I’m 70 years old. I spent 25 years in one formal school or another. Then I went to work. At the end of my career, I realized that most of the knowledge that I used every day in my work……I learned “on the job”. The real lesson here is that no matter what you do for a living…….if you are breathing……. you are learning. Life is one big school. Your only real graduation…….is when you die.
In grade school, your teacher presented you with information. Some of it went right over your head. Some of it you didn’t agree with. Some of it you slept through (mea culpa). And some of it stuck. Today, I want to explore the information that stuck. It is this teaching/learning that matters, because this is what has shaped you……that will continue to shape you….into the person that you are and will become. There is a caveat here. When a teacher presents you with information, you don’t get to choose whether to learn it or not. The fact is that you retain most of it……. whether you like it or not…… whether you agree with it or not…….whether you even realize it or not. You retain this information whether it is good for you……or whether it is bad for you.
At my age I have been exposed to a great deal of information. Some of it is constructive and some of it is destructive. As I sit here, there is a jingle from a drug company ad that I cannot get out of my head. From time to time an image of a woman from my days as a subscriber to Playboy returns. I don’t like this information, I don’t want this information; but, I chose to let it into my life and it will be there till I die. And it will be a part of what shapes the man I am still becoming.
So, what’s the point?
You absorb the information that you are exposed to. You have very little ability to filter through this information, once you have been exposed. And this information shapes the person that you are becoming. This information shapes your character. There is an old line from the early days of computer programming. For us old farts this was the age of “punch cards”. Look it up if you are under 60.
“Garbage in…..garbage out.”
Put bad data into a computer and you will get bad analysis out. There is a multibillion dollar industry whose only business is to expose you to data…..information…..that profits them. It is centered around your TV, your smart phone, your radio, even the pump at the gas station. Soon your refrigerator will be in on it. Some, possibly most, of the information that these people are selling you is bad for the development of your character.
How can you protect yourself?
There is only one way. You have to pre-filter the information that you allow into your life. You have to pre filter the information that you allow to shape your character.
Here are some of the things that I try to filter out of my life. You need to make your own list:
“Entertainment” that centers around killing people……most crime shows, most westerns, most war movies. Over half of TV shows include violent content. By age 18 a typical young person has witnessed about 10,000 murders on TV. By comparison, only 1/3 of 18 year olds have been to church 1000 times. For most young adults, the number is drastically lower.
Late night TV. Johnny Carson has been replaced by talk shows that are selling a political agenda.
Smart phones that will provide you with information that proves that what you believe is right and true……no matter what you believe.
Filtering out this information will create a giant void in your life. How do you fill that void?
Call a friend on the phone…….and talk.
Join a club.
Read a good book.
Volunteer.
Get involved in serving others.
Get active in your church.
In short…..you need to become more discriminating in the sources of information that you incorporate into your character. This will not be easy.
You are swimming upstream.
“When you dance with the devil…… the devil doesn’t change…….you do”
Nicholas Cage commenting on a violent film in the movie “8 mm”
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Jesus commenting on how what we see shapes us, Matthew 6:22-23, ESV