‘I’m Enjoying Myself’

Yesterday we took the grandchildren to the Hippodrome at Great Yarmouth. We watched an illusionist producing girls from empty boxes, motor-cyclists riding round inside a large metal sphere, a man juggling with table-tennis balls – blown in the air and caught in his mouth…

It was a really good afternoon; wholesome entertainment.

Luca liked ‘Johnny Mac’ best. Johnny Mac’s a comedian, with his repeated catch-phrase ‘I’m enjoying myself’. One or two of his jokes that appealed to this 8-year-old were a bit rude. I laughed…

Musing… ‘Where do I draw the line in acceptable entertainment?’ How much violence is acceptable… how much ‘bad language’… sexual content… gory horror… pseudo-spiritual and supernatural… religious, racist or sexist humour…?

Friends draw different lines in different places. Sometimes the line is drawn from belief or conviction; sometimes from personal preference. Sometimes the discussion is about reflecting real life or creating imaginative fiction…

Some take the moral or spiritual high ground; others the more liberal… ‘I can choose for myself…’ ‘It’s not hurting anybody else…’ ‘I’m enjoying myself.’

Both sides can be critical, judgemental, self-righteous, defensive…

Musing… I’m inconsistent and hypocritical. I enjoy stories containing characters who lie, gossip, bully, swear outrageously… in ‘real life’ I’d disapprove. There’s a murder or a couple having an affair… a stereotype of a humorous drunk or ineffectual clergyman…

I watch football played by men earning too much money, wearing shirts and boots made by exploited factory workers whilst I’m eating non-fair-trade food in non-recyclable packaging… ’I’m enjoying myself.’

Reading Ezekiel 11 this morning… God’s talking about radical changes in attitudes and behaviour… ‘I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws…’

Right attitudes, consistency and sound judgements … including when ‘I’m enjoying myself’… come from a God-given, undivided, tender, responsive heart…