Theophilia -- FPC sermon excerpt
There are times when it is hard to feel the presence of God.
It can happen when a young man dies suddenly and unexpectedly. Or even when a 75-year-old passes away, leaving a hole in a congregation, and in a family. When we are feeling such grief, God’s presence can be hard to sense.
At other times, we simply crowd God out. We focus so much on our computers, video games, and big-screen televisions that we cannot see what God is doing.
I recently read an interesting story about a drop in visits to the national parks. From the years 1930 to 1987, park visits grew steadily. Then, over the next 16 years, visitation dropped by 25 percent — a serious and significant decline.
Why was this? A couple of researchers have determined that most of the drop was due to the ever-increasing time we are spending surfing the Internet, playing video games, and watching movies and television shows. In the year 2003, the average American was spending 327 more hours in front of the screen than he was 16 years earlier.
That’s a huge jump in tube time — almost an hour a day.
The Washington Post (July 5, 2006) reports that these researchers have coined a term for this increased screen time: Videophilia. It’s a good word, one that literally means “love of video.” The Greek word philos means love, giving rise to English words such as philanthropy (love of mankind), philosophy (love of wisdom), and Francophilia (love of all things French).
Videophilia, according to these researchers, is “the new human tendency to focus on sedentary activities involving electronic media.” Video games, television shows, DVDs, email, IMs, and the World Wide Web are all screen-based sedentary attractions, and they are sucking up an increasing amount of our time.
The problem is, if you’re spending an extra hour a day in front of a computer or television, you’re not spending that time out of doors. And if you’re not out of doors, you’re not in a national park. Videophilia may be weakening our bonds with our national parks, and reducing our passion to preserve them.
Videophilia may also be hurting out ability to sense the presence of God. The time we spend staring at our screens may be distracting us from the most important love of all: Theophilia. That is, quite simply, “love of God.”
Without Theophilia at the very center of life, it is hard to see what God is doing.
It can happen when a young man dies suddenly and unexpectedly. Or even when a 75-year-old passes away, leaving a hole in a congregation, and in a family. When we are feeling such grief, God’s presence can be hard to sense.
At other times, we simply crowd God out. We focus so much on our computers, video games, and big-screen televisions that we cannot see what God is doing.
I recently read an interesting story about a drop in visits to the national parks. From the years 1930 to 1987, park visits grew steadily. Then, over the next 16 years, visitation dropped by 25 percent — a serious and significant decline.
Why was this? A couple of researchers have determined that most of the drop was due to the ever-increasing time we are spending surfing the Internet, playing video games, and watching movies and television shows. In the year 2003, the average American was spending 327 more hours in front of the screen than he was 16 years earlier.
That’s a huge jump in tube time — almost an hour a day.
The Washington Post (July 5, 2006) reports that these researchers have coined a term for this increased screen time: Videophilia. It’s a good word, one that literally means “love of video.” The Greek word philos means love, giving rise to English words such as philanthropy (love of mankind), philosophy (love of wisdom), and Francophilia (love of all things French).
Videophilia, according to these researchers, is “the new human tendency to focus on sedentary activities involving electronic media.” Video games, television shows, DVDs, email, IMs, and the World Wide Web are all screen-based sedentary attractions, and they are sucking up an increasing amount of our time.
The problem is, if you’re spending an extra hour a day in front of a computer or television, you’re not spending that time out of doors. And if you’re not out of doors, you’re not in a national park. Videophilia may be weakening our bonds with our national parks, and reducing our passion to preserve them.
Videophilia may also be hurting out ability to sense the presence of God. The time we spend staring at our screens may be distracting us from the most important love of all: Theophilia. That is, quite simply, “love of God.”
Without Theophilia at the very center of life, it is hard to see what God is doing.
posted by Henry Brinton | 1:56 PM
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