We welcome a new contributor to SpringUpword. Dani Pierson is a Younger Generation author that brings a fresh perspective to life with an Upword focus.
I heard it again; the convicting Whisper. Last night, as I sat watching a movie that I had been wanting to see for a while, out of the blue the thought burst into my mind – “What’s the point?”
My brain snapped to attention out of its entertained stupor. Before I could formulate a response to the intrusive Thought, it continued: “What is the point of watching this? This won’t matter in Heaven.” As I sat pondering what had happened, my husband announced he was tired and was going to bed. Perfect timing; I now had the quiet of night to let the question bounce around in my head.
This was not the first time this has happened. Last year, while watching a movie I had anxiously waited for, during an action scene, the Whisper came again. “Why are you watching this?” Boom! My mind is wide awake! I tried to suppress the conviction, but had trouble settling back into the movie experience fully. I watched the movie again a few days later and, like clockwork, at the same exact moment the Thought came back, “Why are you watching this?” I finished the movie because I’m OCD and don’t like leaving things unfinished, and haven’t watched it again since. Similar things have happened in the past, but have been occurring more frequently over the last several years.
Fast forward to this morning and my mind is still reflecting on the question. Do I think that what I was watching was bad? Not necessarily, and I don’t think that is the main point of the question. The main point is the statement, ‘this won’t matter in Heaven.’ It has caused me to wonder how much of my time on earth I will regret when I get to Heaven, realizing I wasted it on things that did’t matter. Things that haven’t benefitted me or others; distractions that I allowed to feed my sinful nature and hid God from my sight. How many things have I engaged in that I had to separate myself from Him in order to enjoy, unintentionally or not? And I have to ask myself, “What was the point?”
I’m not writing this to say watching television is bad and as Christians we should stop watching movies, or playing video games, reading non-Christian books, etc. That conviction is between each individual and God. Also, as someone with OCD and anxiety, I understand what a relief it is at the end of the day to put something on the TV and just turn my brain off for a while and let it stop thinking, so I’m not judging. What I will say is that, as a Christian, I believe that time on this earth is drawing to a close. Things are happening that are either fulfilling prophecy or are working to fulfill it, and there is a distinct separation that is occurring between the things of this world and the things of God.
I am persuaded that I need to be more selective in how I spend my time and what I allow myself to be distracted by, so that I don’t become fashioned after the world, but after God. I am convicted that my time is important; that how I use it matters, and that in order to keep what matters in focus, I need to ask myself, “Will I regret that I spent my time on this?” And if the answer to that question is ‘yes’ in any way, I need to ask myself, “Why am I doing it then? What’s the point?”