For athletes to succeed at their chosen sports, they must make every effort to train their bodies for competition. They practice regularly, exercise, eat healthy and get plenty of sleep. Every facet of their lives must become oriented toward their goal if they will excel.
I wonder why so many people are willing to submit themselves entirely to a pursuit of physical fitness while denying themselves any spiritual nourishment?
We are overwhelmingly insecure about how food affects our bodies but ignorant about how the content we consume through media fattens our souls. Spiritual formation is no different than physical formation in that it is inevitable. The body of a couch potato is being formed by his laziness just as much as the body of an Olympic marathon runner who practices every day. Likewise, healthy spiritual fitness takes time, effort, training and intentionality. But the reward is far greater than any physical training ever could be, and apathy is a more severe threat.
We should treat media consumption like a diet. Just as food affects our body, the media we consume also forms our soul. Who are we becoming? Like all our habits, our media habits should be carefully crafted based on our answer to this critical question. For the Christian, our habits should be shaped in imitation and pursuit of the living Christ.
How might this manifest itself in our day-to-day lives? In my previous essay, I argued that following Jesus demands that we learn to self-monitor the content we consume because that content will shape the substance of our lives.
Disciples of Jesus should not consume gratuitous sexual or violent content because of the way it dehumanizes men and women — objectifies their bodies for the sake of personal pleasure. Instead, the media we take in should highlight the humanity of the individuals portrayed.
Disciples of Jesus should seek to consume media that helps them set their minds on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable….” We look for stories that open our eyes to fresh perspectives, honest critiques, and spiritual truths. It is like a hunt for the treasure of immeasurable worth — we seek what we want to become.
That is the case for the content we consume and the mediums through which we consume that content. It’s almost like putting on a prescriptive pair of glasses that is not your prescription — the lens will reshape your eye. The mediums we use to focus our attention tend to reshape our vision of the world. A society obsessed with film tends to prefer giving their attention to entertaining individuals even if they have nothing substantive to offer intellectually, politically or spiritually.
Disciples of Jesus should rely most on mediums central to what it means to be human. The danger with immersive technologies is that they demand nothing from us — we are prevented from becoming active participants in the practice of worship. In other words, for the Jesus-follower, in an age determined to transcend the body through technology, we, like Christ himself, ought to practice embodiment.
Finally, it is also essential to consider when and how often we use media. Healthy boundaries communicate to others that we value their time and attention. What am I saying to those around me when I walk to class with headphones in my ears? Or when I pull out my phone in the middle of an important discussion with my friend? Why am I unable to sleep without my phone beside me?
Do not play worship music every time you sit down to pray. Bask in the silence, in the joys of your humanity, in the presence of God in all of creation. In silence, we are connected to reality. Learn to love life in its truest form.
It is my conviction that while the world seeks to escape via media, the church should in all things pursue connection — with the beauty in the world, with each other, but ultimately with God. To take on self-imposed disciplines in our media use might make us irrelevant. But what good is relevance if it leads us into a fire?
Let us start a parade leading to the cross, for we are promised life there!