Or….back to you, Bob……. or Whatever!
Whatever is s’posed to be said pre-teen style, but I don’t know how to accentuate the word for effect.
Effect. About all I have to talk about since returning from the vacation is about the effect of seeing more TV than I like to. This happens to me on vacation, because we stay in places where there is TV access.
You don’t realize how much you miss in the cultural zoo when you don’t regularly watch the tube.
I have been trying to figure out my revulsion of Christian TV that arose during this time of exposure. I can’t explain it. I didn’t see much …mainly because I mostly was on the beach, etc. – but when I did, everything looked so faked.
And I usually am fairly tolerant of a wide range of preaching and singing styles, etc.
But something was going on with my heart. Everytime I watched a program, it was simply an imitation of Hollywood/Broadway theatrical. It was television, after all. But I thought: maybe that was the problem. Maybe the gospel isn’t meant for stages and cameras. Maybe the gospel is an organic living thing, meant for living and experiencing. Maybe “Come and see” meant come and see in person, the real Christ. The real thing in meeting with God….not something canned and entertaining with overarched phrasing and visually filling gesture. Maybe.
I have to say that I also caught some of the MTV movie awards… and that epitome of fakey idiot dialog might have colored my whole outlook. I tend to view the Hollywood world that way upon reentry into it’s star-studded atmosphere of TV . I like movies and videos, so those don’t count… not in this post, anyway.
Not that I am accomplished in critiquing this. Something to remember is that my teen son grabs the remote and goes channel surfing for its own sake. Sort of a strobe light effect in changing channels.
But I was left very unnerved by my thoughts on Christian Media. Is it me? Is it the time ? Or is there a problem with the whole idea of big picture media being the answer for our times? As though armchair evangelism is where it is all at?
Or does that lead to couch-potato fleshly obesity? The kind you don’t see, but that you can’t mistake when rubbing shoulders in today’s churches, with today’s Christians….on today’s spiritual diets?
I really ought to mention the other things I came away from after my time with ocean, sun, and palm trees.
I am newly motivated to do graphics work again, get more creative with my life. I actually did one quick drawing with colored pencils… I couldn’t find my drawing pencil set. That reminds me, I must go to the art store and buy some good drawing pencils. They are so expensive, but I really like using quality art materials.
I used my digital camera a bit…. so the motivation for creativity is not all talk, but I misplaced the directions so am going slower on the learning curve.
I just know that for this to last and grow there has to be a pacing and a daily effort.
Once, someone told me that it takes something like three weeks to build a habit, good or bad. I can’t remember the exact time, but it is something like that. I think it is the daily consistancy, even when on a small scale that creates it in persons life. I know I need a least a couple weeks just to remember all the steps involved and not “lose my place”. Thus needing to backtrack laboriously for me just to get back to the square I was on originally. Story of my life.
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For those who feel I picked on Christian TV : sorry. I don’t mean to pick on anyone in this case….. I simply am searching for the answer for why something as rich as the reality of Jesus Christ gets so blurred and misrepresented in our culture. I think it is the “worldly” thing. We forget we are not of this world. We get so enamored of the seeming results of the fandango of the carnival, you know? All swirled and dizzy and distracted.
But it is Vanity Fair, friend …. and Vanity Fair wants from you not for you.
Something that shines with love that is for you is going to be rare. It is going to be something that cannot have compare, nowhere in the universe.
There’s some that wants that. I keep feeling that is where I want to put my money….. and my life.