Is It Worth The Risk? Seriously? Part 3 of 3

(This blog continues from Part 2...)

The Alternative

In Part 2 of this 3-part blog I shared my conviction that we easily fall victim to two Internet addictions which can simply be described as (1) porn entertainment that destroys our souls and (2) non-porn entertainment which threatens to deaden and bury our souls.

We churn through our hectic days (complaining about how busy we are) and then proceed to expend the last gasps of our free time either watching TV or on the Internet trolling through vast mounds of trivia that we never needed to know.

But a lot of us hit those news sites pretty fast and then get back to work. What do I really think we'd gain by not doing that? Is it really so bad to get a quick look at cnn.com?

The apostle Paul used his free moments to pray. I suggest that we use our free minutes to do the same. If you have time to check the latest news (this will only take a second, we reassure ourselves) then we have time to pray. Instead of reading one more pointless piece of news (or, dare I mention it... check in to Facebook to see what changed), why not pray for a friend or family member in need? Or just give God a cheerful hello. God would not be disappointed to hear from us more often. On that point I am pretty confident.

I say this: treat TV like the plague. And as for the Internet? Let us treat the Internet like the research section in a cold library. We go in to get our schoolwork done, but no kid would be caught dead in there on any other occasion. We do what must be done and then leave as fast as our legs can take us... Because we'd rather play (or pray!) in the sun.

My Personal Story: A 2-Step Program

Two years ago (during the great financial meltdown) I found myself refreshing web charts on the plummeting stock markets. As often as every few minutes! Sometimes every few seconds. As Lent of 2009 began to loom large before me, a faint realization dimly lit my fogged mind....

Perhaps an Internet fast would be good for me.

So for Lent I restricted my news intake to "after 3PM central time." This meant that markets would close before my feverish fingers found out what happened that day.

I faithfully abided by the commitment throughout that season of Lent, but it's a fact that I was generally watching the clock and, I kid you not, usually reading market results no more than a few seconds after 3PM. I was desperate to know.

The delerium tremens faded, however, as the weeks of Lent rolled along. By the end of Lent a curious transformation had taken place. I found that I wasn't so sure I wanted to return to my old habits — or, should I say, my old master. Easter came and went. And I continued to hold off on reading the news "until after 3PM."

A year passed... Lent of 2010 began to loom large. "Just for grins," I thought to myself, "I'll reduce myself this Lent to getting the news once a week." Maybe a few minutes of it on Friday or Saturday. And so I did.

I never dreamed that the cycle would repeat.

But it did.

As the weeks of Lent rolled along, I found myself wondering each Friday what exactly it was I wanted to know, now that my moment had come to read the news. And I didn't have a good answer.

Easter came and went, but the pattern held steady. I don't want to return to my old master. I do still use google quite a bit for work purposes, but the Internet is not my source of entertainment anymore. It's far too dangerous a thing to be used so flippantly.

I hope, going forward, to treat Internet news like junk food. Nobody ever said candy bars had anything to do with a healthy diet, but the occasional treat never killed anyone either. That said, when I'm tempted to check the news for no good reason, I ask this simple question: "Isn't now a good time to pray?"

The answer has never failed to be Yes.