Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

All my enemies whisper together against me;
    they imagine the worst for me, saying,
“A vile disease has afflicted him;
    he will never get up from the place where he lies.”

• Psalm 41:7-8

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

• Ephesians 3:20-21

Imagine a television that has not been turned on.  Consider it an empty canvas.  Can you see the television show that is not projected by the screen?  As you watch the black screen, what does your television show look like?

My son was in a downer mood one day when I was visiting them.  He has two sons, fifteen years old and eight years old (barely as of this bit of writing, almost nine).  He said that neither of them had an imagination.  He said that the youngest would get time out, and all he ever did was wait until the time out was over.  His firstborn son came into the house when he was younger, and he sat in front of the television and watched a blank screen for hours.

I told my son that he missed the interpretation of both situations.  They each had an imagination.

For the youngest, he understands the word “will,” but he has no clue what “may” means and a twisted concept of the word “can.”  I have written about this a couple of years ago, and it only seems to have gotten worse.  As he stews in timeout, he has no clue what he did wrong, even though you explain it to him.  All he knows is that he “can” do what he is forbidden to do, and he “will” do it once their backs are turned.  Then when he has proven he “can,” then they will not forbid it to be done.  Twisted.  Wrong.  But a great imagination in thinking he can pull that off.

As for his older brother, when he sat in front of the television for hours, no one asked him what was on TV.  They knew that the TV set was turned off.  They knew that he could not be watching anything, but no one asked this little boy, at the time, what he was watching.  If he could have articulated an answer, might he say that what is on television in my mind is better than anything I have seen on television?

I have said derogatory things about television advertising in years past, but what about the programs?  What about the news, or what is reported as news?  Even the football games have mindless chatter between plays as sometimes during plays that can, at times, brainwash us into accepting ways of thinking that are against God’s will.

I am not saying to turn off the television, but I would love to see Christian families discuss what they had just seen compared to Christian values.  What did the producer add to the show that could have been left out, making the show more wholesome?

When I was a child, the television was the babysitter.  My mother and father were running a turkey business and since I was an independent child early on, I could watch television responsibly.  I liked game shows.  I learned from them.  I did not like soap operas.  I loved cartoons, but these days, even some of the cartoons are not wholesome.  I had Ward Cleaver by day in reruns and Andy Griffith by night as my surrogate Dads when the turkey farm was lost, and my Dad went on the road, building poultry processing plants for people who still had poultry farms.

We do not use enough parental discretion, and there is a shrinking number of shows in which to see Christian values.

The other day, I was not feeling well, and my eyes were not focusing very well.  Writing was giving me a headache, so I went to the living room and watched a blank television screen.  I had a couple of short stories written in my mind, and I had ideas for two or three posts before I decided to turn on the television to watch a few Bible studies by various television pastors.  What came on instead was a thirty-minute show of beautiful scenery, with Scripture superimposed on the scenery, and Christian songs being played (all instrumental).  Knowing the tunes, I sang along.  I then turned off the television less than thirty minutes after I had turned it on, and I went to bed.  After all, I had just experienced hours of entertainment on television, and I was getting tired.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.