I’ve gone to write this blog post at least three times now in some form or fashion. At first I was going to give you a list of all the Netflix shows I have binge watched over the past few months. But then I decided that was an embarrassingly long list so it didn’t get written. Then I was going to write a post about one of my Bible readings from the other day but then I decided not to because a) I am not a theologian and b) who really cares about my opinion on a random verse. Then I contemplated writing the post again, and again talked myself out of it. Until two weeks ago. In the span of a handful of hours, this topic has came across my social media feeds or up in conversations several times so I figure the blog post I’ve had in my head for days should be written.
I should preface this by breaking down my typical day for you. I get up, read my Bible, sit quietly in thought for 10 min (I think that is meditation but I am really not sure how meditation is supposed to go. I am trying), get ready for the day. Before COVID, I would then go into work with the radio on in my car, right now, I just walk the 20 steps to my kitchen table, grabbing food on the way. I then proceed to work till noon, typically while also listening or watching something – a podcast, a sermon, lately Netflix. I eat lunch, usually reading an ebook or watching more Netflix, then return to work from 1 to 5 pm still listening or watching podcasts, sermons, Netflix, whatever. After work is over, my pup and I go for a walk, often with me on the phone chatting with someone, then home to watch the news and Wheel of Fortune. From there, we typically have the TV on for the rest of the evening, watching one thing or another, and I try to end my day by reading a chapter or so of a book before bed. Oh, and obvs social media is mixed in there all over too.
TL; DR – I consume A LOT of content in a day.
And honestly, I would be surprised if you didn’t consume a lot of content too. But this isn’t me trying to convict you of something. I realized I intake A LOT throughout the day and, for the most part, what I take in is what I put out.
I’ve known this for years – when I stopped eating dairy in college, I stopped having breakouts and my headaches decreased. When I worked in jobs surrounded by people who cursed all day, I found myself far more prone to language I prefer not to use both verbally and in my thoughts. When I wasn’t around those people for an extended amount of time, that stopped but it didn’t take long for the bad habit to pick back up after short exposure to it (if you know me in person, this is why I call people out of their language – I pick it up too easily and I don’t want to). While waiting tables, I developed a rather strong Southern accent that would wane a few hours after I got off work, but even now, if you get me talking to you about bar-b-que, I get a bit of a twang. If I listen to sermons and Chris-centered podcasts at work, I view life more through the lens of Christ; when I watch British TV, my vocabulary becomes more eloquent and proper; when I watch trashy sitcoms, my brain goes straight to the gutter. I output what I input.
Most people do this. I’m not sure if I am more prone to it or if I just notice it more, but I seem to pick up habits and ways of speaking very quickly – if someone next to me is walking funny, I have to consciously NOT watch them or I will unconsciously mimic their gait. Anyways, I have been very diligent for a while now about what I am watching and reading and listening to. But, since the stay-at-home orders have been issued, I have needed something to keep my brain from going bananas so I started watching Netflix shows.
It started with a cheesy detective show, then that got boring so I moved onto Sweet Magnolias (I liked this one), then Virgin River (also liked this one), then Merlin (yes the 2010ish really cheesy TV show – I like British humor), then The Good Witch, then Roswell, New Mexico, then all the vampire shows and frankly, the fact that I had the will power to stop watching bad TV and to not watch even more creepy cult-like stuff was 100% due to the fact that if I don’t read my Bible in the morning, I’m not a nice person so I read my Bible every morning.
My reading one morning included a section of Matthew chapter 6 –
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!” – v. 22-23
And then the question hit me like a brick wall – What are you watching Lyss? What are you intaking because that is what you are putting out. Is it light or is it dark? Where are your thoughts? In the gutter or out of it?
The answer – not good. I was intaking junk and had been for almost two months. As a result, I was not thinking clearly, I was basically living for the next moment when I could watch more of whatever show I was on at the time, and I had all but wasted two months on TV shows – great for Netflix’s wallet, bad for any dreams I had. So I stopped watching Netflix, I limit the TV that I am watching in the evenings and watch as little of the evening news as possible (I try to read unbiased news elsewhere anyways). And slowly, very slowly, I am sleeping better again, I am thinking clearly, and I am not driven by the desire to constantly be watching the next thing. But right now, this is a constant battle. Our brains are WIRED for worship and easily fall into addiction and I accidentally got myself addicted to junk TV at a push of an app on my phone. All because I stopped actively paying attention.
This past Sunday, my pastor preached a sermon about The Church. Toward the end, he said something along the lines of, “On judgement day, when you stand before God, are you going to make excuses for what you didn’t do or are you going to say ‘I did my best to go all in to what you called me to do Father?'” And wow, has that been sinking in with me all week. Because right now, I would be making excuses to my Creator as to why I decided a Netflix series was more interesting and important than doing what I was created for. And that is not okay with me. My intake shaped my output and I really didn’t like my output. So, I am reshaping my intake, starting with a break. Six months ago, I literally listened to 4-6 sermons a day plus 2-4 informational podcasts a day. A few weeks ago, I was watching 8-10 episodes of Netflix per day plus 2 episodes of Downton Abbey a night (also good show). I had to stop, to learn to be content with silence again. And when I can do that, I will slowly add beneficial content back in. But for now, I work in relative silence and surprisingly, I actually enjoy it.
Have you taken an inventory of what you intake in a day? Maybe it isn’t as much as me but I think if you start tracking what you do every day, you will realize you intake more content than you think you do. You can check out the Downloads page for the template I used when I decided to take an inventory of my daily actions. Let me know in the comments below how much you watch/listen/read in a day!
P.S. I should probably note, in case my boss somehow finds this, I do do my work. I just also listen to a lot of podcasts while doing so because otherwise the office is weirdly quiet and I just want to talk to break the silence but then no one gets anything done.
P.P.S. Thank you for reading a very long post. Here is a picture of my cute puppy:
