Shane Thayer

The American household often revolves around the televison.  Instead of spending the evening with your family and those you love and care about many just plop in front of a television and watch other people doing what they are not doing.  It is sad that many watch others live life when they do not.  Is there some sort of empty part to people that makes them want to tune into these rehashed sitcoms and redundant reality shows?

I think that all too often there is something wrong.  Have you escaped into a fictitious world where life seems so perfect with leave it to beaver and Kirk Cameron and the Seavers?  I hope not.  I hope you have not fallen into that trap many do in idolizing or defining ones self with a fictional life that never existed.  I hope you are not spending the evenings zoning out in front of a glowing screen drooling down your shirt mindlessly being advertised to all night long.

If you have paid any attention to me over the last year, you know I chucked my TV.  This was the wisest thing I have done in forever.  My time with my children could have never been better.  There is something about sitting down with them on my lap and reading to them, or singing a song with them that can not be substituted with a televison.  There is something about going into my kids room and playing with them instead of it being a place for kids and a Couch infront of a TV being a place for adults.

I have seen a great deal that has been passing me by during this time.  One thing I have paid more attention to is the people around me.  So many of these people are hurting, lost, lonely, and hungry.  So many feel that they do not have to go out and do a damn thing about it.  So many just don’t look at it, or they expect uncle sam to take care of it.  This is my challenge to you all.

Sunday after Sunday school, don’t go to Applebees and spend way too much on a dinner for you and your family and then return home to your isolation and TV.  Go to the local grocery store, buy food that can be taken on a picnic, and take it to where you know homeless and hungry people are and eat with them.  Listen to them.

Try one night a week turning off the TV and instead of sitting home resting start going out and looking around town at everyone in your city who could use the help you may be able to provide.  If you live in some elite suburb, then drive into the city and look around.  Don’t be afraid of people who are from a different economic bracket.  Don’t flee them because they seem different.  They are people just like you.  What did Jesus say about doing unto the least of these?

I hope at least someone out there will read this and see the complacency in their life and begin to take a step to branch out and do something instead of ignoring it all.  Jesus didn’t hide away in the suburbs in some elite church. He walked through the street helping and healing.

Jesus fed 5000 with just 4 loaves and we feed 4 with 5000 loaves at Applebees.  Glutony has become the American dream.