Boiling Frogs

This post must begin with a confession. I love pop culture. I am a sucker for countdowns of any kind. When I had cable, I was almost always tuned in to E! Entertainment News or whatever the current celeb-reality show was on VH1. If you give me a choice between Southern Living or People magazine while waiting for a my nail technician to get the pedicure water just the right temperature, I'm always picking People. Sometimes, my conscience gets the best of me, and I'll pick a news magazine over US or OK!, but not always. I have a cousin who prays for celebrities. She genuinely grieves when a celebrity marriage fails because she's honestly invested energy into praying for the couple. I'm not that good.

These are just the facts. You need to know this about me.

Not having cable has helped curb that appetite a lot. I don't have cable because I can't afford it, not because I'm trying to be holy or anything. I'm just saying ...

Anyway, about boiling frogs. It is said that if you place a frog in boiling water, he will hop right back out. But, if you place a frog in tepid water and slowly increase the temperature, he will adapt until he simply boils to death.

My love affair with pop culture has been much like boiling a frog I'm afraid, and it took leaving "civilization" for ten days to realize it. I was getting ready for work the other morning at my house, and the radio was on the top 40 station. I thoroughly enjoy their morning dj's, and I rarely pay attention to the lyrics of the songs until they're already stuck in my head. On this particular morning, there was a catchy song I didn't recognize playing when I turned off the hairdryer. For whatever reason, I actually listened to the lyrics. I got about two lines in before I ran for the buttons to change stations! It was so appalling to me. I was shocked, horrified, and disappointed that this station that makes me laugh so much in the mornings would make that song part of their format. I was indignant!

That indignation lasted about two seconds before conviction set in and the tender voice of the Holy Spirit showed me that my conscience had been slowly boiling to death for a long time now. The truth is that the song I turned off is appalling, but so are most of the others ones I don't turn off. The truth is that I should have been shocked and horrified that I let that trash into my room that morning, but the reality is that I'd been pumping a whole lot of other trash through those speakers for way too long.

For much of last week, there was a sentence that kept running through my mind, and I wanted to blog about it. "Sin is never the right way." It was the Holy Spirit's way of reminding me that sin is never justifiable, and it's never something that God can or will bless. In His grace, he doesn't drop me dead, but he could, and he'd be right to do so. This week, the thing that keeps running through my head, something that I'm going to have a much harder time really heeding, is "Sin is not funny." I know many of you are thinking, "Well, duh, Kristen." And maybe you have a much healthier conscience and sense of humor than I do. If that's the case, I am so glad for you. The truth is, I don't. I laugh at all the wrong things. I am not easily offended. I am quick to forget that a Holy Spirit dwells in me and is grieved by anything that is dishonoring to the Lord or separating God from the world He sent His Son to save. The truth is I rarely change the channel be it on the radio or the television. And, the truth is, I should. A lot more often than I do.

There is an old joke about Baptists and beer. It says don't take one Baptist fishing with you cause he'll drink all your beer. Take two. They'll never touch the stuff.

I think that's a lot like the way I approach pop culture. If you were sitting in my car, in my home, in my room with me and something like that came on the airwaves, I'd pretend to be horrified, and I'd quickly switch it something more edifying. But, when you're not there to watch me pretend to be holy, most of the time I don't bother. I just let it play and pretend like I'm not boiling.

God, give me stronger convictions. Teach me to love what you love and to hate what you hate. Make me aware of and sensitive to things that grieve your Holy Spirit. Forgive me for allowing myself to be so comfortable in such slowly boiling water. Give me courage to jump out before the temperature can be turned up another notch.