A TV Revealed Me
July 22, 2006
As I settled into my Grayling hotel room last week, I set about the task of filling my time. Though I usually avoid the easy choice, that night I turned on the television. I spent the next several hours wearing out the batteries in the remote control. Though nothing was interesting enough to hold my attention, “everything” was sufficient to keep the power on.
As I passed, paused, or stopped on channels, I included myself in the group of people who had decided to watch that program. I hung out in the “company” of many target audiences: food lovers and nature lovers, housewives and athletes, investors and children, twenty-year old boys and history lovers.
At each program break, I was exposed to a few seconds of a commercial before finally locating the right buttons to change channels. After a couple hours of this, I noticed something interesting. I got a better indication of the target audience by the commercials shown during the program than from the program itself. The advertisers presumed that if I was watching “Fox News”, I would be interested in buying stock through E-Trade, and that many people watching “The WB” have the cash to go to trashy movies. After 35 minutes of The Comedy Channel, I recognized that I was watching my fourth commercial for “Girls Gone Wild” videos. I concluded that I could easily choose better company.
My daily walk through life is like that. Often, it’s not where I choose to go, it’s where I find myself stopping. When I take stock of the group that’s lured to that spot, I get a glimpse of my present self. What’s on the walls of my workspace? Are any Christian stations on my radio presets? Who is selling products on my favorite show? What “favorites” are on my browser? Through these choices, I create the places I live. It’s easy to forget to ask, “Am I where God wants me?” The answer is usually obvious.God has so much for me to learn. When I actively and rightly choose the soundtrack and the scenery for my life, I create an environment that welcomes growth in wisdom and faith.
This essay originally appeared in Advent Events, the monthly newsletter of Advent Episcopal Church (West Bloomfield, MI).
