I am a fan of fantasy films. Kings and knights, magic and enchanted forests. These are the stuff that get to me. Getting transported into a world unlike our own. Imagining myself as the valiant hero of the tale. It’s like stepping into a time machine. I think that’s one of the joys of movies. They pull you into a virtual reality exploring the heights of human creativity. It’s an endless digital wonder. We must however be careful not to be drawn in too deep lest we fall under a sleeping spell we cannot awake from.
I think we all know that feeling when one episode turned to 8 and now it's 3 am and work is tomorrow. Binge-watching is like feasting on junk food. It’s fun while you eat but afterwards, you just feel bloated. Your mind feels saturated with content leaving you more tired than when you began scrolling. It’s so normal I hardly noticed it in my own life. How my eyes were becoming even smaller every time I watched just one more YouTube video. Perhaps if it were more obviously destructive, I would pick up on it but entertainment rocks you soundly to sleep as you drift farther into a lost sea. Let me illustrate, you watch one series episode to take a break from work, but you want to know what happens next, so you watch 5 more videos. The more you watch the less you worry about the work deadline you have to meet. Your senses are duller, yet the looming task still stands. The danger is still around you just aren’t aware of it anymore like an ostrich burying its head in the sand. A missed deadline is a small danger. Greater dangers are lurking the deeper you sink into sleep. Relationships can slip away, faith can be rendered dead, and your life can drift on by. You settle into a comfort zone far from the purposeful life you long for.
Proverbs 24:33
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.
Christians have fallen soundly asleep with the rest of the world. Our lives look nothing like those who first called themselves disciples, yet we claim to be transformed by Christ. We watch shows that celebrate the very things the bible condemns; we spend our precious time on trivial scrolling but don’t have time to attend a fellowship. Our lives look nothing like Christ yet we claim to live lives for him? Vice is consistently destigmatized and normalized in what we watch yet we rarely change the patterns of what we binge. Perhaps it would be easier to cast blame if we were actively destroying our faith with unbelief but friends, I warn you that the drowsy drug of entertainment is a more effective poison. When I look at my life, I see time wasted in silly ways. I was dull to the sweet slumber my mind was in. In our call to bring God’s kingdom on earth, our mind is one of our greatest arsenals; we cannot afford to have it constantly filled with the highlights of last season. How do you fight for the kingdom of God when the fortress of your mind and heart remains unguarded? Friends this is a serious matter.
“A church that makes the world its source of relaxation and enjoyment, must become a worldly church. And a worldly church is a powerless church. It cannot experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the boldness in prayer, the courage in witness and the readiness to sacrifice for the salvation of lost people for the exaltation of Christ.”- John Piper. How can you take the light to the world when you are imbibing all their darkness? You can’t. Do you see what is at stake believer? In falling asleep we haven’t just jeopardized our walk; we have cost another theirs. The less you want the bible, the less you want Jesus, the less you want God in favor of trivial media the more effective you know the sleeping pills of the world have become in your life. As we absorb the reflexes, preferences, intuitions, and instincts of careless entertainment, we lose. ‘You cannot feel broken-hearted over lost people when you enjoy, night after night, being entertained by them in their lostness’-John Piper
2 Corinthians 6:16-18
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God: as God has said, I will dwell among them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord almighty.
A mistake I made was thinking that my little indulgences were okay. A little 2-hour rest time on YouTube, wouldn’t harm me but I forgot the Swahili proverb ‘haba na haba hujaza kibaba’. A little rain fills a lake. A little sin corrupts the mind and heart. I must confess I was hesitant to write this article. It sat on my to-do list for over a year because I knew that even researching material for it would throw my habits under the magnifying glass of God’s word. And it was not a pretty sight. Hours wasted, people neglected for no good reason and talents wasted away. My life scarcely matches the standard God commands yet like a good father God must shine his light on my life lest I remain sleeping.
Let the light of the gospel so shine in your heart that you begin to see things as they really are. See the missed work promotion, the dying relationship, the shirking of responsibilities, and the missed evangelism opportunities. See the sweet slumber of entertainment as a highway to the sluggard’s house of destruction. (Proverbs 18:9- Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys) In not cultivating good crop in our lives we are inevitably giving way to weeds. He who takes a pickaxe to hack his land and he who sits idly by and watches it have the same result, bad soil. The only difference is the speed of destruction. Neglect grows weeds. (Proverbs 24:30-31- I passed by the field of a sluggard and behold it was all overgrown with thorns) Do not let weeds grow in your mind as you slowly hum a lullaby of your favorite Ticktok.
Perhaps for you entertainment isn’t a way to pass time but a tool to dull yourself from the harsh realities of life. You run to the fantasy world when you can’t process your own life. Yet we do better to let ourselves feel the pain of our mess. It’s like you cut your leg and pieced an artery, blood is gushing out of it but you decide to numb your leg instead of stitching it. You may not feel the pain, but the wound is still bleeding. We are often tempted to run from difficult realities, to mask any pain we feel. Instead of dealing with heartbreak, you watch a romcom, when stitching the wound would look like talking to a friend honestly about the relationship's end. Entertainment provides an easy way out of painful realities. It has the same effect as drugs. Just turn your brain off and make it to the next day. But the more undressed wounds we let fester the more pain we are building up for the future. The balm of Gilead waits for us with forgiveness for the past, comfort for the present, and hope for the future. Come to the healer before you turn on Netflix.
The first step to free yourself from the normalized content-consuming culture is to cut yourself from the source of the content. Cleanse your body from junk food so you can enjoy the taste of fresh greens again. Go on a media fast for 7 weeks; no social media, no movies, no Ticktok, see what happens. You realize that you can survive without these things. You may be bored for the first week or two but slowly you enjoy the feeling of a clear mind. Step 2: eat your greens. By this I mean replace the time spent on media with helpful activities. A good gauge is filtering the activity by evaluating if it is growing you physically, mentally, spiritually relationally, or creatively. A better filter is the word of God. We are called to do everything to the glory of God. The standard of God is much higher than ours so very likely even most of what is PG-13 on mainstream media won’t cut it. May God give us strength to live up to his word. To cancel the Netflix subscription, to delete that app, to make decisions that look so strange for deeper more satisfying joy. We need to vomit out the content to taste and see that God is good even on a Friday night without your favorite Netflix series. May God make us wise to exchange little follies for little wisdom, developing steady resolutions that seem small at first but that build to a life worthy of our calling as children of God. We lay each little sacrifice before our Father in heaven trusting that he will daily strengthen us to look more like him.
1 Corinthians 10:31
Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
We do not say no to casual watching for the sake of it or legal rule-keeping. We say no so we can say yes to the deeper joys of life. The kind that can’t be captured on screen. The joy of a good day’s sweat, the peace of relationships carefully tended to, the reward of talents well stewarded. The greatest joy is of a thriving walk with God. One that is not just lip service faith but a life that displays the fruit of its belief. We are like a vineyard, pruned of all trivial entertainment, watered with consistent prayer and bible reading, and growing in the light of the glory of God’s goodness. Remain in Christ and you will bear fruit. How joyous it is to be filled with faith, hope, and love. Arise oh sleeper, step out of the dark screen and into the light of God.
1 Thessalonians 5:5-8
You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like the others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
Romans 13:2
So then, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.