For better or for worse, media cultivates our imaginations. Our minds feed on a symbolic language of images mixed with emotion and intellectual content. Things like news programs, sitcoms, and newspaper articles work to impart information in a particular context, shaping our perception of how that symbolic language is used. Language needs a context and perception is always about perspective (ours, theirs, neutral, biased, whatever). Whenever we perceive anything, our imaginations are actively engaged in the act of association, working within a context and perspective to make sense of the world. In regular conversation there is the opportunity for give and take where two people can come to understand each others’ perspectives. The thing about media, though, is that there is no dialogue. We are told something without the opportunity to respond in a way that has much effect. We are taken along for the ride without any effort on our part. After a while, we begin to absorb the perspective of the “text” we are engaging, but the form of the text itself remains unchanged. Whether we choose to internalize it and make the perspective of that form of media our own is an entirely different matter. We can ask the Holy Spirit into our experience of media in hopes of understanding how we might grow through our consumption of it.

I have no idea how many virtues I have been introduced to by various forms of media. Books, movies, art and television shape my own wants and desires (for material goods, to seek a loving partner or not, to find a fulfilling job, to seek strong friendships, etc) in ways I have only just started to comprehend. Likewise, it has informed my understanding of things like courage, love, hope and honor. This is both good and bad. It is good in so far as ideas and images have allowed me to see in new ways. At the same time, there are other things I have witnessed that I might now wish I never had seen at all.

I want to live a good life. I understand this to mean that I want to be loving and kind. Oftentimes these virtues require other virtues like patience, hope, and trust. The problem is that these virtues cannot simply be downloaded and internalized without a constant process of reflection and action and a willingness to respond to grace. No matter how many times I see examples of love on a screen, I still need to learn how to live love in my own relationships. Since my relationships with people are dynamic and always changing, there is rarely a set way for me to act. I need to keep looking at my friendships in new ways, taking into account my own desires, perceptions, and needs as well as trying to understand the other person’s. This is especially difficult when I either do not like that other person’s desires and perception or when I misunderstand it. This is where prayer comes in.

The Holy Spirit works with what it has to work with. The images I put into my head, the things I fill my mind with, this is some of the language the Holy Spirit speaks to me through. Rather than simply accepting the thoughts and ideas placed in my mind by various sources of media, I need to reflect on how they affect my perception. In prayer I can consider all of the images presented to me by various forms of media and notice how they affect my own desires. I can learn to understand thoughts that appear to be good, and others that stand in opposition to the good. Asking the Spirit of love and compassion into my understanding of media seems somehow just as important as asking the Spirit to be present in my relationships because my perception of wants and desires affects my relationships. The life of a Christian is one of thought, word and deed. These things are interconnected. The media I consume plays a major part in informing my perspective, and if I am not asking the Spirit into my understanding of what I see, I am cutting myself off from the potential for transformation. Prayer allows me to consider my entire life, relationships and perception of the world (real or imagined), as a place where the Holy Spirit is working to transform creation at all times.

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