What Would You Like to Do With Your Life?: The Choice is Yours!

By Chinku Chuk Chuk

Some days ago, a friend requested me if I could be at her home for a few hours as she had to go out. I was glad to be of some help. I thought to take a scriptural text and spend some time reading it while my friend was away.

When I got to my friend’s place, I discovered that another friend of my friend, was also there, as was the teenage son of yet another friend of my friend. They were both watching a movie on TV. As I did not wish to interrupt them, I said I would sit elsewhere. But my friend’s friend wanted me to be there, with her, and they very warmly made space for me on a sofa close to the television screen.

My friend’s friend and the boy continued watching the movie, which, according to them, was a suspense thriller horror movie! The movie was almost half over by the time I had come, so my friend’s friend very enthusiastically recapped the story for me. It was all about a girl who gets adopted by a family who already have their own kids. This adopted girl looks like a child but is actually a woman in her 30s who has escaped from a mental rehab centre and has taken the form of the child and goes about murdering people, her next intended victims being the family members where she now lives.

The movie continued, and my friend’s friend and the boy sat watching it with great interest.

It has been years since I had stopped watching TV. In the past, ‘thrillers’ on TV had had a very negative impact on my mind. I remember watching a serial with a masked man haunting a girl, and a movie of a woman who was something like a ghost. After watching this rubbish, I must have spent frightful nights not able to sleep well or being too scared to be left alone at home.

I had thought I would spend my time in my friend’s place in a good way, reading scripture. But there, I could not read beyond two verses to be precise. My attention went to the movie, and I ended up watching till the end, including really horrible gory scenes.

When I realized what I had done, I felt utterly foolish. I did have the choice of simply blanking out the movie and reading the scripture. I could have said that I wanted to sit elsewhere and do what I wanted to and proceeded to do the same. It was entirely my fault that I didn’t and that I watched the movie instead, the result of which was a heavy head.

God has given human beings free will. It is up to us to use our free will wisely. I could have used my free will to choose to read scripture rather than watching that horrible movie.

While each individual has the right to decide what they wish to do with their lives, deep reflection and introspection are helpful if one wants to choose the positive, so that the effect of one’s choices can also be positive, in this life and in the life in the Hereafter.

Some people may watch ‘thrillers’, ‘horror movies’, and even ‘romantic movies’ to entertain themselves, to keep their minds off the harsh realities of their lives, or simply for ‘time pass’. Now, that is their choice, and we are nobody to judge them. At the end of the day, it is up to each one of us to choose whether we want to spend our time doing things like reading scripture or remembering God (which make us feel at peace), or watching a ‘thriller’ movie (which may lead us to be haunted by dreadful dreams and have a very negative impact on the mind).