Are you having fun yet?

I am thinking about giving up fun for Lent.  I really do not know why we spend so much time, energy, and money on having fun.  Half the time we are not even sure we are having fun when we are doing something.  It is only later that we begin to figure out that what we were doing was fun and we would like to do it again.  Other times we are sure we having the most fun we have ever had but when asked if we want to do it again, we are not so sure.  I mean, how much trouble is it to figure out if you are having fun or not?!

Then there is the problem of once you have had fun, you want to have fun all the time and life is not capable of constant fun -- sometimes you have to work to pay the bills, take out the garbage, wash the dirty clothes, clean the toilets, etc... So what misery do you make for yourself if you have found out what it is like to have fun and then have to go back to doing those things which are not fun?  Wouldn't it be better if you had no fun at all than to while away all those hours doing things you do not like while thinking of all the things you could be doing that would be fun?

I was really thinking that it would be a healthy thing to give up fun for Lent and lower the expectations and pressure on life in general.  That is until I was reminded me that we are Lutheran and Lutherans are fairly dull and boring people and about the most fun we have is going to work, taking out the trash, and cleaning up the table after supper.  Yes, indeed.  I am glad I am a Lutheran.  It takes away a great deal of the pressure that other denominations put upon you.  Just about the worst thing in the world is when I tasted lobster and wanted to eat it all the time.  My parents told me I knew better than to think that.  They were right.  If you grab a little bit of fun now and then, well, okay.  But just don't get used to it.  Let it go.  Go back to what you are supposed to do and be -- before too much of this fun business causes irreparable trouble in your life.

I hope that this has caused you to smile.  But don't get carried away.  Wipe that smile off your face before somebody sees you and think you frivolous -- one of those people who don't take life seriously.   Jeepers, that would be bad.  So look around you right now, close this browser window, and get back to your work.  Make it as difficult as you can as penance for any moment of pleasure you might have had smiling about this... before you thought better and went back to your ordinary blank look or scowl.