Hebrews 2:1 says - "We must pay more careful attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away."
I believe God calls believers to be alert, cautious and discerning at all times. Something we must be aware of today is what we fill our minds with on a daily basis. We know the basics. Read your Bible. Pray. Love one another. We know that these are the right things to do.
But I believe God calls us to do more than this. Part of growing intimate with God is to become more of a stranger to the world. This can even mean being weird at times.
One area that really stands out to me is the choices we make with movies and media.
I love comedy. But it has become increasingly obvious to me that there are going to be less and less available "good shows" to watch. I used to LOVE How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory, just to name two examples. The first few seasons are hilarious and the writers are genius in my opinion. It seems to be a growing trend, however, that in order to maintain viewers, more and more jokes about sex and one-night stands must be incorporated into the writing, especially the later the season of the show.
As Will put it - the first few seasons, the writers can keep you watching with their wit alone. But after that, they rely on sex to keep people watching.
There is a new show, Mad Love, which stars the girl from Scrubs (her name is escaping me now.) So, the show has only had like 3 or 4 episodes. Will and I happened to catch an episode a couple of weeks ago, and already, the main premise of the show was that the sister of the main girl comes into town and sleeps with the creepy friend of the main guy on the show and then everyone lies about it. Then the cat comes out of the bag, the main girl gets mad, then she apologizes and everything is okay.
Wow - how disappointing. We are only a few episodes in and ALREADY relying on sex for the main joke of the show.
Okay, so am I the only one who doesn't want to watch a show without a scene of someone in the bed with someone else, with nothing on but a blanket?? This is also in like EVERY movie you will ever rent now. People - this is not real life. Or, at least, not real life as God intends it to be.
So why has this become the norm? Why do we keep paying to see this? Why are we settling for mediocrity?
I ask you, as my friends, and as someone who is actually taking the time to read this, to OPEN your eyes if they are not already open to this. Again, "We must pay more careful attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away."
Don't just accept reading your Bible as enough. Not only should we be filling our minds up with good things, but we should refuse to put less than good things in. Make choices about what you choose to pay attention to. Even if this means turning the TV off or not watching the rented movie all the way through. I encourage you today to not settle for less in your life. Take a stand and refuse the norm.
