Article: What Do You Feed Your Eyes?

Over lunch today, I read this article from Desiring God about what you look at. The message was especially relevant for our day, and specifically to the kind of things that have a tendency to draw me away from a closer relationship with God.

If Christ cannot keep our attention, but we hunt and shop for hours on Amazon, our treasure should arrive in two business days or less. … If time with Christ is the first thing we surrender when we’re busy, but we never miss a meal or our favorite television show, we have treasure, but it’s not him.

This kind of pointed message got me thinking about where I put my “resting” time; do I waste that time on mindless poking around on my phone, or focus on the next thing I want to buy? Or do I instead take that special “me time” and use it to get to know Jesus better? Practically, this motivates me to change some habits, to put aside entertainment, and pick up my Bible more. And to take more time to pray:

Where do we run for rest and pleasure? Too many of us have not closed our eyes and bowed our heads enough to find the rest and pleasure we think we’re getting from a screen.

This made me think about the new features coming out soon in iOS 12. My phone will be able tell me how many times I pick it up, and how many hours I spend looking at the screen, using specific apps. But if I could compare that to how much time I spend in prayer, communing with God… I would probably find that my phone has become an idol that I carry around and worship.

As the New City Catechism states:

Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security.