A Confession

I have a confession to make.

Sometimes, in the morning, when I’m still not thinking clearly (which is most days….in the morning!), I pour a hot cup of coffee and sit down to watch something on TV.  Some days, it’s Sportscenter and sometimes it’s Regis and Kelly.  There – I said it.  Yeah, Regis and Kelly. 

And I’ll tell you something else.  I’m actually annoyed when Regis is not on!  When they try to pacify me with some guest co-host, well, it’s usually not good.  And when I see these little words printed at the bottom of the screen “previously recorded” . . . well, no good either.

Today Martin Short was co-hosting with Ms. Rippa and he said something that struck a chord with me.  They were talking about current trends in nighttime television and Mr. Short made this remark:  “I’m tired of the celebration of ignorance.”

Amen.

And of mediocrity. 

We’re slowly being lulled to sleep.  It’s the old frog-in-the-boiling-water syndrome.  You remember . . . put him in the boiling water, he hops out right away, but put him in cool water and slowly bring it to a boil and you’ve got cooked frog.  Tastes like chicken.

I guess, if I had to try and explain it, we watch some of this mindless stuff because the rest of life is so stressful and we just want to retreat for a few minutes.  But a few minutes turns into a few hours. 

Some people explain that watching someone else make a fool of themselves makes us feel less the fool ourselves.  It comes from the Jerry Springer attitude.  Watching people try and figure out who the father is or “how many times you slept with my sister!!!” supposedly makes us feel better about us.  If that’s what it takes to make people feel better,  that’s frightening.

There’s a difference in feeling good about ourselves and less bad about ourselves.

Why would I want to compare myself to the lowest common denominator?  It’s not hard to win a gold medal in those kinds of comparisons.  But in the end, I still don’t feel like a winner and I sure don’t feel like the saint the Bible says I am. 

In a devotional piece I read today, written by John Chrysostom (don’t bother trying to find him on YouTube, he died at the age of 62 in 407 AD) he came to this tremendous conclusion.  You may or may not agree but I like the premise. 

            God is not so well pleased with being our Master as He is with being our                    Father; He is not so pleased with our being His slaves as He is with our being             His children.  This is what God truly wants.  (John Chrysostom from the             sermon “Dead to Sin”)

So why do I continually compare myself to the worst image of man and the example of the most failed.  I won’t say “most flawed” because we’re all flawed. 

But our old adversary is still at his old schemes.  And we have to be careful and aware.  The water is getting hot.

I guess it’s ok to check out and watch something mindless from time to time, but I have to be on guard that I don’t label some of this mediocre and ignorant stuff as “normal.” 

See yourself as a child of the Father and stop comparing yourself to other mere mortals -  The good or the not so.  It’s just exhausting.   Take a deep breath and thank God for life, for your life and for His purpose for you.

Wayne

P.S.  We saw Extraordinary Measures the other night and highly recommend it.