Our Addiction to Entertainment

“We were made for wonder, but we’ve settled for entertainment. God built us to crave true, fulfilling joy. But for many of us, that God-given craving for heart satisfaction has driven us past God Himself, who was meant to be the fulfillment of those desires, toward a drug that dulls the ache of dissatisfaction and disappointment but never truly fulfills us.

I have a new purse that still makes me a little happy when I look at it. It is okay if I spend some money on a purse—and I did spend a bit too much on it. But it’s not necessarily a sin to spend too much on a new purse.

The sin is that I think it is going to satisfy some craving in me, apart from Jesus.

We’ve traded the wonder and satisfaction of a deep relationship with our Creator for Netflix, social media, and a new purse.”

Jennie Allen in her book “Nothing to Prove”.

What if our social media addiction and overconsumption of TV shows is just a symptom of a deeper root cause: the lack of a close relationship with God in our lives? I can not count the amount of times that I have used entertainment to escape my negative feelings. TV shows are my favorite escape. The last thing I want to do when I’m having a bad day or when I’m arguing with my husband is seek God’s counsel. I don’t want to spend time with God when I’m feeling angry or disappointed. It’s always so tempting to just escape for awhile and binge watch TV or spend a few hours on social media.

This is what I’ve learned so far: binge-watching TV feels good for a little while, but sooner or later I will have to face reality again. I often end up feeling even worse when I escape my problems through entertainment, because once I must face reality again I haven’t gained any wisdom. It’s hard to turn to God when I’m angry, sad or disappointed but every time I choose Him over entertainment I end up being grateful that I did. There have been multiple times when I’ve argued with my husband that I’ve gotten exactly the wisdom I needed when I’ve chosen to turn to prayer instead of TV.  

The biggest reason I want to choose TV over prayer when I’ having a bad day is because TV offers amusement but God offers truth. Sometimes I come to God in prayer saying something like this: “God I’m having a bad day, I need your help. Did you see the way my husband was talking to me when we argued? He’s being an idiot!” God’s answer often sounds something like this: “Are you being respectful, kind and loving in your actions right now? No. I’m going to need you to be the first one to say sorry. Don’t worry about your husband. You need to focus on your part in this argument.” Do you see why I’d rather choose to binge-watch TV? The truth stings sometimes. When I choose to escape reality through entertainment I can continue to be stubborn and full of pride. When I seek God’s counsel through prayer it’s impossible to not be humbled.

Never talk bad about your spouse in public

Jeff and Alyssa talk about why it's important to commit to never talking bad about your spouse in public. We see this type of behavior a lot in movies and TV shows, it makes great entertainment on TV but in real life it will create an atmosphere of death in your marriage rather than an atmosphere of life. Our words are so powerful, we can choose to either speak life or to speak death into our relationship.

No matter who we marry our spouse will have things about them that irritates us, but gossiping about these things with friends will not make things better. Jeff and Alyssa suggest that we talk to our spouse about the things that bothers us rather than to complain about our spouse with others. It's also a great idea to have an older married couple to talk to and get marriage advice from. You can both agree on a couple that can become your marriage mentors. This couple will become the people you always go to with your struggles when you are in need of outside advice. Your marriage mentors will be a safe place to ask questions, talk about your issues and receive wisdom because you know that this couple is for you and want your marriage to succeed.

Everything is Going to Be Okay

I love the videos by youtuber "LeahsEssence". Leah's videos are positive, encouraging and filled with wisdom. Leah doesn't just do Vlogs about her faith but she also makes videos about beauty and lifestyle. This video focuses on what we can do to overcome difficulties in our lives. Leah shares her best tips for how we can stay strong when the storms hit us in life.

Community

Today we had our Women Connect meeting at church and it was a very encouraging and empowering experience. We currently have women from three different generations in my group and I love the insight and wisdom that I'm able to receive from these women. Sadly our modern society doesn't seem to value wisdom from older generations that much anymore. I find that outside of my own family the church is the only place where I've found it easy to connect with people from many different generations. I've met many wise older women in my church whose advice has been very encouraging to me. I've also met people ten years younger than me in church who are much more mature than me.


The cool thing is that when we get together in a church community God is able to use all our different backgrounds and past struggles to help and encourage everyone. When I share how God helped me overcome one of my biggest struggles in the past my story can encourage somebody else who might be going through a similar struggle. It's amazing to witness how God can use your story for good if you just let him. My story can't help anyone if I keep it a secret. When I choose to get vulnerable with others my story can be used for something greater. It's powerful what God can do through a community of believers.


Women Connect is wonderful but I don't think every church has gatherings like these, what most churches do have is Life Groups. There are many different types of Life Groups; Couples groups, Women's groups, Men's groups, Young adults groups etc. One of my New Year's resolutions was to focus more on community in 2017 so at the beginning of the year I joined a fairly new Life Group for women in their twenties and thirties. We have so much fun at my Life Group and I love the wisdom, encouragement and help that these women offer me every week. Life Groups are also a great way for each Christian to "love their neighbor". We can't help our community if we never make time to hang out with other Christians. When we gather together weekly we get to share in each other's struggles and lift each other up.


Another thing I love about my Life Group is that we just randomly happen to be from very different cultural backgrounds which adds perspective and new insights about life. We are currently five women in my Life Group and our cultural backgrounds are: Finland, Korea, The Philippines, Barbados and Guiana. Our church is very multicultural so our groups tend to have a really fun mix of people. I love it!

Wisdom for Life

I love what the internet can add to life during this special time in history. Every week I'm strengthened and encouraged by the wisdom shared by my pastors at my church in Toronto. Thanks to the internet and Youtube I also have access to sermons from churches all over the world. I'm grateful that I get to live during this exciting time in history! This week I thought I would share the links to seven different churches that I follow online and on their Youtube channels:

1. Elevation Church, in North Carolina, Virginia & Ontario, Canada.
http://elevationchurch.org


2. Fresh Life Church in Montana & Utah.
http://freshlife.church/


3. Oasis Church in Los Angeles, California.
http://www.oasisla.org/


4. Vous Church in Miami, Florida.
http://vouschurch.com/


5. Life Church in Oklahoma, New York, Florida, Tennessee, Kansas, Texas & New Mexico. https://www.life.church/


6. Hillsong Church in Australia, Europe, North America, South Africa & Argentina.
http://hillsong.com/


7. Life Church UK in England, Ireland and Poland.
http://www.lifechurchhome.com/

The Word

The Word of God gives me peace and wisdom, it anchors my soul on days when I feel stressed, confused, insecure or worried. Here are three of my favorite passages from my Bible readings this week:

For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Zephaniah 3:17 NLT

How great is the goodness you have stored up for those who fear you. You lavish it on those who come to you for protection, blessing them before the watching world. You hide them in the shelter of your presence, safe from those who conspire against them. You shelter them in your presence, far from accusing tongues.

Psalm 31:19-20 NLT

The LORD says, "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you."

Psalm 32:8 NLT

Coming Home

Pastor Charlotte Gambill from Life Church in the United Kingdom teaches a sermon about God's house, the church. Many of us can sometimes find ourselves spiritually homeless, we are lost and drifting around in life. Sometimes we are lost because we don't know that God even exists but other times we are drifting because we have a consumer attitude towards the church. We come to church with a check list and if the church doesn't live up to all our expectations on it we will move on to another church. We might stay in one church for awhile but when we start to disagree on something with other people within the church we quit and move on. We are looking for a perfect church and we will never find it, just like we will never find a perfect person to marry. God's house, the church, is filled with imperfect broken people seeking God so it's always going to be an imperfect place.


I sometimes hear people say "I'm a Christian but I don't need a church, other Christians annoy me so I don't want to go to church." The problem with us deciding to love God but to avoid his people is that one of God's main commands for us is to love each other. God isn't calling us to love only those who agree with us on everything, who have the same hobbies as us and have the same priorities in life.


It is difficult to love people who are different than us. We are drawn to people who are exactly like us because loving them takes less effort. Loving people who are different than us takes effort, maturity and commitment. We are always tempted to quit a romantic relationship when it gets difficult rather than to stay and figure things out, the same way we can be tempted to quit church every time we disagree with others on something or feel like the church isn't living up to all our personal preferences.


Sometimes God calls us to move, to leave a relationship or a church and go somewhere else, but often he calls us to stay. It is very tempting to quit when life gets uncomfortable. Staying planted in one place can be one of the most difficult things in life but it's also one of the things that will grow us the most. There are some lessons that can not be learned any other way. There are also gifts that God wants to bless us with that he can't send us before we have set our roots down in a church. God knows that without the support, encouragement and wisdom from the church we won't be able to use the gifts well. We were built for community and on our own we can only grow so much. God chose people to be his hands and feet on Earth, we will not flourish in isolation.


God's house is the church and it can become the place where we belong, a place where we learn, get help, advise and wisdom, but if we keep looking for the perfect church we will never find it. God's aim is to transform our hard hearts and to make us more and more like Jesus, this will definitely be an uncomfortable ride at times. Life outside of our comfort zones can be difficult, scary and very inconvenient at times, but those who decide to stay planted will experience a growth that they would not have been able to attain any other way.

4x7: Sheri Fogel

Life is filled with choices that we need to make, and sometimes we get ourselves in trouble because we don't know what advice we should listen to. Our society is filled with voices telling us what to do and what choice we should make. We also have different voices in our own head, some are for us and others haunt us. It's not always easy to know what voice we should listen to when we need to make a decision. Sheri Fogel shares an example from her own life where she made a foolish choice and teaches us how we can know the difference between wisdom and lies.

Use what you have

In this world there is a lot of options, more options than ever before in history. When we try to decide what we should do with our lives it’s easy to get confused and a little lost. Should I have picked another education? Is this the right job for me? Did I ruin my future when I didn’t take that opportunity I had last year? Should I move somewhere else?

As a Christian I want to be sure I don’t waste my life, but how do I know what road to pick when I stand at a crossroads? Another difficulty is how do I reach those high goals I have set up for myself when this is where I am today? How do I go from here to there? When you are confused about what to do with your life and how to get from where you are to where you need to be wisdom is needed.

Steven Furtick has written an awesome book called “Greater: Dream bigger. Start smaller. Ignite God’s vision for your life.” Furtick writes about how we won’t all live great lives as rich and famous people, it’s just not how this world works. Everybody can’t be super successful at the office. On the other hand we don’t have to get stuck in a life of boredom and complacency either, we are meant for more than that. We are meant to live a life with passion, purpose and vision. We can all live a greater life. We can’t all be great (like Beethoven or Michelangelo) but we can all live a life that is greater.

The greater life starts with using what you have. Even if you don’t have a lot of money or special talent you do have something you can use. We all have something, because we were all wonderfully made. It’s easy to get stuck focusing on what we don’t have and miss what’s right in front of us, what we can do. The thing is, as Furtick writes: “you have everything you need to do all that God is calling you to do right now.”

The first thing we need to do is take inventory of what we have. What do you have in your life right now?  How much money and skill do you have right now? Stop dreaming about where you wish you were or what you wish you had and put what you have to work. Whatever you bring to the table God can easily multiply. If you bring nothing, nothing will happen.

Another good thing to remember is that our greatest limitations is God’s greatest opportunity. If we decide to do our small part we give God an opportunity to show up and do His great part. When we are ready to step outside of our comfortable but mundane lifestyles it’s easy to get stuck in the “if…then”-mentality. If I just had more money, then I would follow that dream I’ve always had. If I knew for sure that it would work out, then I would take the next step. If I just had more time, then I would do it.

Steven Furtick suggests another way for us to view our lives. If God wanted us to have a particular skill, we would have it. If God wanted us to have more time or money don’t you think He would have given it to us? So if we don’t have it maybe He doesn’t want us to have it right now, maybe what He wants for us is to work what we have.

Many times in life we need to learn how to handle little, before we are ready to handle the responsibility that comes with having plenty. Furtick suggests that instead of praying “God, please give me more” dare to pray “God please use what I have, and make it overflow.”