Saturday, January 05, 2013

Do We Live in the Twilight Zone?

It seems like every year during the holidays there is ALWAYS a Twilight Zone Marathon being played on TV.  Chris and I have always loved the Twilight Zone.  Some might say we were obsessed with it!  At one point before we had kids the Twilight Zone came on fairly regularly on TV.  We used to record every episode so that we could get the collection of all of them.  I know this really dates me, but this was back in the days of VHS tapes and there was no such thing as being able to "buy" TV shows!  (Who knew!!)

Even today, every time we see an episode on we get totally engrossed in the episode.  I know this is weird, but we usually even know the name of the episode just by seeing what's going on without looking at the info button!  So... when there was a marathon on over New Years, we found ourselves watching numerous episodes.

Most of the original Twilight Zone episodes, were made it black and white; which tells you how long ago they were made.  At the end of every episode Rod Serling always had a moral to the story that had just played out on the screen.  What was interesting to me in watching it this time was how relevant the "topics" and "morals" of the stories still were today.

From people being forced to have plastic surgery to look like everyone else, to a librarian being called obsolete (even back then) as well as others being called obsolete just because certain people didn't deem them necessary anymore, to people so afraid of what might be happening to them, that they chose to believe everything that came out of a physic machine, to people thinking that because they looked different than everyone else that somehow meant there was something wrong with them that needed to be fixed, and on and on I could go.

Who would have thought that all of the topics from a TV show in the 1960's (actually it started in 1959 - which by the way was before I was born!)  :-) would still be so relevant today.  Who would have thought that you could watch those shows 40+ years later and still find great value and ways to live in them.

Any yet... isn't it the same with God's Word?  The bible was written about events that took place thousands of years ago and yet if we take the time to read it, it is still relevant today in every aspect of our lives.  From teaching us how we should treat others, to telling us how to help those around us, to telling us not to judge others because they might be different than we are, to showing us the many ways that God worked and still works today, and on and on I could go.

It's really easy to get caught up in a TV show.  Maybe it's time we get just as caught up in reading God's word.  It's still relevant today.  It can still teach you a great deal.  You can read a passage that you thought you knew and it can mean something totally different to you based on what's going on in your life which makes it fresh and new every day.  It still tells us how to love others and that above all things God is about Love.

Maybe in 2013 we can get back to what God commands.  To Love everyone, to not judge others, to put others before ourselves and again LOVE!

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, 
it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 4-8, 13


Blessings!