God vs Tik Tok

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:7

Growing up in church, with a pastor for a father, I was taught that I was supposed to read the Bible every day. It’s a quaint idea to many, but I believed it was something I was supposed to do. The problem was that there were always just so many other things I’d rather do. In my free time, when given the choice between the Bible or TV, I chose TV. The Bible was boring, and the world had so many stimulating alternatives. God simply couldn’t compete for time and space in my brain.

In recovery from a drug addiction, I’ve had to return to that which my parents taught me years ago. I’ve recognized that my life is shaped by what I put in my brain. Just as my body is shaped by the food I consume, my mind is a product of whatever I feed it. Ten years ago, when in treatment, I made a deal with God that I’d get up early every day to read, pray, and meditate. I’ve rarely missed a day, and this blog was born out of that discipline. Daily still, I get up early and put a verse in my head. Then, I spend the day thinking about that verse so I can write about it the next morning. Daily putting God’s word in my brain has radically transformed my mind and thereby, my life.

This was Moses’ instruction in today’s passage. In it, he delivered God’s commands to the Israelites and then implored them to do whatever it took to continually remind themselves of those commands. Write them on your walls. Bind them to your hands. Do whatever it takes to keep God’s word in your mind. Moses knew the world would distract his people from God’s will and so he taught them to continually put his commands in their minds.

The world has grown no less distracting. In the digital age, God competes now with a myriad of profoundly stimulating alternatives. I’ve got a Bible on my smartphone, but when faced with the choice of reading that Bible or scrolling through social media, my mind doesn’t naturally want God’s word. So, I’ve had to develop a discipline of consuming that which I know to be healthy. My body is what I eat, and my mind is what I put in it. If I want my life to go in a certain direction, I must daily make the healthy choices that get me there.