There were a few astonishing statistics I saw the other week regarding youtube watch time. Some of these numbers are almost unfathomable so bear with me. The first stat I read was that youtube has on average 122 million individual users watch their platform every single day. First of all this number is absolutely astronomical. The fact that every single day in a 24 hour window the number of people watching youtube is greater than in most countries. To give perspective there are 11 countries in the entire world that have more then 122 million people and youtube has that many viewers every 24 hours.
The next statistic that was even more mind blowing was that youtube every day has a total of 1 billion watch hours. This means out of the 122 million users per day they accumulate between all of them 1 billion hours per day on youtube. Now let’s try to add some perspective to that number. If you were to live to 71 years old the total amount of time that you would live would be 600,0000 hours. For our lives to equate to one day worth of watch time on youtube we would need to live our entire life of 71 years 1667 times. Not just one life time, or 2 or 10. We would need to live 1667 times in a row and that would equal youtube’s watch time for a single day.
Now why bring all this up, why does this have any context into our lives? There is a concept ive been thinking about a lot recently and it’s called “ungodly progression.” What I mean by this is all the time we spend in our lives that is not moving towards progressing God’s will. Take a second to think about your day. Most people have their day broken up into 3 main parts. Sleep work and your remaining time. Most people work 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Sleep for 8 hours a night and then have about 8 hours left after work and sleep.
As we think about the open hours we have in our life there needs to be a thought of whether we are spending our time on Godly progression or ungodly progression. If we think about the statistics of people watching youtube we can start to view how much time is spent on ungodly progression in life. Not to say that every hour of watching youtube is ungodly or not inline with our missions for God it would be safe to think that a large percentage of time spent on youtube could be classified as ungodly progression. The majority of these 1 billion hours per day are not used on people depthing their relationship with God.
Even just for argument’s sake, you take 10 percent of the 1 billion hours as believers using youtube as a tool that leaves 900 million hours per day that people are spending on this platform. Now picture we as the body of Christ took that 900 million left over hours (reminder, just in one day) and that was used for the kingdom of God. Just an example that could be 900 million 1 hour sermons. For us to even rationalize that is unfathomable but the point being made is thinking about how many hours are spent by humanity on things that do not glorify God.
This is where we as believers have to be aware how we are spending our time and the impact we can all have by sowing into the kingdom. Every single day you are met with the option to invest into the Kingdom of God or the next thing that has no bearing on the kingdom. This could be social media, TV, video games whatever it may be and what the army of evil wants you to do is the time you have open to give to God they want you on these platforms.
Now to be very clear this whole concept is about moderation. God worked a day of rest into the human calendar. What I’m referring to is the time we spend that is extra we know we could be investing into the kingdom of God.
A big part of this tactic from the army of evil is how there is a manipulation of our brain into investing into things that are not God’s kingdom. For example, have you ever played a video game on your phone? There is a game called Candy Crush, the phone game has over 3.6 billion downloads with over 20,000 levels and the average person spends 4.3 hours per week playing.
As you extrapolate these numbers year after year you end up with really substantial numbers. For example 4.3 hours a week times 52 weeks is 223 hours in a year. If you did this since candy crush was launched in 2012 at the time of this writing that would be 14 years and a total of 3130 hours of time spent crushing the digital candy. Now the reason these forms of entertainment are so addicting is because they appeal to our desire for progression.
Naturally we are created to worship God and progress our relationship with Him. This same idea of progression is manipulated by the entertainment industry in every single way. As you’re playing candy crush and beating level after level you feel empowered and like you’re accomplishing something.
Jesus gives us a beautiful illustration of this concept in Matthew 6:19-21 and He tells us
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
I love this illustration by Jesus. He shows us that the lowest of the low can even destroy our treasure here on earth. The Moths (bugs) , vermin and thieves can steal what we find valuable here on earth but in heaven the economy and treasure is different. It is not able to be affected by the lowest of earth.
Just like anything else in our lives moderation is key, but we also need to evaluate our hearts. Just like Jesus said in Matthew 6:21 for where your treasure is there your heart will be also, meaning that our heart needs to align with things that provide Godly progression in our lives. Things that are going to help our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and most importantly put you on the path that God has for you.
This does not mean every single believer needs to quit their jobs and go into ministry, what this means is we all have a specific job given to us by God and talents to glorify God. We need to align our hearts to that mission and fervently pray to find what that path is from God.
The enemy and his army are going to steer you down the path of investing your time into all the ungodly things and we need to take those thoughts captive and not fall for the tactic of torment.
There was a point in my life where I really struggled with this tactic of torment and there was a verse in the psalms that really helped me. In Psalm 119:1-2 the writer says
Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the Lord.
Blessed are those who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart
The reason this was so impactful on my life was because I started to ask myself “ was I seeking God with all my heart”. As I started to spend time on ungodly progression I used this mental frame and redirected myself to things that would instead be Godly progression.
Don’t let progression from things that don’t benefit the kingdom of God dictate your life and invest your time, effort and resources into what God is calling you to do and who He is calling you to serve.