The Locked Secret Room Inside our Head (1)

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23

San Carlos was the most famous university in Cebu when I graduated from high school. So in the summer of 1991, I went there to enroll in the engineering department. The problem was, I did not know it then that there were two campuses – the Main, and the Talamban (engineering) campus — so I ended up going to the wrong campus, the Main.

Way back then, the Main Campus students already had this refutation of being well-off, and sophisticated. In short, it was a scary place for people like me. Much more that I went in wearing a plain white t-shirt with “Lucy Marketing” printed in front, a faded “Used” jeans that was already too small for me since I outgrown it, a weather-beaten rubber shoes, and a pair of black-rimmed glasses, like that of Superman’s. I felt like a local street dog entering a cage full of Poodles, Chihuahuas, Huskies, Mastiffs, etc

Since it was my first time in the campus, I went around looking for someone to ask for direction. That was when I spotted three lovely ladies sitting on a concrete chair under a large old tree. They were reading books though I could sense that they spotted me approaching. (Romance time) “Excuse me, may I know where is the guidance counselor’s office?” No reply. One girl just stared at me. I repeated my question twice as politely as I could, but still got the same response. Each time I ask the same question, the volume of my voice got lower and lower as my fragile self-esteem got smaller and smaller. Finally, I left, hurting. The unspoken message was loud and clear, “We don’t like you!”

Watching television shows, and movies that depict violence, drugs/alcohol abuse, sex, greed, bad politics, bad weather, bad news, etc. is like facing those three lovely ladies. You watch to be entertained or informed, but you leave with some unspoken messages tattooed to your brain, messages that could hurt you spiritually. Some are so subtle you can’t even put your finger on it, though you can feel its ill effect in your thoughts and behavior.

For example, when you “often” see in your favorite noontime show lovely and curvy ladies dancing or gyrating like there’s no tomorrow, wearing skimpy attire or showing more flesh than required, then you receive “unspoken” messages like it’s OK to dress like that, it makes you look lovely and sexy dressing like that, girls nowadays like being sexy, etc.

Another example is when you “often” see teenagers in your favorite TV series engaging in pre-marital sex and swapping partners every other episode, you receive an unspoken message that pre-marital sex is normal (and if you don’t go along with it, you are too old fashion), sex and love are the same (most definitely not), etc.

Take note that I highlighted the word “often” because the more often we see something, the more it will look normal to us. This is where the danger lies.

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