Good Bye TV

Well, after years of casually talking about it, only to always tabling the idea or flatly rejecting it, we got rid of television in our home. I can’t say that it was some higher ideal or noble cause what pushed us to make the dreaded move, though…it was a financial decision. We just couldn’t justify spending about $100.00 a month on a rather wasteful activity.

But as the kids and Dan were outside and I was left in the kitchen alone, I have to admit that it felt weird. First, I wasn’t sure what it was that made it weird…then, I realized it: it was the silence. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve experienced it, and it was just plain strange.

I have to say that even though it was mostly I who always brought up the subject of getting rid of cable/dish or whatever TV we’ve had, now that it has actually happened…I feel a little…lonely. It’s surprising how much company I got from my TV friends. I always had the TV on downstairs. Especially while in the kitchen…which is most of the day, I usually had the TV on to get my mind off the domestic chores I’m not so fond of. HGTV and Hallmark were my trademark channels in this house.

I’m embarrassed to say that I have discovered I was the person who watched the most amount of TV in our household. And I’m the person who misses it the most as well. The kids seem completely fine. Grant already didn’t watch much TV at all. Dylan watches mostly things in Netflix and so does Dan. I can’t believe I was probably the biggest consumer of TV in my little family. I don’t know how many times I caught myself thinking I was going to turn it on while I was cooking, only to remember I can’t. I’ve figured in the short 3 days we’ve lived without it, that I mostly watched TV as a noisy distraction. Now, I guess I have also discovered I don’t like the quiet too much. It makes me feel self-conscious: me and my thoughts…yikes! Scary stuff…

But guess what? God reminds me that:

As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55: 9

Therefore, it is time for me to surrender my thought life to the Lord and seek venues to explore intimacy with Christ that is not interrupted by a mindless distraction…so, why not use those tedious chores I dislike so much to, instead of disconnecting, rather take advantage of the silence to plug back into my source of power, the presence of God in my life.

Maybe I will also finally discover that stillness is truly a gift and that my thoughts don’t need to be as scary as they’ve been so far if I become intentional about re-directing them to the higher thoughts of My Lord. Maybe now I can finally begin to redeem the use of my time.