(Every year, the week after the basketball tournament, we have a TV-Free week at our house. These are some thoughts from last year's week.)
- We watch out of habit. The TV is always on. We turn the thing on first thing in the morning and it stays on until we turn out the lights. Most evenings, we fall asleep to it, and it turns itself off.
- It is pervasive. I am amazed at how many conversations are about what we watch, even if we haven't watched anything in days.
- We are careful about what we watch and what we let our children see, but I'm not completely anti-television. However, TV Free Week reminds me how we passively allow it to fill up all the white space in our lives.
So what's the spiritual application? I don't think God wants us to be passive in anything, but I also believe it's our nature. The opposite of being passive is being active or diligent. Proverbs is full of encouragement to be diligent as well as admonitions against laziness. In 2 Peter 3:14, the apostle writes, "Therefore beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless." The "these things" are the coming day of the Lord and meeting Christ face-to-face.
Every television has an off button. There's nothing wrong with choosing to use it.
Could you give up television for a week? What else do people use to fill up their 'white spaces'?