Riptide

I read a recent column in World Magazine entitled Riptide. I had heard of a riptide in a book I read about survival. I guess if you live in areas around an ocean you would know about them but living in Colorado I was ignorant. In the World article, riptides were used to describe the problem some Christians get into because of the influence of media such as songs, movies and television.

After reading the article I did some reading about riptides so I would understand them better. It was very interesting. A riptide can happen anywhere there are waves. Basically you have the wave coming toward shore and then the returning water forms a riptide. The problem is that if you get caught in a riptide it pulls you out into the ocean. It’s futile to try to swim back to shore as you will quickly become exhausted. Instead, if you swim across the rip you will soon reach the waves that will help you back to shore. By observation you can see the riptide and avoid it.

Well that is my poor lesson on riptides so back to the World article. A point of the article was that we can become deeply influenced by the media we expose ourselves to. An example is the many times where adultery is glorified and we find ourselves cheering when the couple comes together. Very subtly we have been influenced. We may agree with the Bible that adultery is wrong but our actions betray our beliefs.

Because we enjoy entertainment, we like to tell ourselves that we can listen to certain songs, watch certain movies and television and it won’t have a negative effect. In our ignorance we swim into the rip. Before we know it, we are far from shore. Or maybe we know what we are doing and prefer to believe that all the warnings against riptides are a bunch of legalistic nonsense.

I’ve seen the casualties: Christians who “all of a sudden” did something that seemed so out of character; unthinkable things. Maybe the only surprise should be that anyone thought that sowing isn’t followed by reaping. The diet of bad media leads us to actions that contradict beliefs. As the World article pointed out: “…the pictures in our heads sometimes influence us more than the words of the Bible, even when we know the latter to be true.”

Maybe it’s friendships. We start out thinking that we are going to influence the unbeliever by being their friend. It’s a noble aspiration if we are the one who leads in the relationship. What seems to happen so often is that soon the unbeliever is in control and we are fellowshipping on their level. They won’t come with us to church but we go with them to the bar. We don’t want them to think we are too holy so we watch the movies they want to see and we laugh at jokes that would cause Jesus to blush. Soon we find ourselves out to sea and becoming exhausted trying to get back to shore. Tragedy occurs unless we get out of the rip.

So what are those riptides? What is it that keeps pulling us away from Jesus? Is it something we are watching or listening to or the people we hang out with or maybe something completely different? There is a law of sowing and reaping. As Galatians 6:8 says, For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. What seeds are being planted? The crop is on the way.

If you want to learn about riptides, here is a very interesting video.



Philip