Straddling the world and The Word

I spent many years with one foot in the world and one foot in The Word.  Can you live a life fully connected to God if part of you embraces the world and its guilty pleasures?

Amongst other ways to embrace sin, I had an addiction to television, during which my mind was being taken on a journey far from where God wanted it.  It wasn’t until I conquered this affliction that I saw how much it was a barrier between me and God.  Conquering it was just that, a battle.  I was forced to turn off cable for financial reasons.  You would've thought my food or water was being taken away.  I asked friends for DVD’s and even VHS tapes to get me through the “withdrawal” phase.  I got through that phase and became comfortable reading my Bible and other books more, along with spending more time writing and doing logic puzzles.

The battle wasn’t over yet though.  I eventually got a rabbit ear antenna because I wanted to at least see the news.  The one channel that it brought in drew me right back in, and in a worse way.  I began watching shows that I didn’t care for because that was all that was on.  I returned to watching the numerous crime shows that were on prime time.  The ones that I had stopped watching due to vivid nightmares.  I started watching comedies that were raunchy, too.  It wasn’t until those vivid nightmares had made a reappearance that I realized that I needed to nix the violence.  I was also getting tired of filling my head with sleazy entertainment news, jokes about meaningless sex, the use of God’s name without honor, and commercial after commercial attempting to train the mind towards gluttony that causes disease, and drunkenness that enables poor choices.

As I was getting closer to God, I found myself asking, “Is this something that I would watch with Jesus?”  Over time, it actually started to hurt my insides when I would hear the typical responses using God’s or Jesus’ name so flippantly.  Those same phrases used to roll off my tongue without a thought because we're so flooded by it everywhere we turn.

I found that when I'd put the TV on for just a football game, I was blasted with things that are meant to distract you from heavenly pursuits.  When I spend an evening doing some of the free Bible studies that I requested online, I find that my soul is light as air afterwards.  That heaviness and darkness that I feel after mindlessly allowing the television to take me where ever it pleases is far behind me.  There's a well inside of us that goes dry when we choose not to connect in with God.  When we spend time reading His words of guidance and encouragement, we're better equipped to approach these trying times with our wells full of peace and joy.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are a few (very few) shows that are clean and informative, but these are few and far between.  Similar entertainment can also be sought out on the internet or in books.  But beware, we can easily fall into the same addiction on the internet as well if we're not careful.  I believe it's important to stay up to date on the news, but I find that I receive the same news from Christian radio without seeing the footage of dead bodies.

Satan wants our minds trapped in death, destruction, and immorality and he's found many ways to do just that.  The sad thing is that we actually enjoy it and have helped to personally create an industry that caters to this desire.

Not everyone reacts to these leadings in the same way.  My difficulty might be with the nightmares that come from violence.  Others may be overcome with perverse sexual thoughts.  Someone else might be lead to drink their week of hard work away.  Can you imagine how our society might benefit from commercials about forgiveness, compassion, and respect?  The sad thing is, this isn't going to happen.  So, it's up to us to seek out this type of soul nourishment.

Keep in mind that there are many ways for the world to get its message lodged in our consciousness.  Not only TV, but music, literature, and the conversations that we engage in.  The contents of best selling books and lyrics of catchy tunes are just morally unacceptable, yet we accept them because it’s now the norm.  We can’t unsee or unhear things, but we can filter a massive portion of what's ready and waiting to be received.  Remember that it's our choice what we fill ourselves up with.

Since I've filtered what I receive into my mind, I feel much less part of the world and more tightly interwoven with God instead.  Is it something that we can accomplish on our own?  Absolutely not!  The only way to step away from the world is to reach for the hand of God that He has outstretched for anyone that will take it.  We take His hand through our redeemer, Jesus.  God can not hold hands with sin.  Jesus allows that connection to happen because He erases the sins we've confessed so that we can be reached by God.  He took all the sins we've committed, and every one that we'll ever commit, upon himself.  He laid down his life like any loving parent would do.  Jesus is the all important link directly to God, no other way exists.  We do need to be honest about our sins because just one that we haven’t repented for is preventing our closeness with God.

When you leave the world behind and concentrate on our Creator, things no longer upset you in the same way that they used to.  You're also less likely to worry about the negativity that's around you.  You effortlessly see the positive while going through your daily tasks.  I had to realize that God is not the author of chaos, terror, and perverseness.  That’s Satan’s dreadful work.  The more that I entertain those thoughts, the less room that I have to allow my character to be molded into the likeness of Jesus.

There's nothing in this world that has more importance than an eternity with Jesus.  Our Creator, coming down as a man, showing us that He understands our earthly life, giving us an example to live by, and promising to make a home for us in Heaven, as long as we surrender our free will to Him on a daily basis.  We must choose to stay strong in our Faith until our last breath.  We'll experience temptations continuously throughout our lives.  There's a deceiver that works tirelessly to knock us off the narrow path to Heaven.   Find every inlet that Satan has and close it.  Our reward will be more than our human minds can comprehend.