“No Ma’am, but you ‘bout to.”
One of my favorite movie scenes is when Hilly asks this
question to her maid, Minny. What Hilly doesn’t know, and the reason Milly
responds the way she does, is that Minny has put poop in the chocolate cake
that Hilly has just eaten. The movie, “The Help”, is based off a book, a political
commentary on racism. Trust me, Hilly got what was coming to her.
It disgusts us to think about eating poop. And it should.
Yet, we do something as disgusting as this to our souls. We
allow impurities to enter into our minds. And worse: it doesn’t even gross us
out anymore.
Many years ago, my father preached a sermon on purity and
talked about the kinds of movies we watch. He observed that when people discuss
movies, in an effort to justify viewing certain films, they often will say that
there’s “X” amount of bad words, or maybe that there is a particular sex scene
but that’s the only one so it’s OK, etc. Dad’s point is that if you think of
bad scenes in movies as “poop in the brownies”, then you won’t see the movie at
all. After all, who wants even just a “tiny bit of poop in their brownie”?. That
is a very radical way of viewing things. But Jesus was radical too. Jesus
demands absolute purity.
As I have gotten older, I am finding myself more tolerant. I
am finding that there really are some movies that I view as “diamonds in the
rough”. Take “Shawshank Redemption” for example. I don’t think that I would
ever really like to watch that movie all the way through. But I have seen
enough of it to see that it sends a very powerful message. Ironically, the man
has to crawl through poop to reach freedom. Really and truly, it feels like we
wade through miles of poop in life to get to the other side of our misery.
To watch or not? is a gray area that the bible does not
address directly. Jesus does say “if the light in you is darkness, how great is
the darkness” Matthew 6:23 (thanks Mom!).
Much of the interpretation is left to us, as we pray, study,
and listen to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will prick our spirits when we
are watching something that we shouldn’t. But of course, being pricked by the
Holy Spirit requires us to be in tune to It.
Is it possible that something that I used to not feel OK
about watching is now OK? What is OK? What is not OK? What does it mean if I
change my mind? Am I not as in tune to the Holy Spirit as I used to be? Am I
more in tune?...
How do we know? And will the answer look the same for me as
for someone else? Thankfully, that is not our problem. We are supposed to walk
out our walk with the LORD and strive not to be a stumbling block to others.
What would Jesus watch on TV if Mary and Joseph had had one?
Would M and J have let Jesus play Assassin’s creed? Would they have resisted
screen time altogether?
I know this: God wants us to come to him with the things
that bother us, with the things that we are anxious about. So since we cannot
answer many questions posed in this post, at least I can urge all readers to
sincerely inquire of the LORD. King David, for all his flaws (and they were
many), talked to the LORD about his sins, he asked the LORD questions. Did the
LORD answer? I believe He did, although I’m sure David would say sometimes it
felt like He was just silent. David trusted in the LORD no matter what.
Whenever we pray and come to Him seeking what HE wants: THAT
is the kind of prayer God wants to answer. It might not be in an audible voice,
and it might not be at the time we choose, but we are doing the right thing by
coming to Him and seeking purity.
The key is to come ready to hear ANYTHING that He reveals
(perhaps through His word, a thought, a voice, another person, or life
circumstances). If He reveals to us that we are to stop watching that new
favorite show we have found, are we willing to give it up? If not, then we
might squash the message that He is trying to reveal to us in whatever way he
chooses. We may end up being blind to it. What if He calls us to give up quite
a number of things? Do we trust Him to fill our lives with fulfillment of a
different kind? Jesus teaches that the
Father wants to fill that hole that we have in our lives. If we just empty
ourselves from sinful behavior out of obedience but do not allow God to fill
that hole, then we are doomed to fall back into temptation. And before we know
it, we might end up eating poop.
