Chuck Colson tells about one prisoner he met who had been on death row for fifteen years. His name was John Irving. John was allowed out of his cell for only one hour a day. The rest of the time he was studying to become a minister– preparing to meet or serve God.

Noticing that John had nothing in his cell but a few books, Colson offered to give him a TV.

“Thanks,” John said, “but no thanks. You can waste an awful lot of time with those things.”

Can you imagine wasting time on death row?

Colson goes on to say, “The real evils of the entertainment industry are not the violence and profanity–offensive though they are. No, it’s the banality: the sheer waste of time. When we turn the TV on, we turn our minds off; studies have shown that the analytical areas of the brain nearly shut down during extended TV viewing.”

By Dick Innes, Daily Encounter www.actsweb.org/detoday . Used by permission.