Your Mind is a Sponge (Part 2)

"The average adult who spends 50 hours a year in a pew will also spend 2,000 hours at home watching television" –Brian Chapel in "Christ Centered Preaching"


The American culture is defined by busyness.  Our schedules are packed and we rarely have time for things that haven't been planned into our busy days.  Or at least that is what we try to communicate to others, but the impression we give of being busy doesn't line up with this statistic.  If this statistic is true (which lines up accurately with other statistical research) than this means average Joe American spends 5.4 hours a day watching TV.  That is over 37 hours a week, which is just shy of being the equivalent of a full time job.  


Going off what we said yesterday, if we are so heavily influenced by the things we see and hear, than this shows why our spiritual lives are such a struggle.  You may not watch this much TV, but however much you watch I am guessing there is more time spent in front of the TV than a Christian book.  We are being heavily influenced by the media, and rarely influenced by the Bible, church, and things of the like.  


So when the preacher gives a 30 minute message about living for others, that same listener is bombarded with countless hours of media telling them to serve themselves: buy this to make you look better, this to make you feel better, you deserve this and that.  They are opposing messages, yet the message from the culture is taking center stage!  


This is going to be a struggle for us, because obviously we can't just be in church 5 hours a day to combat this.  But there are some things we can do to live in such a way that our influences are Biblical ones, so when we are around media and culture, instead of being influenced by it, we begin to see things through the lens of Scripture and seek to influence the culture itself.  This is what we will tackle tomorrow.      

Martha, Martha....

"God doesn't want something from us. He simply wants us" -C.S. Lewis


Reading this quote makes me think of the husband who works long hours and weekends trying to provide his family with the "life they always wanted."  Nice house, nice cars, toys for the kids, savings for college, etc.  Amidst all the hard work the wife softly speaks to her husband in tears:  "we miss you...your son just holds onto the baseball glove you bought him, waiting to play.  Your daughter puts on the princess dress you bought her, not to play in it, but to just show you how pretty she looks.  She waits at the back door...I have began to spite being in this house...because look at what it has cost us.  we want you back."  


Do you do the same thing towards God?  Offering him all these things and spending all this time trying to serve him, yet amidst it all have neglected to love him and give yourself to him.  Are we too busy serving like Martha, while not sitting at our Kings feet in worship like Mary?  (Read Luke 10:38-42).  God wants us.  All of us.  Let us not lose focus as we try to live out our faith in our family, church, and community.  It all begins with love of God.  If we don't love him rightly, we will not serve him rightly.