Premeire Week and The Glory of God

While a large percentage of my TV viewing is dedicated to Sports and Fox News, I also watch a couple of shows/sitcoms. The past couple of weeks mark the premiere of several TV shows that I will tune in for. Among them are House, CSI: Miami, and Raising The Bar. 6 months ago I saw a Facebook group started that was counting down the days until Sept. 25th - the Season Premiere of The Office.

Now, I enjoy TV shows. My wife and I have used our DVR extensively so that when we put the baby/toddler to bed we can stay up and enjoy our shows together. One area where I nonchalantly just seem to ignore is discernment in watching. Now, I am not saying here to shut your TV's off or become super legalistic and go and bash your TV like a computer in Office Space, but what I would like to encourage is discernment. How can I watch this show and at the same time glorify God? That, I believe, is a great question to ask yourself. Most of the time, I believe, I have said things such as, "I'm not using that language or speech, or I'm not committing adultery like that person on screen, so it's no big deal. I can still watch it and not be affected by it" I'm convinced that this is not a good level of discernment. In fact, I believe it is a pretty poor level of discernment if that is how I and maybe you think.

In the book Worliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World (Crossway, 2008, p.67) it says "We can watch TV and glorify God by it. To do so, we must be motivated by grace, and we must view selectively, proactively, accounatably, and gratefully.....For most of us, applying biblical discernment and viewing with discretion will mean watching less than we currently do. But that's no great loss. It means more time to interact with actual people - a date with your spouse, talk-time or play-time with your children, fellowship with friends, serving people in your church, or reaching out to non-believers. There's a world of things to do with the TV turned off."

Now, with that said - we still can watch TV - we may just have to readjust what we watch or how long/how much time we devote to it. I mean how many times does a dude really need to watch SportsCenter?