Part 3, Chapter 34
Giving our brain a break is okay. There are times when we need to do this. There are many things that occupy our minds. So I take a break. One of the best breaks I may take in the day is the time for prayer. It allows me to reconnect with God throughout the day. Still, we do need sometime for recreation. But there are times and places for these things. Recreation such as walking may be good. “If it is a constant habit, recreation turns into occupation” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 141). Thus, it is not recreation anymore and it becomes something I have to do or something I have to work at. It loses its relaxing properties. Ask a professional hockey or basketball player if they finding it relaxing to play and they will most likely respond, no. Too much time on something that could be used for recreation makes it not recreation anymore.
Now there are times when we give into doing something that we don’t do anymore as long as it isn’t sinful. “Thus certain games of chance, bad in themselves, cease to be so to you, if you join in them merely out of a due courtesy” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 141). Thus, you come to someone’s house and they are betting on the Kentucky Derby and you join in. This would be okay. But, we have to be careful not to plan to hang out with certain people so that we can imbibe in something that we normally would prohibit ourselves from doing. For example, let’s say we have given up tv watching, and so we go over to our friends place every Friday to watch a program, we say it is for the sake of community building, but underneath we have a desire for the pleasure of the program on tv. This wouldn’t be good because we are using the friend to fill ourselves up with something we shouldn’t be doing.
Recreation is good, but there has to be checks and balances with it.