Choose Wisely

Two weeks ago I posted that I was turning off the TV for 40 days with one exception.  Caroline and I had been talking about watching The Chosen for a while, but never started it, so we decided that could be our one cheat.  We are now near the end of Season 1, and I have enjoyed it.  The Chosen is about the life of Jesus, but one of the things I was surprised by is how the writers have blended in supporting stories from the Old Testament.  I have seen this done in books before, but this is the first time I have seen it on the screen, and it is very effective.  Also, this is the first multi-season series about the life of Jesus, so the writers have more time to develop the characters and the storyline than in a 2 hour movie.  Season 1 is on Netflix, and we are moving over to Prime for Season 2.  I believe that all three seasons are on Peacock or can be steamed through The Chosen app which was free the last time I checked.  If you have watched it, I would love to hear from you.  If not, please join us!

Babeling Nimrod

 

After the great flood, one of Noah's grandsons, Nimrod, became a mighty hunter and then a king.  He had everything a king could want, but whatever that was, it wasn't enough.  He ordered his people to build a tower from bricks and tar that would reach the heavens, not as a monument to God's power, but as a monument to themselves.  Everyone could gather there in one place so they could each tell one another how great they were.  Sound familiar?  4500 years later we have our own Tower of Babel.  

Social media has a lot of different faces, but one of the most common is that it provides a place where we can all gather and tell one another how great we are - getting the perfect photo, on the perfect vacation, in the perfect location with the perfect family.  I recognize that many times these posts are innocent, but when a person becomes obsessed in building their image to be as good as, or better than someone else, that image building has become an idol for them - just like the Tower of Babel.  

Now when God saw the Babylonians gathering to build the tower and worship themselves, he confused their language so that they couldn't understand each other, forcing them to separate and populate new regions.  God could have a similar plan for social media, but in the meantime, I want to do my best not to be a babeling nimrod.  I hope you will join me.

Good Morning Jesus

 

I was 19 years old when Joan Lunden joined Dave Hartman as the host of Good Morning America.  It was 4 years later when I married Caroline that I started watching GMA regularly.  GMA became a part of my morning routine.  Joan and Dave are now long gone.  I like some of the current hosts more than others, but I continue to watch.  It's a habit - a 40-year habit.  I am going to try something new for the next 40 days.  No television with two exceptions.  I can watch while I exercise.  I don't need any new excuses not to exercise.  Also, Caroline and I have been wanting to watch The Chosen.  So, we are allowing that as the one other exception.  I am two days deep into this, and I can't tell you how many times I have reached for the remote control.  I hope to replace the TV habit, with the habit of thinking of Jesus.  So far, it is working.  Who knows, maybe 40 days will turn into 40 years.

Control Freak

Our ConnectGroup from church gathered at our house for our first meeting of the semester last night.  We are reading "The Cost of Control" by Sharon Hodde Miller.  In the first chapter, Sharon explains that our desire for control is so strong, that if we don't have control in a situation, we have a tendency to create an illusion of control.  That illusion may help to reduce anxiety in the short term, but if the illusion is not based in truth, the damage can be severe.  One of the most graphic examples of this happened leading up to May 21st 2011.  You may remember that as the day that the world was going to end - according to Harold Camping and his followers.  Luckily for us, Harold's illusion did not come to fruition, and our world is still intact.   There are at least two things unsettling about this.  The first is that Harold had already been wrong once when he predicted the world would end in 1994.   Apparently, people's memory was short.  The second is that the Bible clearly states that we will not know when the world will end, so people making a claim that they know are misinformed.  There were people who burned through their life savings expecting the world to end, and others that committed suicide when the story didn't unfold as Harold had predicted.  Sharon promises to deliver solid advice on what we can do to manage our desire for control more effectively.  I look forward to learning more.