Monthly Message - SEP 19
Are we owned by TV?
Albert Schweitzer said, "If there is something you own that you cannot give away, you do not own it-it owns you." Is there anything we possess of a material nature that we feel we just could not do without? According to Albert Schweitzer, that possession possesses us. It might be a useful experiment for us to simply eliminate it for a short time to see how we fare without the use of this ''indispensable possession."
Many have tried doing this with TV, phones, laptops, internet etc and discovered, much to their pleasure, that life without has brought back family discussions and dialogue that had all but disappeared when everyone's eyes and ears were constantly focused on the screen.
A recent survey reported that 98% of the homes in north America have over 3 television sets and that each set is turned on an average of seven hours a day.
Children watch screen for an average of eight hours each day and women over the age of 55 are the champion viewers averaging ten hours every day.
We wonder how the surveys come up with these numbers. But even if they are only half correct, it is still a startling thing to realise how much the minds of these viewers are being influenced by what they see and hear.
No wonder advertisers pay millions, yea billions, every year to put their messages on the screens that so many see and hear.
Even worldly educators are concerned with the effect that too much television is having on our children. There is no doubt that many of the problems in the schools today are a direct result of the bad influence that television has had on the impressionable minds of young people.
No one who watches TV is immune to the evil influence of seeing the seamy side of life depicted in glorified form as if it were the norm. Emerson said that we are what we think about all day long and Solomon told us that as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.
If we subject ourselves to the thoughts and pictures of the world even for an hour or so each day, it is bound affect our thought patterns, just as Bible reading and study directs our thoughts in a godly way. TV producers are experts at exploiting our fleshly interests to attract viewers and keep them. The flesh can pull very strongly and is hard to resist.
Let's give ourselves a test to see whether we are in control, or ifwe have surrendered control of our life to others.
Paraphrasing Albert Schweitzer's quotation slightly, if there is something we own that we can not do without, then we do not own it, it owns us. Let us make sure that we are not the slave to any of our possessions. Whatever "it" is, tum it off, or put it away. Try living without it for a week. Let us make sure that we own it, it does not own us.
Can we imagine Jesus spending time watching TV? Let us, like him, find our pleasure and relaxation considering the Word of Truth and the wonders of creation. "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved."