Except that's where my pilgrimage stopped. I started the frying pan, whipped up some healthy oat pancakes and.... began to watch The Walking Dead (zombie show).
Man, I watched 3 or 4 episodes already, then hygiene won out and I went off to take a shower.
They say your mind works overtime in the shower, that you are more creative, deep, thoughtful than normal.... and they are right.
When i was in the shower I thought about how long I'd watch the show. I mean I'd only watch it till the end of the season I am on (2nd out of 2), then I'd go back to pursuing the Lord through reading. Then I realized, even after that show I would be drawn to something else. A new show, maybe Revolution (show coming out about the power going down worldwide).
Then I began to wonder, where does it stop?
I was drawn back to the screwtape letters where a senior demon is telling a young demon how to keep people away from God.
If CS Lewis wrote this for 20 somethings in the 21st century what would Screwtape be saying:
"The only thing you have to do is to get them to watch one... then just sit back as they lead themselves by a carrot they'll never reach"
"The only thing you have to keep their mind on is a world far from the real one, far from the beauty and realness of God's creation. Perhaps the Halo world, or the world of Call of Duty..."
"The ONLY thing you have to do, is to keep them so busy in the trivial that they are too busy to listen to the voice of God, striving to break through the barrier"
Now I know there are plenty of anti-tv anti-video-game people out there and you're probably tired of it. But take a second. Think on what you are doing. You are putting aside the real world, the real God of the UNIVERSE, and shoving it away to live in a world created by finite beings such as you and me. Trapped in a world of make believe instead of seeing the reality around you.
We would rather be watching Katniss be a hero in the world of the Hunger Games than grabbing some friends and standing for injustice in THE REAL WORLD! We listen to Batman say that Gotham's people are worth saving, when the cost of the movie ticket could provide a mosquito net that could save a young boy's life.
Let us open our eyes and SEE the real possibilities, the real challenges, the real heroic actions that need to be done.
And this is not without GRACE. Only God gives us this ability to help others. Without him we are merely poor and wretched sinners too stuck in the mire to look up to Him, dead in our sin. But He saves us. And in His word He says faith without works is dead. I'm not trying to speak heresy but if we are to be seen by our fruit then we have to be a tree in THIS world and not a virtual one.
I, the worst of you all, will try to take the first step. Please come along side of me and let's begin to take this world as our challenge. The souls and bodies of those in this world, instead of the characters of another movie or game.
Will you do this with me?
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