Binging the Bible
Let’s talk about quarantine habits. We’ve all been at this long enough now that we’ve settled into some routines that weren’t routines of ours prior to March 2020. Here are some of my new quarantine routines… quar-routines? No… that was bad. Anyway, here they are:
Eating at home
Reading
Going on walks
Sleeping in late (although, to be honest this one’s not new since March… or even 2020… I’ve been at this one for a while, I’m just even better at it now)
And… binging Netflix shows.
I binged plenty of Netflix prior to COVID, but it’s gotten even worse since March. There have been nights I’ve stayed up until 3:00am watching All American (which is a testament to how good the show is—you should watch it). Netflix holds my attention extremely well… almost as well as food.
We’ve all heard the adage, “You are what you eat.” It’s a proverbial saying based on the notion that to be fit and healthy, you need to eat healthily. If it’s true that you are what you eat, the next time you see me I’ll be the guy that looks like a chicken quesadilla. While no one buys the idea that we are literally what we eat, the point is well-received: the things we digest influence who we become. And that’s true not just with food, but with all sorts of media as well. The news we watch influences the way we experience the world. The books we read influence the voice we use to tell our own stories. And the shows we watch on Netflix influence the issues we care about and the sorts of things we find funny. From food to mass media, the things we consume change us on the inside.
And if that’s true, I think we’d all live happier, more grace-filled lives if we spent more time consuming the Word of God. Maybe not literally like Ezekiel (read Ezekiel 3 sometime), but by reading the bible and carrying its stories and its truths around with us.
“I need to stop.”
I’m not asking you to give up your Netflix shows. But maybe the next time you’re watching Netflix and it asks you for the 5th time if you want to watch the next hour-long episode, click the “X” and use that time to binge read the bible instead. You might be surprised at how well the true tall tales can hold your attention!
