You Already Know Good

Last night I watched a favorite television show that solves crime cases. It's mostly a lighthearted show, but this particular episode featured a creepy character taking delight in the power of killing. I don't do well watching horror of any kind, so the show had me hearing every bump in the night between nightmares. It was a rough night.

I remember when my parents would watch scary movies when I was little - really bloody stuff - that would give me nightmares as a child. My father would say, "Honey, it's just pretend." But then one day our family was watching Helter Skelter. I remember repeating to myself over and over again while we watched it, "It's just pretend. It's just pretend," at which point my dad said, "This one is real."

Say what!? This show was worse than all the crazy fictional ones we watched and it was real?! That did it for me. I was done with horror films. I like a thriller as much as the next guy, but bloody, torture stuff, I just don't get it. How is it entertainment? It's evil.

When I teach Sunday School kids about that first sin in Genesis 3, I focus on something the serpent says to Eve. He says about the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil found in the middle of the garden, "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

I always ask the kids, "What were Eve and Adam really learning when they ate the fruit?" To which the kids always brilliantly respond, "Evil. They already knew good." Think about it: God had created this beautiful perfect place where all their needs were met and "it was good." His words. So they already had the knowledge of good. What they learned in their disobedience was evil. And it led to death, as God forewarned.

There is a song by Tal and Acacia called Garbage In. The lyrics say: 

I fill my mind with bad things
So horrible, I feel ashamed they'd show
I've taken sin so lightly
That lately, oh, the darkness is all I know.

Then the chorus says: 

Garbage in, Garbage out.
What goes in is found out.
All can see what goes in me.
I pay the price. 

I have seen some television shows and movies and read books and magazines filled with such evil. And I wonder why I wasted my time. Why do I need to fill my head with this garbage?

A book came out a few years ago that is a sadomasichistic thriller with bondage and domination. It became very popular and a movie is coming out based on the book next Spring. I haven't read the book, because I see absolutely no reason to invite something so evil into my mind about something so beautiful that God created for married couples. I already know good, why would I want to know evil?

I think we, as ridiculously vulnerable humans, have to truly examine what it is we watch, download, read and research. Especially if we are Christians. I do not see the benefit of opening up our minds to something that will in no way make us better. And opening up that door just a crack to evil, allows the devil to get a foothold. Sorry, just don't want to give him that chance. There are so many beautiful, wonderful things we can be thinking about and filling our heads with. It's time to leave the garbage where it belongs: in the trash can.