I grew up without a TV. I know, that is hard to imagine. And boy, did I envy my friends. Especially those with their own TV in their room. To this day I have problems concentrating when a TV is running in the background. I can’t have a game on and try to work. Either I don’t get anything done or the game will start to annoy me and I turn it of. But in hindsight I am thankful. I learned to always watch mindful. I watch things, because I want to. Not, because they are on TV. And I have to choose to concentrate on one thing. Because I know, two won’t work. (An exception are mindless and repetitive tasks, which I can still perform while watching something. But I don’t have to concentrate on both simultaneously.)
When you enter a home, you can generally tell, if they have a TV or not. Even if you can’t see it. The living room has a clear orientation. Nobody would have a sofa facing away from the TV. The angle between couch and entertainment will never be more than 90 degrees. My childhood living room had no noticeable focus. We did not even have a sofa. Only two armchairs. That was a place to sit and read. There was no need to fit a bunch of people in the same place looking in the same direction. There was nothing to see. This room was mainly for dining. Consequently my parents had a big table in the center of the room. We could extend it to host more than 20 people. And we did.
l am a digital immigrant. I grew up in an analog world. But the digital revolution started in my adolescence. When I was 13 I got my first PC. And to this day I know the specs. (Intel 286 CPU, 30Mb HDD, 1Mb RAM, 12” b/w screen, 5 1/4” floppy disk drive. Yes, I am that old.) And since then I always had one. So l may be a digital immigrant, but on the threshold of being a native. And when I left my parents to move in with some friends, I took my PC. And so did my two roomates. We all had our separate rooms, but they shared certain similarities. They all had one bed, one desk, one chair, and one computer. The two most used objects in all our rooms were the bed and the computer. If we wanted to sit in front of the same desk, someone had to bring a chair or sit on the bed. That didn’t happen very often. We did not have a lot of overlap. At times we did not even see each other for days. Our separate lives revolved around university and work. Sometimes we watched a movie together and helped eachother if necessary. But that was about it. That all changed for me, when I got married and moved in with my wife. It was no longer my room. It became our room. Or, to be more precise, our apartment. Even though my wife and I spent a lot of time together before our wedding, the quality and kind changed dramatically. Mainly because two worlds became one. It wasn’t about fitting her into my calendar any longer, we merged the calendars completely. Of course we didn’t spend every moment together, but her presence changed everything. It was very obvious when looking at the design of the living room. Besides having infinitely more flowers than before, the computer was no longer the centerpiece. We still had no TV, but we had a couch. For two. It was clear to everybody, that our relationship was the focus in this household. But I love her, so I did not only tolerate the change, I embraced it.
When you get to know someone, it is possible to find the centre of their life. Just like with the TV, almost everything will be oriented towards something. Take a young mother, for instance. All she is doing revolves around the newborn. That example is fairly easy. With workaholics it is slightly more difficult to tell. They could be doing it for the money. Or, more often, they could be in it for the fame. They might be trying to prove themselves. Or they are not really workaholics, they just need the money. But usually you can tell, by looking at the rest of their life. Are they stingy? Are they constantly self promoting? Are they worried, that their family does not have enough? If different areas point to the same thing, you found their centre.
A phrase often used, when talking about becoming a Christian, is “leting Jesus into your heart”. (That comes from Revelations and the picture of Jesus knocking at the door of our hearts.) But aren’t there two ways to do so? I can give Him a room to set up in His own fashion. We share a few areas. l can call on Him in times of need. I can present Him to friends and family (or hide Him, when necessary). He helps me with the dishes (metaphorically speaking). But I have my own room. The place, where I decide. Set up in my own fashion. And that room has a centerpiece. One thing to which every other object is oriented. It may be money, it may be fame. It could be our family or our job. Or what ever we please. But it is not God. He lives in the other room, you know. But whenever we need Him, we can pull Him out and show Him around. Or we give Him the all access pass. We let Him take control. Let Him rearrange thinks to His pleasure. Sure, it won’t be the apartment we are used to. But when we not only tolerate the change, but even welcome it, we will find out, it is way better than before. God is not only a really good interior designer. He is the best. And He knows our apartment so much better, than we do. So only He can make the best out of it.
