Eternal Screen Time

We live in a media saturated world. By some estimates more than one billion images are uploaded each day on social media and that doesn’t include the millions of hours of video uploaded each day. Then there are the additional hours of television shows and movies available for streaming. Woven into all of this are millions of ads trying to grab our attention and influence us every day.

All this media isn’t necessarily bad. There is plenty of Christian content in the mix. It’s more about our choices and how we let all this media impact our lives. 1 John 2:16 warns us, “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” Jesus reminded us in Luke 11:34, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness.”

So how much of your screen time includes the eternal? Filling our eyes and minds with a healthy dose of scripture helps us to discern the eternal from the temporal. We become better oriented toward God’s will for our lives and not earthly desires that leave us feeling empty. It’s hard to imagine that all those billions of uploaded images and videos will soon be forgotten and eventually pass away. 1 John 2:17 reminds us, “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. – Ephesians 1:18

© 2019 CGThelen