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How TV Affects Your Child: “its advantages, too much television can be detriment”

It’s way too easy to plop our kids in front of the TV. With our newborn and third child in the house, we’ve been doing this more often with our 5 and 3 year old. They’ve also gotten into pbskids.org and are constantly asking to be on the computer. Of course screen time has it’s positive advantages.  We can thank LeapFrog’s Letter Factory for helping our oldest learn her alphabet sounds and launch her into reading.  But too much screen time can reach a point of diminishing returns. No matter what, engagement with a window of light means a lack of human-to-human engagement, which is always by far the best life tool there is.  My wife and I even get sucked into the trap of vegging on the couch when we could be doing something a little more enlightening or relationship building.

Perhaps I need to get back on my Boycott TV kick.  Hmmm.  In my opinion, we’d all be better off if we trashed recycled our TVs.  I’m definitely preaching to myself as well since my wife and I love watching TV on hulu.com and rent movies all the time.

I’ll close with the lyrics from the song “Throw it all Away” from one of my all time favorite groups, Toad the Wet Sprocket:

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Throw It All Away
Lyrics by Glen Phillips.

take your cautionary tales
take your incremental gain
and all the sychophantic games
and throw ’em all away

burn your tv in your yard
and gather ’round it with your friends
and warm your hands upon the fire
and start again

take the story you’ve been sold
the lies that justify the pain
the guilt the weighs upon your soul
and throw ’em all away

tear up the calendar you bought
and throw the pieces to the sky
confetti falling down like rain
like a parade to usher in your life

take the dreams that should’ve died
the ones that kept your life awake
when you should’ve been all right
and throw ’em all away

with the time i waste on the life i never had
i could’ve turned myself into a better man

’cause there ain’t nothing you can buy
there is nothing you can save
to fill the hole inside your heart
so throw it all away
won’t fill the hole inside your heart

help me to empty out this house
all i’ve gathered all these days
and thought i couldn’t do without
and throw it all away

Ok, since I’ve started a theme here, I’ll throw in my last personal anecdote about homeless people.  I’ll then be all out and have to go out and create some more stories.

There’s a friend of mine, Tim, who works in Cincinnati.  Tim was regularly going through a certain part of town and started noticing these homeless people.  Out of compassion and Godly obedience, he felt he needed to do something for them so he started bringing them PB&J sandwiches.  He even got his Home Group involved.  Over time he developed relationships with these people and began to learn of other needs such as the need for gloves and sleeping bags.  We (our church) decided to do a video piece on his ministry.  Our media director was unavailable to shoot the footage so he asked me.

I travelled with Tim to Cincinnati and though I was behind the camera, I was able to meet some of Tim’s friends and interact with them.  One of the women was very grateful for the sleeping bags and said “We would have froze to death last night if you hadn’t brought us those sleeping bags”.  I remember sitting on the sidewalk with these folks as people in business attire walked by on the far side of the sidewalk.  I got a glimpse of homeless life. These people I met weren’t mentally ill (yes, some are).  They just fell on hard times and never recovered.

I have to tell you something.  When I think of that day, it makes so many things in my life seem like a useless wast of time.  Fortunately for my conscience, I keep busy enough to not think about people in dire need. You know, like changing the channel with sponsor-a-child commercials come on.  So I don’t feel so bad about wasting my money on coffee and wasting my time on YouTube.

But I have to ask myself as a church leader – even as a Worship Leader.  What is the point of all of this – church, sermons, worship experiences, home groups, etc., if we are not bringing peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches to homeless people?  Or if we are not inviting our shut-in neighbor over for dinner because he probably hasn’t had a conversation with a friend for 3 months.  Or if our hearts don’t break for every person we know of who is trapped in a dead-end life with no hope because they don’t know Jesus.

Like I said in my post about Jacob, in the moments of interaction with those homeless people, I felt God with me like no where else.  Wouldn’t that  make sense that God would be hanging out around these people in need just waiting for a Christian who is not so busy downloading the newest Chris Tomlin CD or writing a blog, to show up and offer their hands and feet for God to use?

How many homeless do you suppose die each day without notice of anyone but the local police?  My step-sister Gretchen may be able to give us the figure in L.A. where she’s studying social work.    I remember when Tim’s friend, Carl, died of cancer.  Tears were shed for him.  Hearts were broken for him.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s around, does it make a sound?

This is just a follow up anecdote to my recent post on the homeless guy.

A few months ago I was on my way to the office from a weekly breakfast meeting at the downtown Panera Bread.  As I was approaching the on ramp, I slowed down to a red light. I spotted a young, dirty and disheveled man panhandling and I quickly realized I would be stopping right next to him at the light. I did my quick visual assessment and was disarmed merely by the fact that this guy seemed to be the same age as me. In this situation I’m thankful that I acted without thinking.

I knew I had a few dollars in my pocket from breakfast so I grabbed for it as I started rolling down the window. I handed the young man the few dollars and without thinking asked him his name.  (Now, if you know me, this in itself was an act of God because I don’t initiate conversations with my own Mom let alone homeless strangers.)  He said his name was Jacob. I told him I would pray for him that day. He said thank you. The light changed and I was on my way. The whole interaction was about 15 seconds. That night and for a few days after we prayed for Jacob.

I drove away from that intersection feeling closer to God than I do leaving most worship services. I felt that in that moment God said to me “Yes! You’re getting the idea!” Everything about that moment felt right.

The following week I looked for Jacob and I was all ready with a sack of food from Panera – but he was nowhere to be found. I instantly regretted not going immediately back to Panera to get him some food that day we met.  I’m sure I will never see him again.  I wouldn’t know where to even start looking.

I do, however, know where to go looking for God should I need to find Him.

It’s 1:13 am and I’m holding my infant and we are listening to Steven Delopoulos’s Straightjacket together. The rest of the house is asleep. It’s the perfect music for this moment.