Daily Devo - Sunday, August 19, 2007

"Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool,
but wisdom is pleasure
to a man of understanding."
Proverbs 10:23 (ESV)

I love watching movies. I don't really watch much TV (actually, I almost never do). However, I'm always up for a family friendly video, an old-fashion Western, or even a contemporary action movie.

Yet, over the past several years I've noticed something happening to me as I watch movies. Simply put, there are many types of movies I no longer find entertaining. In fact, some types of movies I previously thought wonderful I now find distasteful, and even revolting.

I have become particularly sensitive to movies in which people are killed (which is just about every action movie ever created). Yes, I know the arguments: "It's only acting", "It's not real, but it depicts reality and we need to know it". Blah, blah, blah.

You see, when I watch someone being blown on the screen away all I can see is that we have made the slaughter of the Image of God an entertainment. Look at the rise of horror movies. Slaughter, blood, gore, twisted evil of every variety---and our Christian culture flocks to these movies. How is it that we, as Christians, have come to delight in such evil? It has become a thrill, a rush, a joke---and we have become no more than a fool before our God.

"BUT IT ISN'T REAL" someone may scream. Really? Sometimes I think our imaginations, which are simply the canvas of our hearts, are the "truest" part of us. Do you delight in evil? No, you say. Take a close look at what you find entertaining, and then think about that question again.

Prayer,

Merciful Father,
Teach me to take no delight in evil,
regardless of its form.
You are God, and you are good.
May I only delight in you.
Amen.