Saturday night marked the conclusion of my media fast: no TV, video games, or secular music for one week. The whole experience was pretty eye-opening for me. Here’s a list of the top 5 things I learned through it (in no particular order):

1. Media has a much bigger influence on me than I originally thought.

2. Personal entertainment should always be prioritized after time spent with the Lord and other people.

3. Video games provide some sort of adrenaline stimulation that somehow provides a calming sensation for me. (Probably not a good thing, huh?)

4. Why do I entertain myself with music that is anything less than positive and does not glorify the Lord? There is nothing wrong with a lot of this music, but now it feels like time wasted from focusing on God instead.

5. During free time, I naturally seek to entertain myself by whatever means are available. Wasting time is pretty easy even with limited resources. This indicates that there is something about me that seeks to please myself and procrastinate from doing what I know is best.

For anyone who might be thinking about taking part in this media fast, I highly encourage you to participate. It’s only one week. What can you possibly miss in the entertainment industry that is more important than a week of extra time spent with the Lord, self-evaluation, and meeting other personal goals? If you take the challenge, let me know — I’d love to keep up with your thoughts through the process.

Posted on April 10, 2006