In his post, Christ is deeper still: Quietness vs. entertainment, Ray Orland quotes this passage from Francis Schaeffer:
No one seems to want (and no one can find) a place of quiet -- because, when you are quiet, you have to face reality. But many in the present generation dare not do this because on their own basis reality leads them to meaninglessness; so they fill their lives with entertainment, even if it is only noise. . . .
The Christian is supposed to be very opposite: There is a place for proper entertainment, but we are not to be caught up in ceaseless motion which prevents us from ever being quiet. Rather we are to put everything second so we can be alive to the voice of God and allow it to speak to us and confront us."
Francis Schaeffer, "Walking through the mud," in No Little People, pages 86-87.
Don't know why, but I seem to keep running into this theme. Maybe it's because when my 27" Sony Trinitron went out, I brought the 13" out of the office and into the living room, but because it's so much smaller the T.V. is much closer to me now, and that also makes it more...tempting...to turn on for no reason other than...because it's there. Even so, my entertainment quotient is down about 65 - 75% from what it used to be.
Yes, I can relate to the discomfort of being alone. I often wonder what I will find to do with an evening. But, then I find out an hour or two later after picking up a book -- Piper, Mahaney, Storms, Spurgeon, etc. -- that it had slid by quite easily and I was feeling the more refreshed for having spent my time reading instead of passively taking in popular culture.
Oh, don't get me wrong. There's nothing quite so "principled" about my avoidance of TV. At present it has far more to do with spiritual survival than with a zealous disposition for solitude. As a single man I simply cannot afford to take in all the provocative material that I am assaulted with there. The correlation between time spent watching TV and the struggle to say no to impurity and fleshly desires is not too far off of a straight line.
Perhaps I will not just "get used" to this change. Could it be that I would come to value and savor my time alone? I am certainly finding more opportunities to experience God's grace through the inspirational and challenging encounters I have with these authors and with God's Word.
