I don’t feel anything most of the time. That’s why I love musicals so much, and movies, and tv shows that make me cry. Because they elicit emotion in me.
I’m the first to admit that my emotional quotient is the lowest of my intelligences. And these shows, these creations, help me to see how other think, feel, and react. Apart from being entertaining, they allow us moment to dwell vicariously in multiple situations.
And it’s good to have that empathetic capacity. It’s good that it’s a secondhand experience.
It also allows us to flex our brain muscles, practicing on how to reflect and think upon different scenarios in life without being part of the drama.
I often play a mental game of what would happen if the characters on the screen were part of a church. Would they react in the same way, make the same decisions, if they had God or godly people in their lives?
This game becomes much more challenging when it comes to the really questionable (“problematic”) reality shows, like QEFTSG, or RuPaul’s Drag Race.
It’s also interesting to see how ostensibly real people manifest spirituality in their lives. It allows me to hear different perspectives, and see how they stack up against what I know of the Bible, which is not a lot. It’s an exercise of, “what can we learn today that we don’t know yet,” and, “what topic in the Bible are we being led to search today”.
In a way, they illuminate the Word of God even more for me. Against a backdrop of such darkness, being forced under a bushel by misguided unbelievers, the light of the Word shines even brighter to those who are determined to bask in it.