Cutting Cable Funk

Last week my wife and I did something I’ve been thinking about doing for a very long time. We cut cable out of our lives. To some, that may be a huge thing. To others it is a step that was done pretty easily at one point or another and affected them very little. For me, it ended up affecting me in a way that I did not expect.

I was never a big cable tv viewer. Prime time shows, sitcoms, reality tv, none of it really ever hooked me. It may have kept my interest for a short time but I quickly became bored. My wife on the other hand loves sitcoms, but found herself mostly replaying the entire collection of a select few, over and over again from different streaming services. I think the only reason we held on to cable for so long was the fear of losing access to live sports. These days there are so many ways to remedy that absence, so we finally decided to make the leap and end our cable television relationship once and for all.

What happened next surprised me. I had wanted to add Apple TV boxes to our main tvs for some time as I am pretty deeply embedded in the entire Apple ecosystem and the boxes allow me some features I really like on my television, such as the doorbell camera popping up when someone arrives and what not. So when we cut the cable I figured no better time than now. Through getting them hooked up, and downloading all the different streaming apps we currently use, I found myself exploring what each app offered and found myself down a very deep rabbit hole of a specific streaming service, Apple TV+.

I was amazed by the quality of production as well as the giant jump in video and audio quality that the box itself was affording. While exploring, I discovered a show, “Ted Lasso”. My wife and I absolutely love soccer. Tanja has played most of her life, all the way up until a couple of years ago, and her love for the sport became mine. We became Sporting KC season ticket holders, and I became a passionate fan very quickly. It was an easy decision for us to start watching this wildly popular show.

Over the course of a week we had completed the two seasons available. The show is about an American football coach who knew nothing about soccer taking over a Premier League soccer team in Europe. The show tugged on different heart strings, but also took you on a journey that exposed the coach’s difficulty dealing with Anxiety. I myself battle a severe anxiety disorder. Although it has gotten better over the years as I have discovered coping mechanisms. The aid of my wife who at times is extremely patient with me as I work through an attack combined with my faith in God have allowed me to live much more comfortably with this disorder. Attacks are few and far between these days, and when they come, they are identified quickly and dealt with healthily. But this experience, cutting cable, and diving into what seemed like a never ending catalog of shows, changed things in my life quicker than I could ever imagine.

It had only been a week. 7 days. And all of a sudden I found myself in a funk. My anxiety was peaking. I found myself turning on the television when I would normally be in my home office spending time with God. So quickly my daily intentionality had been replaced by random television shows that I hadn’t even heard of a week before. And then all of a sudden I realized…. I’m in a funk. I had so quickly begun focusing on the negative instead of the positive. In a matter of a few days I had begun questioning everything. My recent career leap, my immense growth, my life changes, and even our geographical location.

Now let me be clear. I don’t think watching television in whatever capacity is a bad thing in and of itself but I do want to be even clearer in saying that we reflect outward what we choose to prioritize. Where we spend our time and our focus will define who we are eventually. I don’t believe I found myself in this funk simply due to watching a little too much programming during a week period. Instead I found myself in this funk as the result of ONE thing. My priorities had shifted. What I chose to value, as proven by how I was choosing to spend my time, had changed. I was no longer putting God first in my life. Instead of shaping the rest of the day around the time I know I need to spend with God on a regular basis, I was shaping my time with God around other priorities and quickly it wasn’t fitting in at all.

What snapped me out of this funk you ask? Simply shedding light on it. It’s something we hear a lot, but it is so incredibly true. Just by talking about the funk with someone I trust I was allowing light to shine in a place that had quickly turned dark. And when it’s brought into the light, it is much easier to see. It is much easier to work on. It is much easier to put a game plan together. Today I’m thankful that I was able to quickly identify the problem that was beginning to manifest in my life. I’m thankful that I had someone to talk to about it. I’m thankful that God’s grace is never ending and that as I mess up, he will continue to extend that grace continually because I’m going to mess up, again and again and again.

So is the answer to stop watching television altogether. I think not. I think that is extreme thinking that can lead to its own set of problems. But I do think that I need to daily take inventory of where my priorities lie. Not where I think they lie, but instead, “Did I spend quality time with God today? Did I spend time in the word? Did I spend time in prayer? Am I prioritizing this time above other activities?” If I keep my priority where it needs to be, then of course enjoying appropriate times of entertainment is fine as long as we are mindful of what we are putting into our minds, because whether we like it or not, what we put in, will eventually work its way out as well.

I’d love to hear your examples of things that you have found yourself putting before God and what worked in tipping the scales back for you in the comments. I think this is something we all struggle with in different ways. That thing we end up prioritizing above God might be different but the struggle is all the same. The enemy will use whatever he can to sneak into the cracks of our lives if we aren’t diligent in keeping God at the center of everything in our life and being intentional about keeping him as our ultimate priority.

“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” (Luke 12:34 NLT)

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable and right, and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me–everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” (Phillipians 4:8-9 NLT)