those under 18. There is a wisdom in what your Dad is saying, even if he doesn't understand what it is or may seem overzealous in what he is doing. Often times, we need to cut back to zero, step out of what we had grown to understand as normal, to see the difference between the things that are benign and the things that are malignant. I would recommend complying, at least in your home with your father, for his sake, so that he can find balance as opposed to having your understanding of what is okay being forced upon him.

Do you still play with lincoln logs? Do you have a collection of coloring books, toy trucks or dolls? When is the last time you searched for a rattle or a stuffed animal so that you could sit and touch or shake it? The point is that we mature- and those things that you thought were fun at four, then six, then twelve, don't amuse you like they once did. I sat down and watched a movie that I had enjoyed, oh, twenty or so years ago and was horrified. I had just witnessed at least 40 murders and the "hero" was just sitting in a par having a drink as if nothing had happened. We don't stop maturing and growing. Yet, as we are being wooed by the Spirit of God to live more and more in His likeness, we can either stimulate that growth or we can retard it by the things we choose to amuse ourselves with and by the ways we choose to spend our time.

In Psalm 1:2, we are encourged to "delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate on His Word day and night." Do we truly believe the Bible or are we just playing along because it makes us look good? This isn't to say that there isn't a time for mindless diversion; but there is a balance that is utterly lost in the way that we are inundated with offerings of pleasure and self-gratification.

I can always tell when there has been too much television or video games in the house. The kids start treating each other like garbage. "How dare you interfere with my pleasing myself?" There is no patience, no grace, no deference or understanding. It's all about "me." We pull back a little bit, spend some time playing games together, singing songs together, going out on hikes or visiting the river and suddenly I have a nice bunch of kids; but sometimes it takes a dramatic pulling away from those things that please us carnally, to remember that we are really spiritual beings.