As a result of my nocturnal habits I sometimes find myself surfing through the television channels at night time trying to find something half decent to watch. Which is hard. 'Cos so much of whats on the telly these days is rubbish. But actually it's worse than rubbish..... it is something else.
Last night, in preparation for writing this, I thought Id do a bit of a survey. So I did a count up and of the 52 channels on my Freeview tv ( I discounted the marketing channels and the kids and news ones) 21 were showing programmes about murder, violence and ' adult themes'. So almost half of all available viewing last night was feeding the viewer with a diet of evil, horror, death, gore, crime, sex and violence. The only reason that half of the schedule is taken up with this stuff is that people want to watch it. And we wonder why knife crime is on the rise.
Of the rest of the channels there was a reasonably even distribution of documentary, comedy and music.
I know that the statistics show that these days fewer and fewer people are watching television and more and more are streaming stuff onto their phones and watching Netflix and Sky etc. My teenagers hardly ever watch television - but they do spend alot of time on youtube watching short clips of people doing interesting/funny/sporty things. But because we dont really sit down as a family and watch telly in the way that I did with my parents when I was growing up I have much less of an idea of what they are watching than my parents did of me.
I firmly believe that we become what we worship, we are what we eat. And if we feed ourselves on a diet of crime, violence , fear, murder, darkness and death our souls become darkened and our spirits struggle.
Someone once said this and it made an impact on me which has never left me
I AM A SPIRIT I HAVE A SOUL I LIVE IN A BODY
My body is where I live and I know that I should take care of it by feeding it and exercising it and giving it rest. I know that if I feed it junk it wont serve me too well.
My soul is my mind, will and emotions. My soul is impressionable and easily influenced, damaged and crushed. It too needs to be cared for and looked after. If I feed my mind and emotions with negative, bitter, angry, dark things then pretty soon my mind will start to become bound up with anger and negativity and fear and despair. My emotions will follow suit. And I shall be in trouble
My spirit was dead because of sin until I invited Jesus in to be Lord of my life. He came in and brought my spirit to life with the aim and objective that my spirit should now be in charge. When my spirit is ruling over my soul and my body I will treat myself as Jesus would treat me and behave as Jesus would behave. Jesus would not shy away from peoples pain or the gritty reality of illness and death and difficulty - but He most certainly wouldn't treat those things as entertainment. The spirit of Jesus doesn't find human tragedy fun. Our minds our wills and our emotions are fickle and so easily swayed. The world around us bombards our minds and appeals to our emotions - mostly with worldly, unhelpful and sometimes downright evil messages. Unless our souls are under the control of the HOLY spirit we will find ourselves ruled by what we think, how we feel and our own flawed decision making processes. Not ideal.
The spirit of Jesus sees the human body as a temple which needs to be cared for and respected. So whilst Jesus is as up for a party as the next man, enjoys a glass of wine and the odd spot of feasting, He is also into fasting and walking and sharing His food with the masses. His spirit living in our spirits leads us into moderation, health and wholeness and steers us away from things which damage us.
Lent is a time when we traditionally give up eating things which are unhealthy for our bodies. But what about our souls? Maybe we should be paying more attention to what and who we watch, listen to, read, hang about with and emulate. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you any places where your soul is in danger because you have been feeding it an unhealthy diet. And determine to fill yourself with
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable , excellent or praiseworthy (Phil 4:8)
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