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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

100 Hours

When is the last time you read a book?

High school? College graduation? The reason I ask is because I recently read some startling stats that made me nervous. In 1997, the New York Times revealed that the average person in America spent about 1,100 hours a year watching broadcast TV, an additional 500 hours watching cable TV and 300 hours listening to music. While only 100 hours were devoted to reading.

James Emery White commented on the above by saying: “Neil Postman noted that the great fear of George Orwell (author of the book 1984) was of a day when there might be those who would ban books. Aldous Huxley’s portrait of the future in Brave New World was more prescient; Huxley feared that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one …”(A Mind for God, J. White).

I remember a documentary a few years ago titled, “Super Size Me.” It was about this guy that ate nothing but fast food. He gorged himself during breakfast, lunch and dinner and found out really fast that the food was having a negative effect on his body. He developed chest pains, gained weight and had trouble breathing. Imagine if we fed our brains in a similar manner. We forget that our brains were created by God to be taken care of and fed just like our stomachs and our muscles. It amazes me to watch the commercials filling in the spaces in-between our regular TV programs. I want you to become aware at how many emphasize beauty. From hair products, to fat loss, to skin care; it seems as if our society focuses solely the outer shell of individuals. When did developing our intellect with character drift away?

This week I discovered a tattered Poinsettia that was left in church from the Christmas season.



It is so bad, it could literally star in a scary movie. It does not take an Einstein to figure out what went drastically wrong with the plant. It needs water! Somewhere along the line, something vital was withheld from it and it began to shrivel … whither … and die.



Then, providentially, I found these little tubes that you fill with water and stick right into the soil. I thought to myself how similar my blog subject is with this poor plant. The plant represents our mind and the tube filled with water represents the nourishing of our minds.
-Starve your mind and you’ll end up stagnate.
-Feed your mind and you’ll produce fertility.

“Can you spare 1 hour a day? Let me have 7 hours a week, and I will make a scholar and a philosopher out of you; in 4 years you shall be as well educated as any new-fledged Doctor of Philosphy in the land.”
-Will Durant

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