There are times in your life when you have to take stock and see where you need to bring in change. This time is one of them. I've given up watching TV
"I don't have enough time"
A couple of weeks ago, I had my first coaching workshop with Optimus Coaching Academy. (more about that another time), but during my first coaching session with the wonderful Natalie who partnered with me, I had a revelation. I was talking about how I already felt overwhelmed, we identified this was partly due to comparing myself with others. What I wasn't ready for was the moment when I realised - I do have enough time, I just wasn't prioritising the right things.
Later, alone, I thought about this. There were so many things I had been saying I just didn't have time or energy for. Yet really, it was a matter of where I was investing time and energy. Like the teenage version of myself, I had become obsessed with watching TV. I think this started as self soothing but it had been slowly creeping further and further into my life, taking up every space, influencing my decisions, and disrupting my sleep.
"I threw the TV out of the window"
Well not quite so rockstar as this, but I am an all-or-nothing person. With the oncoming of Lent, it seemed a perfect time to landmark a decision. No TV for 40 days. No Disney+, no Netflix, no Prime, no Youtube. I am allowing myself cinema, work-related needs, and online workouts, but nothing else. The reason? To allow me to reset my priorities, particularly when it comes to faith, friendship, health & wellbeing.
David was up late as usual at midnight watching the "Late Show" when he first asked the question: "What would happen, Lord, if I sold the TV set and spent that time—praying?" After David Wilkerson prayed that prayer in 1958, the world would soon find out.
After his television was actually sold, Wilkerson began to devote his midnight to 2 a.m. hours to prayer. One night while trying to pray, he found himself unusually drawn to an issue of Life magazine sitting on his desk. At first, he suspected his interest in reading to be merely a human diversion pulling him away from the discipline of prayer. Nonetheless, he couldn't get away from it and finally asked, "God is there something you want me to see
taken from Christianity Today Online
David Wilkerson was my faith hero during my teenage years. I devoured The Cross & The Switchblade and poured myself into Run Baby Run by Nicky Cruz. It was the first book that really lit a flame in me. Nevertheless, I have put the story aside in recent years. That is, until a couple of weeks ago when someone (I forget who) mentioned it.
The decision made by DW smashed into the reality that I had become addicted to my TV and settled into the notion that we were about to embark on Lent.
Now I am not saying my story will be like his, God has a different life story for each of us. However, The Cross & The Switchblade gives me hope for what God might do in this time. So while there are things in the natural I am devoting these next 40 days to, I am also making time to really sit and be present, in His presence, full of expectation of what He may do.
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