When I was growing up in the 60s there were three free-to-air TV channels, with a fourth channel (ATV O) beginning broadcasts on August 1st, 1964. Wow, a whole extra channel on TV! All in black and white. Life was different then (I didn’t say, “better”, just “different”). Life happened at a vastly different pace than now.
For most of us today, life operates at a frenetic pace – it rarely slows down. We’re always busy and we cram so much stuff into our days and nights. Often, we cram way too much in and leave little time for the really important things, like … prayer. Or fellowship. Or hospitality. Or family. There’s a vast array of fast-food options, speed-dating services, fast money, fast-tracking, quick cleans, quick washes, quick dry. Fast and quick everything, it seems. You name it – everything is speeding up and is on demand. Nothing is slowing down, and so, we now cram by binging.
Back in the day we’d watch TV programs – all kinds – that, apart from the half-hour news broadcasts each night, were programmed to be shown once a week in most instances (that would be absolute agony for today’s teens!). “Bonanza”, a half hour family western featuring the Cartwright family on their ranch (“The Ponderosa”), was shown every Thursday night, i.e. once a week. The Flintstones cartoon series was shown twice a week. Very few programs, like “In Melbourne Tonight”, or “This Day Tonight” on the ABC were shown every night. You had to wait a whole week for the next episode of “Bonanza”, “Combat”, “Rawhide” and the like.
It's not like that anymore with streaming channels, like Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime, to name a few, where several entire seasons of a TV or video series can be viewed over one weekend, or several nights. Entire seasons/series. There’s no waiting in suspense “for the next exciting episode of Gunsmoke” next week, or anything else. We now cram into one night what took a whole month to wait for on TV way back when. One such streaming service is aptly named “Binge TV”. (At least they’re honest about what they’re selling – binging experiences).
Now, I am not complaining about this, too much – I’ve had the occasional binge on Netflix, myself. Especially, “Drive to Survive”. (Excellent series, by the way). There are some advantages in these video viewing services. But, I can’t help thinking that we are developing into a nation of bingers. Our appetites are being distorted by the desire for more and more and the very latest, latest, as consumerism and the thirst for more and more dominates our culture. So many people get themselves a new mobile phone almost every year! There are many kinds of binging! And binging leads to more and more binging. It’s like a disease.
Where will all this land, I often wonder?
King Solomon wrote many centuries ago that our appetites will demand more and more and yet never be really satisfied.
Ecclesiastes 6:7 (NIV)
“Everyone's toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied.”
He is not just speaking of food, either. Our appetites, if not controlled with discipline, will never stop wanting more - the appetite (נפשׁ), although at the root of human activity, is never really satisfied. And Solomon would know – he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and he wrote Ecclesiastes after he had acquired them! In the end, his appetites controlled him and led to his downfall.
What’s the antidote for our 21st century binging disease? The soul was built and wired to hunger after something … or someone. That hunger is satisfied in relationship with Jesus Christ. As we have been studying in our Connect Group Bible studies, He is the bread of life and the living water.
He is the life.
The lack of this bread and living water leads to a great and unending hunger and thirst for so many other things that never – and cannot ever – satisfy our hunger … Yet, we binge more today than ever we did – Christians, too. So many Christians are binging on all kinds of things because they’re never satisfied. Never satiated. The soul and flesh are always hungry and thirsty for more and more junk life. But it is eternal life we need. Of all people, we should know what the Lord says about all that. That when the spirit is properly connected to “the vine”, and richly fed, the appetites and desires of the soul and body come into submission to God … and we are sustained.
Isaiah 55:2 (NIV)
[God] “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.”
If you’re often binging on anything … it’s because you’re spiritually hungry. That binge stuff is counterfeit food. The hunger will never be satisfied unless you come back to Jesus.
Matthew 5:6 (NIV)
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Think on these things …
Ps Milton