From The Desk Episode 1
Hi! This is Kuya BJ, SOULΔiers' Youth Pastor.
From The Desk (henceforth shall be known as #FTD) is where we tackle about small issues as well as big ones in the light of being a SOULΔier of Jesus Christ. To jump start, I want to talk about something that I learned these past few days.
In this day and age, anyone can call him/herself a CONSUMER. We practically take in everything fed us: Facebook statuses, Twitter updates, Tumblr posts, really catchy music and trends. Never in the history of man have we had such enormous access to information, detail and entertainment. There is so much to read, to say and to watch even 3 year old kids sleep late at night these days. I slept at around 9 PM when I was young. That was mandatory and I didn't have any trouble with that. Today, everyone has trouble sleeping because of the smorgasbord of information that's almost always delivered to us in very alluring ways we just can't resist them anymore.
The big question: Aren't we supposed to shun everything that this world offers us?
The answer: No and Yes.
No, we can't shun everything that this world offers us because that's practically impossible. To be able to avoid being exposed to any form of media is a feat only the dead people can perform. It's inevitable. It's everywhere.
And that's where the Yes comes in. We are supposed to shun all these things. One way I can think of how to illustrate this is when I had the opportunity to go outside my country and temporarily live in another. I never enjoyed watching local television in those parts. I didn't pay attention to the billboards. I stopped trying to listen to local radio. It was because I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND A THING. If we treat everything that does not speak of Christ in the world as something totally foreign to our nature as citizens of the Kingdom (Eph. 2:19), we won't have trouble getting distracted at all. If we resolve to filter everything that does not help us in our goal of becoming like Christ, we will discover how simple our lives were meant to be.
As His ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20) here on earth, we were never called to become citizens of this world. No ambassador in his right mind would change his citizenship to that of the country to which he was assigned because that would cost him his job. If a Philippine ambassador to the US is sent to the US, he stays Filipino even if he was living in United States soil. In the same way, we are called to be IN this world and NOT OF this world. We are Christ's ambassadors, called to tell the world about His love and encourage others to become His beloved ambassadors too.
PUTTING IT IN PRACTICE: List everything that you follow, watch and listen to, may they be on the internet or in local TV and radio channels. Prayerfully assess if each item on your list helps you or even hinders you in your walk with the Lord. Trim your list accordingly. :)