Distractions

One of my favorite pastors, Rob Tombrella preached a great sermon yesterday. He talked about Psalm 19 and the supreme value of God's Word. The Psalm says that God's Word is worth much fine gold. It brought to bear some tough questions about how much I really value the very words of my Father.

The personal application for me was a tough evaluation of the media and entertainment that I devour on a daily basis. Television, newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, books, Bible - - - there is the opportunity to take in information from a lot of different sources. And the importance of the knowledge that comes from those sources must be carefully measured. I fear that I invest too much time in reading "twaddle", when vast mountains of divine wisdom are available. It reminds me of this CS Lewis quote:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of
the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not
too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and
sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on
making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a
holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

So I will be evaluating my magazine subscriptions, the number of blogs that I read, the movies that I watch, and even the books that I read. I must devote more time to reading and knowing the Scriptures. I may have an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, but perhaps I have been too easily pleased.....