Recently, at work, I went to supper expecting to watch the
evening news on the break room television. The television was turned off and everyone in the room was
looking down. No one was talking
to anyone. They were all focused
on their personal devices: iPhones, iPads, Kindles, etc. I did not want to be rude and to
disturb them, so I did not turn on the television.
None of them looked up or acknowledged that I had entered
the room; they were each in their own little world, shut off from everything and
everyone else around them.
One was
reading Facebook posts.
Another
was playing a
TETRIS-like game in which the falling items were various
pieces of candy.
On another night, the other person in the room was already
watching a rerun of the comedy series
Seinfeld instead of the news.
Seinfeld can be hilarious, but the
creators and actors involved with the series have been totally honest in
declaring that it is “a television show about nothing.”
There is nothing inherently wrong with games, social media,
or funny television programs, but they can become “wrong”when they are used as
shelters, What all of these people
had in common was that they were “escaping.” They were withdrawing into comfortable little corners where
the world could not touch them. None of them was curious at all about what was going on in
the outside world.
I had object proof of this one night when I did have the
televison set on the evening news.
There was a story about the dedication ceremony of our new hospital
building. One of my co-workers
inquired, “Who is that man?” The
man was the governor of the state in which we live.
Christians are not immune to this. I understand and agree with the separatist impulse among
conservative Christians. Indeed,
we are told to be in the world but not of the world and to come out from among
them. We are told to be holy
(meaning separated for God) because God is holy. (Leviticus 11:44, 19:2, Isaiah 52:11, James 4:4, 2 Corinthians 6:17, 1 Peter 1:6)
Some Christians make the mistake of carrying this to such extremes that they remove
themselves from any meaningful involvement in the outside world. They use the church and church activities as an escape. This, in effect, removes them
from many opportunities to share the Gospel. We have been told to go into all the world and to spread
the Gospel to all nations. We are
also told to be aware of what is going on around us: to be as wise as serpents
but as gentle as doves. (Mark 16:15, Matthew 10:16)
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