Ask the Readers: Clean Comedy

I'm putting together a post about clean comedy, and I want to know where you turn for clean comedy. Do you have certain movies or TV shows you watch that are clean? Maybe there are certain stand-up comedians you like that are clean. Let me know via email (timpenick@gmail.com) or by commenting on this post. I'll take what I have and what I get from the readership and put up a big post about it in the next week or so.

TST: Just Say No

The Bible tells us to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:15-17), so I'm going to be posting tips every Tuesday on things you can do to save time. Unlike most resources, we all get the same amount of time, but we have to decide how we're going to spend it. If you have anything that you do to save time that you'd like to share, just let me know and I'll add them to the list.


Today's tip is pretty simple: learn to say "No".

How many times have you felt overwhelmed? So much to do, so little time. We all have a finite amount of time. There are exactly 24 hours in a day, no matter who we are or what day it is. We, as Christians, tend to MAKE ourselves too busy. We miss out on blessings because we have no time for them.


I am speaking from experience. At one time in our lives, Clarinda and I were WAY too busy, even though the things we were too busy doing were good things to do. We taught the High School Sunday School class, Varsity Awana on Wednesdays, and we both worked in Awana on Thursdays as well (Clarinda was the Cubbies director at the time, and I was the club-wide Game Director). I was attending ASU full time, and Clarinda was working part-time for the Arizona Republic. We were on the Awana Ministry Board for the state of Arizona, and we attending almost every single state-wide event, from Bible Quizzing to Olympics (now AwanaGames) to Basic Training to Conference, and everything in between. We also ran the youth at church, so we had at least one youth activity a month that we had to plan and advertise. We had a family function at least one Saturday a month (lots of birthdays on Clarinda's side of the family). I was a trustee at church, as well as the Church Secretary and Contributions Secretary (I kept track of the giving for tax purposes). On top of all that, we had two kids. We were doing lots of good things, but we were too busy.


What happened? I drifted away from God. I was so busy teaching that I didn't spend any time learning. I was too busy working to have a prayer life. I didn't have time to read the Bible because I had too much reading to do for school. And because of that, I let sin into my life, and it didn't really bother me (at the time). My busy-ness had given Satan a foothold in my life. At first I didn't even notice, but my ignorance eventually led to indiscretions. I just plain didn't care that I wasn't living for God. People all around me thought I was living a great life, but I had fallen away.


We have to learn to say "No". Just because a need exists doesn't mean you have to be the one to fill it. The caveat however is that you have to take an honest look at your life and decide. People tend to use this principle as an excuse to do nothing for God. That's not what I'm saying you should do. God wants us all to serve Him. What we need to avoid is doing too much, which cuts down on the effectiveness of it all. It's better to do a couple things really well than a lot of things poorly. So whenever a need arises, take an honest look at your life, and if you can fill that need, do it! However, if you can't, it's much better to say "no" and leave the opportunity for someone else than to overwhelm yourself and do the job poorly. Trust me, I know.

Praying in Vain

In modern Christianity, we have often misuse the term and concept of "prayer". I can personally think of several instances in which I've personally done this. The most common way that I do this is by saying "I pray that" instead of "I hope that". Instead of saying something like "I hope that it doesn't rain", I say "I pray that is doesn't rain". When I say that, I have lied, because I really haven't prayed that (that doesn't mean that every time I use the phrase "I pray that" I'm lying, this is just one example). I'm not praying about it, but I hope it doesn't happen, so I just Christianize my jargon to make myself seem more spiritual. What happens when I do this in the small things? It starts expanding. I eventually find myself just paying lip service to prayer when it comes to the big things. I get to the point (hypothetically) where I say things like "I pray that my sons become better men than I have been", but I don't really pray for that. It's a sincere hope, but it's not part of my prayer life. What I've done is taken the concept of prayer and turned it into nothing more than common wishing.

As Christians, we also pervert prayer with our "vain repetitions" (Matthew 6:7). "Vain repetition" is just saying the same thing over and over again to the point that it loses the point. You may remember a few years back the big thing to hit Christianity was "The Prayer of Jabez". Bruce Wilkinson released a book on this small prayer found in the Old Testament, then told people to just pray this prayer every day and God will work like a cosmic genie, granting you your every wish (my summary). People started just saying these words (the actual words varied based upon the translation of choice) and not MEANING any of it. And this fad swept through Christianity (if you don't remember how crazy it got, just check out this search of Amazon.com). God is not interested in us just reciting words at him.

But where do we see these "vain repetitions" in our day to day life? Nowhere is this more evident than at the dinner table. If you honestly think about it, when you pray for your food, are you HONESTLY thanking God for it, or just saying the words? Are you REALLY thankful for this day, or just saying what you always say? Are your prayers a heartfelt extension of your thoughts and emotions, or just words that sounds trendy and snazzy? Jesus Christ has torn the veil and provided us with direct access to the loving and omnipotent God. He wants to have a conversation with YOU, not just hear you recite empty words and lyrics. He doesn't want rehearsed lines. He doesn't want to hear you repeat what your pastor says. He wants to TALK to you, plain and simple. So next time you bow your head or bend your knee, remember that it's supposed to be a conversation, not a script-reading.

TST: Watch It Online

The Bible tells us to redeem the time (Ephesians 5:15-17), so I'm going to be posting tips every Tuesday on things you can do to save time. Unlike most resources, we all get the same amount of time, but we have to decide how we're going to spend it. If you have anything that you do to save time that you'd like to share, just let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Another great way to save time on your TV watching is watching shows online. There are several websites that allow you to watch TV (every network offers this service for most of their shows), but the biggest by far is Hulu (http://www.hulu.com/).

Hulu is a website owned and run by the networks NBC and Fox, and just recently added Disney (they own ESPN and ABC also), so they have 3 of the 4 major TV networks on Hulu (CBS is the lone hold-out at this point).

Hulu will list a program the day after it airs in most cases (the show House, for example, is posted 8 days after it airs). Hulu then only shows one commercial per commercial break instead of the regular slew. That saves you time, but watching online also can save you money. If you only have a show or two that you really want to watch from cable TV, check to see if Hulu offers it. We cancelled our cable subscription when we discovered we could watch our shows on Hulu for free (we purchased a program called PlayOn that lets you stream Hulu shows to an Xbox 360).

Hulu also offers a selection of movies and documentaries. Most of the movies are mainstream (and most of those are older movies), but they do have some indies and foreign films. A few weeks back I watched Ghostbusters again for free thanks to Hulu.

So, check out Hulu and see how it can save you both time AND money.