For the first three weeks of the year, Lindsey and I are joining many at Evergreen in fasting and prayer. As well as showing solidarity with the church and hoping to see the fruits of the fast on a macro scale, we both also have hopes for our personal lives. We decided to fast from T.V. and all that it facilitates, so streaming, movies, games, etc. We both find value in these things so it made sense to sacrifice that entertainment for the fast to honor God. On a more practical level, T.V. serves as a huge distraction and time-sink and we could burn through a whole evening with a show or game and not think much of it. Fasting this hobby would free up plenty of time to replace with reading, prayer, and meaningful conversations with each other.
I was curious going in to the fast if the T.V. was really the root of the problem, though. Would it automatically be easier to stick to a steady regimen of time with God without the screen as a distraction, or would I naturally fill the void with something else? The truth, it turns out, is a little of both.
The other main hobby I partake in, reading fiction, pretty quickly filled that void. The medium of the novel is inherently more resistable, however, than Netflix; where you have just under five seconds to decide if you want to keep watching your show before it puts on the next episode for you, so it hasn’t been as difficult to put whatever I’m reading (first Return of the King, now No Country for Old Men for the curious) and pick up the Bible. That is to say nothing of my phone, which has been a harder habit to shake and arguably more of a distraction than without the bigger screen to outshine it.
What this confirmed, then, is that the technology wasn’t the problem. Sure boredom and less addictive technology are more conducive to regular prayer and scripture reading, but the tendency to fill my time with as many distractions as possible is in my heart. T.V. was the most convenient symptom for the issues of my heart to manifest themselves in.
My new hypothesis is that this is part of our sin nature, or the enemy’s strategy, or both, to keep us away from communing with our God. Because the time I have been giving to Him changed my day to day almost immediately, and it isn’t even as much time as I had hoped. That is the power of the Spirit, and of the beautiful truths of Scripture; that their mere exposure can set off lasting joy in my heart.