70 years old and never stonger

70 years old, wow!

This morning as I ate my breakfast, watching the TODAY show (since I only have 22 TV channels and cant get FoxNews anymore), they brought a guy on who works for TV Guide. They gave him about 5 minutes of national airtime to talk about television's 70th bday!

He spoke of TV in lofty terms, saying,

• "TV changed the world in the 50's."
• "Our habits were all built around waking up to shows like TODAY ... and going to bed with Johnny Carson."
• "There was a sense of shared experiences in the early days of television..."

Now, I am not saying these statements are false, but I am submitting that maybe all those statements aren't necessarily good things.

My thoughts about TV have been shaped by a number of people in recent years including John Piper, Harry Walls and some personal relationships. And conclusively across the board TV is looked down upon, not as the coming-of-age moment in history, as some would have us believe.

My first glimpse into the truth behind TV was while reading Piper's Don't Waste Your Life several years ago. He states:

Television is one of the greatest life-wasters of the modern age. ... The main problem with TV is not how much smut is available, though that is a problem. The greater problem is banality. A mind fed daily on TV diminishes. Your mind was made to know and love God. Its facility for this great calling is ruined by excessive TV. The content is so trivial and so shallow that the capacity of the mind to think worthy thoughts withers, and the capacity of the heart to feel deep emotions shrivels.

What is happening in America is that television is transforming all serious public business into junk. . . . [Instead of] serious, sequential, rational, and complex [thoughts,] it offers discourse in which everything is accessible, simplistic, concrete, and above all, entertaining. (excerpt from N. Postman).

Piper has a lot more to say about this topic, but you can READ it for yourself!

I have no quotes or anything from my parent's pastor, Harry Walls - who has been an incredible influence in my own life - but I know he feels just as ill about TV as Piper does.

Other people who have shared this similar thought include my current roommate. Even last night, we discussed how the tube can't even be turned on for a minute without seeing a half naked girl in a bikini or underwear ... its insane!!!

With the development of these feelings I have toward TV in recent years, I now understand why my parents wanted me out and about playing, instead of rotting my brain out with TV. I wish I had spent less time in front of the glowing screen than I have.

I am grateful now, b/c I realize like with any other sinful habit ... you perceive that the sin, in this case spending too much time watching television ... is going to provide satisfaction and enjoyment, when in reality we know it doesn't. Its just a lie we believe in, we think, "Oh this is a good way to relax" - which MAY be true, BUT as we allow our brain to relax after "long" days in front of the TV our perception of whats real and what matters most diminishes. Having realized this (and hating to spend so much for cable) my roommate and I cut back to 22 channels of TV. And to be honest, I could do without those.

There is so much, as Piper put it, smut on TV and the numbing of our minds, that I truly believe Satan uses it as a tool of destruction over God's children. Think about it! If he can detract us from the Bible, or prayer times with the Lord, and rather numb us to the reality of eternity, of souls lost or saved, of salvation and walking in holiness before the Lord ... isn't this a victory for him? Also, TV inspires a lifestyle of comfort and ease, and I can promise you, we are not called to easy breezy lives, to play and lightly frolic until we retire or die. Jesus' life on earth was not of such a pace. Lastly, and I will only mention this cause it is a soapbox for me, TV is adding to the epidemic that obesity is in our country! TV = FAT.

That's all. Now, out to the state park I go!