Thumbs up or thumbs down

"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything.’ ~ I Corinthians 6:12

I am a hard guy to shop for and each year my wife tries to surprise me when picking my Christmas gifts. Typically if there is something I want or think I need I will buy it during the year in essence scratching that off the gift list. She tells me that I am no fun to buy gifts for because I usually guess what they are before we open them on Christmas morning. Truth told I do not really need anything but like everybody else I do enjoy receiving and opening gifts. There are things I would like to have but I have expensive tastes and I truly do not want to be consumed with the accumulation of “stuff”.

Three years ago my wife did in fact surprise me and bought me a gift I had no idea she was going to get. I think I made an off-hand comment about a TiVo DVR and she logged that in her memory banks and purchased it for me. I opened it up on Christmas morning and I was truly shocked that she bought it. My wife has many skills and talents but picking and setting up anything electronic is not her forte. I did not race back to the TV and set it up immediately. The DVR sat in corner for about 6 months and my wife was beginning to wonder if she had bought me a gift I would never use. I am not sure what led to my reluctance setting it up, but now that I have been using it for the past two years I cannot imagine watching television any other way. I have found that owning one actually reduces the amount of time I spend in front of a TV. The biggest advantage is the ability to fast-forward through commercials or superfluous parts of a TV program.

Other people who own DVR’s have expressed the same enthusiasm. Watching sporting events is great, especially when you can record the start of a game and go enjoy a meal with your family without the worry of missing any action. By the time your Sunday dinner is over and the dishes are cleared the DVR has nearly recorded the entire first half of an NFL game. You can fast-forward through the kickoffs, punts, time outs, commercial breaks, replays, huddles and other time consuming activities. I had a co-worker tell me that her daughters will sit down to watch a show and if they find out it is live TV rather than a DVR recording they lose patience and leave. Maybe this is a sign of the times where we have less patience or interest, but from my perspective it has improved my viewing pleasure.

A couple of features on my TiVo that I have taken advantage of are the Season Pass and the Thumbs Up/Down feature. With the Season Pass you can record each new episode of your favorite program and watch it at your convenience. The other feature allows you to give programs either one, two or three thumbs up depending how much you like it, or three thumbs down depending how much you truly dislike it. The DVR makes a note of your viewing preferences and will record other programs it thinks you may like. What is a little humbling and even embarrassing at times is what programs it records for you based on how you rate other shows. When I first hooked it up it was recording shows that we would never consider viewing even on our worse days. It puts the verse in Proverbs 20:11 into focus about being “known for our doings…”

Recently I read “The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges and he focused on our need to contemplate the holiness of God and the fact the Jesus Christ always sought to do the will of His Father. He talked about Christ’s holiness and the fact that He was morally blameless made Him the only perfect and acceptable sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. Bridges states that; “Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.” One of the cautions that Bridges mentions in his book is that “we become so accustomed to our sins we sometimes lapse into a state of peaceful coexistence with them…” After reading this book and the verses from scripture Bridges used to make his points I found myself re-evaluating my entertainment choices. What entertainment in the form of television or movies was I giving a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to? What “doings” was I known for and could I truthfully and honestly say that they conformed to the character of God? Needless to say that I needed to reconsider my Season Pass selections and wonder if I had lapsed into a peaceful coexistence with entertainment that may or may not be bad, but was it helping me think on what is pure, good and right? If a electronic box was recording programs that I would not choose for myself, what was it about my choices that made it thought I would? It was a very sobering thought.

In Philippians 1:9-11 the Apostle Paul states; “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” We need to consider what in this life we give a thumbs up or thumbs down to; God is watching, our community is watching and our children are watching. Is what we approve of pure and blameless? That is a question we need to each ask ourselves and wrestle with in prayer and thoughtful meditation. We are each called to work out our own salvation, (Phil 2:12). Are we working it out or mindlessly coexisting?


“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.’ ~ I Corinthians 6:19-20