Believe it or not, FBA is intentionally forming people of leisure. 

What comes to mind when you think of leisure? Do you picture yourself sipping an iced drink on a Caribbean beach somewhere? Or maybe your idea of leisure is putting on baggy pajamas and an oversized hoody and curling up on a couch to binge watch a Netflix series all weekend. Some of you might even have pictured picking up an entertaining novel and not putting it down again until you had consumed every page from beginning to end. For most of us, the term leisure means having the time to do something entertaining or amusing. 

The definition of leisure is simple: it means not being occupied by business or work. Throughout most of human history, leisure has been thought to be the privilege of the wealthy classes since poor people could not afford leisure. In other words, they could not afford tonot be occupied by business or work, they had no free time. The fields weren't going to till themselves, the clothes weren’t going to stitch themselves. Only those wealthy enough to hire others to do those things were wealthy enough to enjoy leisure.

The first thing we should note is just how wealthy Americans are, for nearly every American can afford leisure. Now, there are exceptions. I think of the example situation of a single mother who has to work two jobs, cook for the kids, and still find time to clean the house and help with homework. That is a person who literally cannot afford leisure, because the rent, electricity bill, and groceries don’t pay for themselves. That is how most humans for most of history felt regarding leisure—it’s just too expensive.

There have been a few exceptions in history, times and places where people were affluent enough to actually have spare time. The Greeks were perhaps the first that actually incorporated “play” into their culture. The Greeks made games and competition a regular part of weekly schedules. But, of course, no example of affluence is more apparent than America. For today, even the poorest American teens and kids spend on average close to 4 hours a day entertaining themselves with screens (phones, tablets, tvs, etc.) Four hours a day! There’s certainly no shortage of time in American’s schedules.

Our time of prosperity has afforded nearly everyone the privilege of leisure. But, do you think that people are happier today with all the extra free time they have? Well, they might be happy to have the free time. But, in general, are people happier today? I think you know that the answer is, “No. People are not happier today.” It’s not because they have leisure time that they are unhappy. It is because of how their leisure time is used that they are unhappy.

Before there were smart phones, tablets, movie theaters and tvs, Americans were still blessed to have more leisure time than average human history. In fact, from the time of our nation's founding through most of the 1800s, nearly 100% of people were literate—a pretty good indicator that people in general were not using 100% of their time working purely for survival. No, the average American in the 1700-1800s was a reader, and probably a far better reader than today’s average American.

If we go back to the ancient Greeks for a minute, we’ll find that their idea of a man of leisure was a man who could afford to exercise his mind and study the books and topics that other men wish they could, but who could not afford to. The ancient Greeks, and the founding Americans had an altogether different idea of leisure than we do today. Today, we see leisure as entertainment and amusement and have almost completely lost the concept of Noble Leisure. We have become men of vice, sinking into our baser desires whenever we have free time. We fill all our free time with the endless noise of meaningless sitcoms, repetitious news cycles, TikTok reels, and doom scrolling. 

Leisure for our forefathers meant having time to strengthen and edify their minds. We use it for amusement (amuse literally means ‘not thinking’). They became mentally stronger because they had leisure. Whereas, we might have one of the most mentally frail generations of all times on our hands. People who’ve never had to think, who’ve never been given the space to think. People who always have a device nearby to fill their minds with thoughts instead of allowing their own imagination to fill the void. The results? Creativity is dying. Depression is alive and well. Mental disorders, anxiety, stress, and fear are at all-time highs. Why? Because we’ve allowed our minds to grow weak by never exercising them and feeding them junk 4 hours a day.

We need to have a return to Noble Leisure. We have the time. We can afford leisure. We just need to return to making good use of it. The first step is realizing that enjoyment is not only found in entertainment and amusement. In fact, you can find joy in work, in learning, and in reading (even non-fiction books.) I think this misconception that enjoyment is only found in entertainment shows itself even in how we raise our kids. For example: when we speak of family time, we almost always are referring to doing something “fun” like going to watch a movie or going to an amusement park (there’s that word again.) And any type of “work” stands in the way of family time.

Actually, family time can simply be spending time with family. And perhaps the most meaningful moments of family time is learning together or working together with your kids. If family time is exclusive to “having fun together,” what happens when your idea of fun starts to differ from your kids? This occurrence often catches parents off-guard during their kids’ teenage years, because suddenly, what the kids used to enjoy doing with their parents, isn’t fun anymore. And one of two things often happen, the parents can “force the fun” with their teenager, or what is perhaps more common, the parent and the teenager go their separate ways to seek out what’s fun for them, i.e. the parent watching their show in the living room while the teenager plays video games in his room. 

Family time needs to be more than just “having fun” together. The family bond is strengthened when families solve problems together. But if the parent is begrudging towards homework, housework, or any other type of work, or even “working leisure” (Noble leisure) then you can be sure the kid will be too. The truth is, we can find enjoyment in those things even though they are not entertaining (strictly speaking.) In fact, wemust find enjoyment in those things.

It’s much like our relationship with God. Prayer and Bible study are work. They are probably the highest form of Noble Leisure. But, if we pray and read our Bibles begrudgingly, then we are robbed of the reward of doing those things. It’s when we enjoy the work of prayer and long for the work of Bible study that we really see the fruit of those things.

So, what about you? How do you spend your time? Your leisure time, to be specific. Some people spend it pretending to be busy. As though being busy is some sort of virtue in and of itself (it depends on what you are busy with.) Others don’t even pretend to be busy, but will spend every spare moment they have with the closest form of entertainment. They spend every weekend, every evening, any time at all that they are not at work by entertaining themselves. They never exercise their minds. They are never alone with their thoughts.

Is all entertainment and amusement bad? No. But just like fast food, if that is all you eat, you’ll quickly see the negative consequences in your health. For the sake of your mental health, it’s time to start including Noble Leisure in your regular routine. Start enjoying the process of bettering yourself, of learning, or improving, and of growing.

Sean Herhold, Principal

Faith Baptist Academy

Sean@faithbaptistofwc.org