Last time, we looked at the sorts of things that our hearts tend to do while we are being entertained. It makes sense that, to allow ourselves to be entertained, is an act of worship; worship of whatever entertains us as our desired object. The world has seized on this, and now, especially the West, has entertainment as a central component of their lives and identity. This should not be for us, since our identity is principally in Christ. We should not be ruled by the ebbs and flows of entertainment around us, nor should we indulge in the sinful worship of the world in its wares and entertainments. So, in this devotional, we will be looking at some common directions that our hearts can be pulled. When we are aware of this, we can then seek to remove entertainments that do not honour God, and replace them with what does.
I will lay out some direct examples of our hearts being captivated towards evil for men, women, and children. First, for men, movies are often geared for what men desire to see. For instance, cultivating the desire to see a villain (or any random character) die a brutal death, watch people fighting, careful camera panning of a woman to incite lust, the scant dress of some characters, camera “eyes” of the movie simulating the eyes of an evil heart, and the focus on vanity and vain-glory. Our hearts are manipulated to love certain characters and their traits, to hate others, and to align with the mission and goals of the protagonist, cultivating worldliness. We often try to justify indulging in these things with excuses like, “Well, no one is really getting hurt,” and “This is just pretend,” failing to realize that it is not so much whether or not something is real, but our heart’s response to them. Nudity is real. Lust is real. Desiring violence is the sin of murder. Seeking or desiring vain-glory opposes seeking God’s glory. The stringing along of our hearts into sin by godless plots and worldly desires are real. So is the heart being tempted along in the story in vain, godless pursuits and aims—as if those things are to satisfy us more than God. We are so often ignorant regarding how much the views, themes, and philosophies of the movies are influencing us as well. They work to increasingly nullify the teaching of God in our hearts, and thus make us increasingly unfruitful the more they are embraced.
(This paragraph on women was done in collaboration with my wife). Second, women, from a young age, are indoctrinated into the idea that they must be beautiful on the outside to be worthy of anything, and that a man will then come by to save them from a dull and attention-less life. They crave to be valued and honoured, and the inner rebellion that came right from the Garden of Eden is exploited in almost every book and show and movie targeting women. They teach that women are strong on their own, and that men (especially husbands) are there to support and comfort them, rather than to be submitted to in marriage; and that the beauty of a person’s character will always be reflected in their outer looks and others’ responses to them. Women want to be a part of something greater, but these “entertainments” seek to provide women with a cheap alternative that man (literally men) can fill. Think: Hallmark movies, romance novels (including Amish ones!), Disney princesses, Instagram, and so on. The craving to have attention given to them, especially male attention, is pandered to, and is treated as if it actually fulfills a female’s true needs and desires. (This is in opposition to our true satisfaction in our hearts in what God wills or desires of us). For example, in a marriage, a woman may wonder, “Why doesn’t my husband do ____? Men in novels always do,” or “My friend’s husband does ______, why doesn’t mine?” and then women begin to begrudge and envy each other, and begin building resentment against their husband for not being the perfect “prince” all their books/shows/movies portray. Along the lines of outer beauty, a young woman (or even older ones), may seek to use their body to draw the attention of a man, thinking that men being drawn to her body will always lead to interest in her as a person. In popular entertainment, the connection between outer and inner beauty are equated, rather than being separate factors. Women are also often scared of many things, and so desire to have some power over them. However, being weaker physically, entertainment often teaches them to use their bodies to manipulate those around them into giving them what they desire. They may walk in fear alone in the dark, or check every corner of their house if they live alone, but put them in a group of people and they will flaunt their bodies and seek to gather positive attention in order to gain bargaining power over them. These are just some examples of what entertainment draws their hearts to do, producing in them strong covetous desires for certain kinds of attention and control. Our modern entertainments teach the opposite of how a woman is to be (see 1 Pet. 3:1-6 for a godly woman).
Third, for children, we may think that most of what they watch is innocent fun. However, we do not often realize how much we are training their hearts to likewise yearn and lust after the things of the world. First of all, children’s shows (and books) are far too often designed to get children addicted. They have high-octane characters who have extreme expressions and always seem to have something extreme going on. This produces a strong craving for that level of excitement. These shows quickly become their daily highlights (electronic games or apps are designed to be the same way), taking away much of their interest from anything outside these things (aside, perhaps, from sports and other games). So, their hearts come to crave vain excitement, rather than to crave pleasing God or reading His Word. Furthermore, with this level of excitement, the objects of these excitements that kids are drawn to are incredibly vain, teaching them that this is what life is all about. Adult themes, philosophies, and ways of thinking, are then so often injected into that vanity, much like teaching children to crave garbage that is contrary to the moderation, self-discipline, and love of God and others. This is a powerful influence on our children, and their shows can (and do) easily influence them into whatever they want. We may think that what they watch or play is harmless fun, but what we need to realize is that, like us, their hearts are strung along in whatever current they watch for entertainment. Our hearts are perpetual idol factories. We will be held accountable by God for whatever we allow them to consume, and we are thus responsible for their resulting addictions and cravings for these things. How many times, for instance, have I seen children drawn to an MTV type lifestyle (think, for instance, of Sing 1 or 2), or teach that parents are dumb oafs or are not needed (as if children are sufficient of themselves for their life and choices), or that one’s emotions and desires ought to guide our decisions (not rational thought or wisdom), or that trivial matters are of the utmost importance (eclipsing God), or that swearing (treating God as common or vain) or wicked sub-cultures are acceptable or even good, or all that matters is having fun, despite all the consequences or evils committed in the process? These are no small things. These entertainments carefully cultivate and seek to produce wickedness in the hearts of our children. We should not be surprised, then, if much of their play seeks to reproduce the situations or views of their entertainments (emulating them). Play is designed by God to help children to adjust and assimilate to everyday reality, which, in turn, should help them to develop into mature adults. However, when the content of their play is often spent reproducing their entertainments and vanities, it should then be no surprise when they grow more and more into vain persons. That is what we are often filling them with, teaching them that such is what life is actually all about. It is a counter-education system to God’s. So, in many ways, their entertainments are no less evil than our own. If anything, their impressionability can, in a number of ways, actually make it worse.
Taste and see that the Lord is good! All this “entertainment” is just refined sugar. Our culture is to entrenched in sugary foods that we’ve lost our taste for real food. In the same way, we keep trying to satisfy ourselves and our hunger with all these “sugar” entertainments that lead only to high spikes and deep lows, and the destruction of our bodies. However, it is only when we remove these “refined sugars” wholesale that we begin to get back our taste for what is real. Only then can we get a true taste for the wonderful sweetness of honey, fruit, and whole food. We can taste honey and fruit all we want, but if we hadn’t removed our refined sugars, then they won’t taste as wonderful and sweet. So, trust this process. It may feel like you will lose all your energy and not be able to keep going with all the stresses of life without your sugar, but once you take it away, you will begin to see how wonderful focusing on God is, and you will begin to get a bad taste in your mouth when you try going back to the sugar. It will make you nauseous. Try it and see! My wife and I did this for a couple years, and then we slowly introduced back some entertainments without the blindness to it that we had while we were still immersed in it. We did not know how depraved much of what we (and our kids) were watching. We now have a better taste for things that honour God.
Please meditate on these things and assess your own entertainments to see just where your heart—and the hearts of your loved ones—is being led. In the next devotional, you should keep close what was taught in this devotional, since what we will be exploring next time are some common examples of the philosophies and trajectories in popular entertainment.