Knowing What's Noteworthy

"meditate on these things"

Philippians 4:8

The NBA season has ended.  And without verifying my facts, I believe that the San Antonio Spurs lost in seven games.

I have no idea who won.

I'm kind of excited about not knowing.  It feels like an achievement.  I don't really care about basketball; it's the one sport (outside of boxing, which I don't consider a sport) that I don't care to watch.  But every year I know who's in the playoffs and who wins the championship.  It's a major sport in the US, so the coverage is hard to avoid.

And I'm not really sure how I managed my blissful ignorance this year.  I spent the past week watching a lot of movies with my Awesome Girl.  We did a lot of "girl stuff" while the guys were in NYC.  So we didn't watch TV very much.

As a rule, I don't really watch the news.  I watch a one-hour show on politics every day, but avoid the stuff on the nightly news because it's too depressing, and because I don't think it allows me to live out Philippians 4:8, which says: "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy ~ meditate on these things."

But even though I don't care much about the news,  I still manage to find myself more up-to-date than I'd like to be on celebrity divorces, reality star exploits, and ongoing trials.

Not much true, noble or pure in most of that stuff.

But now I've realized it's possible to be even more out-of-the-loop than I was before, and it makes me want to achieve that.  I'm not talking about being oblivious to the important things going on in the world.  And I'm not criticizing anyone who makes room in their head for this year's NBA champs.  Heaven knows I pay attention to baseball.

Oh, and the Chicago Blackhawks just beat the Boston Bruins in Game 6, to win Lord Stanley's Cup. 

But there is knowledge that is not beneficial, and takes the place of what is.  Sort of like eating "empty calories".  I'm simply talking about refusing to make room in my brain for what's frivolous to me.  And if that means actively fighting it by filling my head with more of what's virtuous and praiseworthy, so much the better.

~ "Study to show yourself approved unto God,

a worker that need not be ashamed,

rightly dividing the word of truth" ~

2 Timothy 2:15

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