Thrilled to Death

The above is a title to a book that was written by Dr. Archibald D. Hart. The title is similar to a book written probably 20 years ago called Entertaining Ourselves To Death. The premise is that our continuous pursuit of high stimulation is snuffing out our ability to experience genuine pleasure in simple things.

"It's called anhedonia--a feeling of joylesness and cheerlessness. Everyone feels it to some extent these days, and it's not going to go away. In our fast paced, pleasure--seeking society, we are obsessed with increasing our level of excitement to feel a sense of pleasure. When we go to the movies, we expect the action sequences to be more thrilling and spectacular than before. Our music must be louder and edgier than the last album. Even in our churches, preachers must out-wow their last sermon or we might not go back again. We have become adictively dependent on thrills and kicks.....More alarming to me is that anhedonia is impacting our children and teenagers to a greater extent than parents, and if we don't take action to correct it, I pity where the next generation is headed. Deriving pleasure from the ordinary and healthy experiences of life will be a thing of the past."

It seems like the church needs to be focused less on entertainment and more upon fasting, meditation and quiet service to others. It's always got to be a balance, but the influence of a "rock concert" culture should be considered.