Balancing Faith and Media in a World of Unlimited Options
I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. Psalm 101:3 ESV
Like many Americans, I love consuming media. When I wake up in the morning I listen to news podcasts. I read a book during my commute to and from work. I check my social media and email accounts multiple times throughout the day. In the evening I catch up on a television show while eating dinner. Finally, I’m back on the internet before I go to bed. Being in the know at all times can be informative and entertaining but it can also be draining. It takes up all of my time, so much so that sometimes I forget to pray and thank God for being alive.
Barnabas Piper once stated that “media steals from us, if we let it… sometimes we’re so consumed by all these things that we see that we forget the God that we serve”. Piper is correct, media primarily steals time away from us. In fact a 2018 Nielsen survey found that the average American spends almost half a day, 11 hours and 6 minutes, consuming media. Most of our time is wasted watching television, browsing the internet on a smartphone, and listening to the radio.
Why do we spend so much time consuming media? For many it can be a form of escapism. One minute you are in the real world the next you are exploring Westeros or Wakanda. News junkies like myself strive to be more informed because we think it makes us responsible citizens. As a result we end up subscribing to all the various breaking news alerts on our smartphones so we know about every latest happening. These alerts keep us informed but can also distract us from our daily practices of talking to a loved one, reading, praying, and meditating. These constant interruptions can leave us frustrated and mentally exhausted, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
I have come to realize that there is more to life than what entertains and informs us.
Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman ask the following question in their book The Daily Stoic: “How much more rested and present would you feel if you were no longer excited and outraged by every scandal, breaking story, and potential crisis (many of which never come to pass anyway)?” The answer obviously is more rested and present. This leads to the next question we must ask which is: are we comfortable being oblivious on issues that don’t matter? I believe most people will answer “Yes” but if we’re honest with ourselves it’s actually “No”. How many times have we said “I will not go on social media or check CNN today” just to find ourselves scrolling away an hour later? I do it all the time. Sometimes I feel insecure when I don’t know something but I have come to realize that there is more to life than what entertains and informs us.
At this point you are probably thinking that all media is bad and that you need to extricate yourself from it completely. Wrong! Yes, media steals from us but it can also add to us. As Christians we must reflect on whether our media consumption is helping or hurting us in our faith journey. Our faith in God is something we need to invest more time in. Reducing our media consumption can help but we can also find media that can assist in developing our faith. What are some ways we can substitute our current media consumption for something more spiritually substantial? Three Christians give us three different ways on how to do this:
1. Deep Reading: Philip Yancey states, “Christians especially need that sheltering space [an environment for deep reading], for quiet meditation is one of the most important spiritual disciplines.”
Yancey is right. Most of my reading is done on a noisy train/bus during my commute to work. I rarely read in the quiet of my residence but it is an amazing experience when I do. My mind is clearer, less susceptible to distraction, and I get more out of reading in this environment. I have been blessed by having a “sheltering space” to read great works by authors such as Austin Channing Brown, Peter Enns, and the late Marcus Borg. But I don’t stop there; once I finish reading those books I record any pieces of wisdom from the work into a commonplace book, which I re-read occasionally for inspiration and solace.
2. Communing with Nature: When reminiscing about his days in seminary, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, “I made it a practice to go out to the edge of campus every afternoon for at least an hour to commune with nature…My friend, in this experience, I saw God. I saw him in the birds of the air, the leaves of the tree, the movement of the rippling waves…”
I’m not much of a nature person. Most of my interaction with nature is when I go outside in order to go to work and come back home. I do it because I have to not because I want to. King’s quote not only shows us the importance of making time to get out in nature but to also commune with it. If we go into the woods or visit a lake and are still checking our smartphones then we are missing King’s point. Communing with God and nature allows us to leave the problems of the moment behind us and to be ever more present with the divine.
3. Being Fully Present with Others: Annie Downs writes, “God asks us to love others the way He loved us. Loving others means being present with them in their pain, being present with them in their joy. It means being all there”.
By being fully present we can rejoice in their thanksgiving, mourn in their sorrow, and provide guidance and support in their time of need.
Have you ever been in deep conversation with someone who is listening to you one minute and then on their phones the next? Have you ever been the distracted person when an acquaintance is recounting a challenge they experienced? If you’ve lived long enough then you have been both the distracted and the friend who has been frustrated with the distracted person. Downs is telling us that we can’t be fully present to others joy or pain when we are distracted by every non-life and death interruption. By being fully present we can rejoice in their thanksgiving, mourn in their sorrow, and provide guidance and support in their time of need.
These three suggestions are just a few ways we can grow more spiritually. I personally have made it a practice to listen to more Christian podcasts and read at least one Christian theology book throughout the year. I’m working on communing more with nature and on putting my phone away. It’s hard, I’m definitely not an expert at this yet, but I have found that when I consume more spiritually oriented media I am more centered, well rested, and closer to God. Now it’s your turn. Make a list of all the forms of media that are “worthless” as David says in Psalm 101:3 and then reduce or limit your exposure to those forms of media. Replace the worthless media with spiritually fulfilling media, you will be thankful that you did.
Thanks to Khalil Williams for editing and reviewing this piece.
