Hookah is the new coffee

Dear friends,

I've recently had a number of conversations with people about the hookah. As far as I'm aware, smoking is not explicitly addressed in the Bible, so Christians are left to make the judgement call themselves. Of course some love it, some hate it, and the majority is probably somewhere in between. But this blog is not about that - whatever you believe about the hookah, keep it between yourself and God (Rom 14:22). 

This blog is about entertainment. I have long-held this sentiment, and recently a fellow hookah-er posed the same question - why do we always have to hookah to hang out?? 

We're not very good at just hanging out. In our culture, we can't just come together for coming-together's sake - we need a reason. Common college reasons are.. to study, to watch a TV show, movie, or sports, to drink, to dance, to gamble, watch a concert, play games, etc. None of those are particularly intimate, socially speaking. The hookah provides a great opportunity to just simply relax, sit and talk with both new and old friends alike. When else do people just sit and talk? Never.. unless they're getting coffee. See, we NEED an excuse to hang out, and the hookah is just one option. 

But do we really need it? I say.. yes, and no. First, yes, we need it: 

Social excuses are ingrained in who we are. We live in a society that affords a ton of entertainment options. Even the least-fun entertainment option is better than the not-at-all option. And besides, there's no way to meet that cute guy/girl if you don't have a good opportunity!

Second, no, we don't need it: 

I want to believe that if we were really honest with ourselves, that we could actually do it. "I love hanging out with you guys! Why don't we just plan on hanging out on Fridays?" But the success of this plan would depend on the true intentions of the members of the group - do we really want to see each other, or do we just want to be entertained? 

(By the way, John Schwartz has really interesting thoughts on entertainment. Where in the Bible do you see examples of entertainment? John finds no biblical support for it. Is it really necessary? "Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial...")

An idea or two.

1. A smokeless hookah party. Invite your typical hookah friends, but put away the shisha, shut off the tv, and just hang!
2. Try beneficial entertainment! So we just HAVE to be entertained, huh? Well, let's find a constructive way to do it. We could plan bonfires, campouts, worship nights, service trips (I know an elderly lady in town that would LOVE a bunch of company).. to name a few. I know we already do a lot of these things, but rather than wasting an entire night playing FIFA, maybe plan something edifying?
3. Planned spontaneity - Basically, you meet at a certain time and place with the intention of figuring out what to do after everyone gets there. This has the potential for part of the group to be disappointed (I hate going to Dairy Queen after Ichthus.. who always picks that??), but it keeps everyone from having to rely on an excuse to get together. 

What I don't mean..

• I don't mean that Christians must always be doing Christian-y things to live righteously. Perhaps we already do too many Christian-y things??
• I don't mean that playing FIFA is bad. 
• I don't believe that entertainment is necessarily evil... although I do think we place an abnormally high value on it, and I believe the majority of entertainment is relatively profitless.

What I do mean.. Can we find a way to spend more of our time in venues that produce some form of good fruit?