I have a confession – recently I gave up an addiction I have had for many years. I became addicted in my childhood and ever since have been fighting a losing battle. I’ve tried everything to quit, but to no avail. So a couple of weeks ago I made the decision to go cold turkey. But it’s hard, so hard.

Now before the judgmental types reading this start thinking the worst about me, the addiction I am referring to is my addiction to the television. You see it has been my friend for as long as I can remember. It has been there when I found myself alone. It has entertained me when boredom threatened to strike. It has revealed new possibilities to me. It has filled my head with all kinds of wondrous tales. And it has lulled me into a one sided relationship in that it speaks and shows me the pictures and I take it all in.

I must admit, I haven’t watched TV for about two weeks now, and I miss it, I really miss it. It’s not that I watched anything in particular, but it was always there, always on. The funny thing is I would watch episodes of shows like Seinfeld and Frasier that I have watched several times before; knowing exactly what was coming next, but I watched non-the-less. I watched shows that weren’t really Christ honoring and thought nothing of it. And I have watched hours upon hours of commercials. I wasted literally thousands of hours sitting in front of a box.

There’s a scene in the brilliant alien invasion movie They Live where a man is sitting zombie-like in front of a television set. All of a sudden the TV loses its signal and slowly the man begins to realize that he is no longer watching anything but static. He reaches for his remote control and tries flicking through the stations… all static. So he turns the TV off. Wondering what to do, he looks around. Then he sees a book, reaches for it, and begins to read.

That zombie sitting in front of the TV was me. My point is this, by turning the TV off I have in fact been reading more and spending more quality time with family talking and playing cards and games. I have been getting more sleep, so I generally feel better throughout the day. And I have been spending more time with God, reading his Word and praying.

According to Nielsen Media Research the average North American watches an average of four to six hours of TV daily. That means if a person gets home at 6pm they will watch TV until 10-12pm. Sound familiar? It’s an easy trap to fall into, as watching TV is so easy! However, Billy Graham said a few years ago that the danger is when the viewing habits of Christians and non-Christians show no discernible differences in either time spent in viewing or content viewed.

Don’t get me wrong, my television watching days are far from over, but I now have a plan of action. I plan to watch TV shows I like on DVD thereby cutting out the time wasted on commercial breaks. Also I will only watch a maximum of one 45min episode per day. I plan to watch only movies I want to watch and then only once or twice a week. I’m not against TV per say, just wasting endless hours in front of it. There’s nothing wrong with watching good shows and movies, but I now realize that it’s all a matter of control – who controls who?

So, who, or what, controls you?

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
January, 2009

Picture by Anonymous

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