What Goes In, Stays

Several years ago I was listening to the Thru The Bible program on TRW (Trans World Radio).  Now, I have to admit I have always found this program a little naïve at times.  This day he was speaking on - what goes into a person can cause a person to behave in ways he might not otherwise. 

Well, I am a solid Christian and not much is going to change how I am going to act or respond to situations.  How could listening to Blue Oyster Cult or Alice Cooper change my world view or my behavior?  How could words that glorify the world, cause me as a Christian to somehow behave as the world does?  How could watching MTV make me less sensitive to sin?  And, my all time favorite TV show, was somehow separating me from God?  This sounded like utter nonsense to me.  Still, I thought on this over a weekend.

Now certainly there are enough writings in Proverbs and in Corinthians to make someone come up with a Christian opinion to support what this program was saying, but I just did not understand this was any form of truth.  So, I decided I would test this teaching and stop listening to my rock music, stop watching MTV and concentrate on listening to Christian radio while in the car for one month.  Instead of watching TV shows whose viewpoint I already knew was questionable – I switched to only watching old movies.

At the end of one month, I found I knew a whole lot more about the Bible than the previous month and the radio program had been right.  What goes into our bodies – be that by our eyes or ears – does indeed affect our outlook on life and behavior.  I have since found this is true for whatever we concentrate on or make the object of our attention – good or bad.

After six months, I found I could not even watch TV without becoming extremely critical of the sin and anti-God attitude displayed.  I tried to watch Christian TV but honestly, they worship a god I do not know.  As for rock music, well, I guess a lot of the words are really embarrassing from a God-viewpoint.  So, I guess when worship of the drug culture and sex is all you have to sing about or make a joke of on TV, I guess I do not really need to listen or watch.

Movies are certainly a weakness of mine.  As I have grown in my relationship with Christ, I have come to understand that many of the movies in my collection were not very uplifting to God and so are now gone.  There are lots of movies I can watch without burying myself in gory murder and sexual situations – which seems to be the basis of so many films.  And, I could probably lose a few more……

Yes, some of my friends consider me ‘conservative’ or a ‘prude’.  I am actually not either, I am just careful, trying to guard my heart and my mind because I know all too well what I used to be like – even as a Christian.  Maybe when I am in a car I am apt to ask friends to turn their radios off when it is blaring 1960’s drug culture, and I have been known to walk out of a movie and wait for my friends outside.  But, I am answerable to God for what I willingly expose myself to – because that does become the basis for how I live my life and does affect the council I give others.

I sure wish I had Christian parents whom could have taught me this…..