The Dumb Things
I have an issue with useless things taking up space in my head, I don't like it. I don't want to know what TikTok is, I don't want to know who these mumble rappers out here are, I don't want to know about anyone who is considered a social media “influencer,” I just don't want to know, it’s useless information and it takes up brain space. Our five-year-old daughter gets it, she understands to the point that she has even coined a term for the useless stuff that so often occupies our heads, she calls them, “The Dumb Things.”
One day, I was listening to what she was watching on her iPad and I was dumbfounded at the sheer stupidity of what I was hearing. Granted, it was kids YouTube but still, no academic lessons, no moral lessons, no practical day to day lessons just a bunch of what seemed to be adults disguising their voices and playing with toys. Apparently, this is a thing and people even get paid for it. “Turn it off.” I demanded. “This is dumb.” She just looked at me to the point where I felt I owed her an explanation. “I mean, tell me what this is… what are you watching? How is this edifying to you? How is this adding to your life? All it is doing is taking up space in your head that could be for something useful.” At face value the program wasn’t harmful but, as far as I am concerned, when you watch dumb things, listen to dumb things, hang out with dumb people, you become dumb.
Growing up, our mother and father used to tell us that, we would be judged by the company we keep, guilty by association. It makes sense. What, who are you listening to?
“I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Adam said to the LORD. “Who told you that you were naked” (Gen. 3:10-12). That’s a good question. Who had Adam and Eve been talking to? Better yet, who had they been listening to?
“Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” Satan asked Eve (Gen. 3:1, Job 26:13, Isa. 51:9, Rev. 12:9, 20:2). “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die” (Gen. 3:2-3). Why was Eve, first lady of creation, talking to the enemy? Why was she answering a question that was directly challenging the Word of God? “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (4-5). Eve listened to the serpent as if, all of a sudden, he knew more than the God who Created all things, who created even him.
Even people who are not familiar with the Bible seem to know the story of Adam and Eve. Indeed, they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and it started a trajectory of sin that man has been on ever since (Gen. 3:6). And it all started because of the dumb things that came out of the mouth of the enemy, dumb things that Eve chose to listen to, dumb things that Adam chose to acquiesce to. They allowed an enemy of God to influence them through his words. Ephesians 5:6 says, “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” “Psalm 1:1 says, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly…” The job of a believer is to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to anyone and everyone but it is not for us to be influenced by the lies of the enemy.
What have you been listening to? Who have you been listening to? Do you make it a practice of entertaining the enemy? His words, his notions not only take up space in your mind but you will find that they eventually become occupants of your heart. And hey, the words of the enemy usually sound good, at the time. I’m sure Eve was like, “I never thought of it that way, God Almighty who created me perfect and gave His perfect creation for my use and enjoyment probably lied to me to keep me from being like Him, even though He created me in His image. I’ll have a bite after all.”
God does not lie (Num. 23:19). Adam and Eve didn’t drop dead on site, but they did die. And because of their decision, all mankind has an appointed time of death. God does not manipulate or deceive His beloved creation, He loves us and has left everything we need to know in His Word, all we have to do is stop listening to the dumb things and listen to Him.
