Saturday, April 13, 2013

For Our Viewing Pleasure?

by Jerry Sheppard (Soul Reach)

"I will set no worthless thing before my eyes"
(Psalm 101:3, NASB)


For the past while now, I have been thinking a bit on how I use my time, especially in the area of entertainment such as the amount of time I spend watching TV and listening to music. It is to the point that I find the amount of time I spend doing these things has affected my time in getting things that matter done. I waste far too much time on such entertainments as TV and music, when I could be using my time doing more productive things. My old acquaintance, Sakurah had written a very interesting article that deals with TV entertainment. What's even more interesting is the fact that she is not even a Christian and yet she has come to the realization of how TV wastes precious time that could be spent doing better things. She wrote the following:
“Lately I've been associating TV with laziness and just general negativity. I feel like it creates temporary fake happiness and even feelings of accomplishment to viewers because they are living through the characters they are watching. It draws you in and enables you to forget everything in your life and in reality. Finally you 'come to' and realize you just spent hours of your of your life sitting/lying on the couch doing nothing but looking straight ahead. This is not living life, is it? All of the experiences you felt you had by watching that TV screen aren't yours. You watched some one else fall in love, your watched someone else go on an amazing adventure, you watched someone else's facial expression when a bright orange fall leaf brushed past their cheek. Look at all the amazing experiences we could've had in only a couple hours in our lives that would be truly ours. Our own memories to look back on and enjoy. You could've had an enlightening conversation with some interesting person at your local coffee shop. You could've felt a rain drop fall slowly down over your face, while walking down your favorite street in town. Lay in the grass with the sun on your skin, felt a breeze in your hair, and imagined shapes in the clouds. You could feel the scrunch of snow under your feet and become amazed by how beautiful it looks on the trees, notice the little footprints left behind by all the animals we scarcely see. Life is really happening around us all the time. Go out and take notice!”1
The above comment written by Sakurah is quite revealing. For it was a known truth taught in many evangelical Churches a number of years ago. Many  Christians at one time even refused to have TVs in their homes, because they well understood how distracting entertainment can be, and how much time it wastes in their lives. They also knew the danger it posed to their spiritual lives as well. They knew all too well how the TV and Movie Theatre would fill their minds with the worldly entertainments and filth that would stifle their fellowship with the Lord. However, many Christians today, myself included have top of the line flat screen TV's where we watch our favourite shows and waste precious time that could be better spent doing more productive things as my friend Sakurah articulates  so well in her above article.



1 Sakurah (Alisha) Horwood, "TV", posted on Facebook: Notes, Wednesday, September 29, 2010.