Observation: It's very typical for Paul's letters to conclude with moral advice, and the letter to the Roman church is true to form. He uses some of his last paragraphs to warn the church about smooth-talking, self-serving leaders who only wish to divide the church. Paul uses an excellent turn of phrase: "I want you to be wise in what is good and guileless in what is evil."
Application: I feel convicted by this verse because I've become a little more lax in my (supposedly) daily devotions. And on the other side of the coin, I was just observing that my Netflix tastes of late are of the gritty, "true crime drama" variety, where the "good guy" (the person you're supposed to root for) is in fact not good at all, but smart, gifted, and able to make the case that whatever awful thing they're doing is justified.*
I have heard people talk about a "Paleo" diet before, of focusing on eating only foods that would have been available to our ancestors of 20,000 years ago or more: no refined sugars or processed foods. It's one of the newer trendy approaches. Maybe there's something to that. I've never been much of a dieter.
But I do wonder what it would be like to go on a mental and spiritual diet, where I pay close attention to what I see, hear and pay attention to, so I can strive toward that goal of being "wise in what is good and guileless in what is evil." Obviously we can't give ourselves selective amnesia and truly forget all the ways we've seen people be awful to each other and to God's creation. But that doesn't mean we have to give huge amounts of time and energy to movies, music and TV shows that we know are making us more cynical. I find it really ironic that we make every effort not to expose our kids to bad words, violence and sex in media, but don't really give a second thought to the sheer tonnage of images to which we expose ourselves as adults, as though our minds are an impregnable fortress.
And on the other hand, if we really do believe that prayer and scripture are important for our minds, why are we giving so little space in our minds and hearts, so little time in our days, to becoming "wise" in what is good? There's always new stuff to learn and apply from God's word.
Maybe a media diet might be something to try for me. I wouldn't necessarily cut out anything that's beyond a PG rating, or pretend I'm 9 years old again. But I'd pay attention to what I'm watching and listening to, and whether I'm getting plenty of spiritual nutrients from prayer and scripture, along with the occasional car-chase, Kung-Fu battle or gritty crime drama. Maybe I can become a little more "guileless" in what is "evil". Kind of like the "Encino Man" of early 90's fame, maybe I can get to a place where I can see our culture and time from a different perspective--not taking for granted that vanity and back-biting are the norm--and strive for that ideal that we are born anew each morning by God's grace, and our past sins really are past.
Prayer: God, help me to get wiser in what is good, and get to know you better. And help me to be a little more guileless in what is evil, watching my mental and spiritual diet along the way. Amen.
*In case anyone cares, I really am not prudish when it comes to entertainment. I realize that a whole lot of our culture's best art, the stuff that makes us really think about who we are, is meant for adult audiences. But that still doesn't mean we have to have a straight diet of it.
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