At my church retreat this past weekend, I gave a testimony in front of the body. While I mostly spoke about my need for control (and a clear lack of control in my life), I could have talked about a lot of different ways God has worked in me. One on-going challenge for me is to stop wasting so much time. I think with the advent of the Internet, and so many entertainment options, this is as big a concern as ever.
In college, I was particularly bad with time management. I could waste an entire day doing basically nothing. I’d spend hours watching anime, reading fanfics about anime, tuning into anime music videos, and doing other endless fandom-related activities.
It must be worse today for college students with so much anime readily available.
When I graduated college, our church had a send-off for my senior class. After our dinner and presentation (the skit concerning me was entitled “Great Teacher Chuckie,” Chuckie being my nickname), we each offered some advice for the younger students. Mine was primarily this: don’t waste your life.
And while I’m not saying we should ditch all media and anime in an effort to manage time wisely, I hope you won’t waste your life being entertained. Ultimately, watching Youtube and Crunchyroll all day is meaningless. And when we realize what we can do to help others, care for the needy, and bring awareness to the suffering, all the time and resources we waste on entertainment is more than wasteful – it’s cold, uncaring, and selfish.
So watch your Zetsuen no Tempest, but then consider my advice, and go do something. After all, it makes no difference how many cool gifs we posted on our Tumblrs, but it does make a difference when we reach out and offer someone a little bit of love.