Red Pill Blue Pill (Choose Wisely) No. 1 | Orthodox Christian Accessory | Hardcover Journal

This is the aim of the enemy of the human race, the devil: to continually sift us like wheat, forcing us to constantly spin in the whirlwind of entertainments and diversions, not allowing us to collect ourselves and contemplate our inner state, our soul.

- Archbishop AVERKY (Taushev), The Struggle for Virtue: Asceticism in a Modern Secular Society, p. 96

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You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in the Eternal Liturgy of Wonder. And I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

- The Matrix (roughly paraphrased)

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ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

- Gladiator

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How much time do I spend pursuing entertainment? How much money do I spend on entertainment? 

If I was to tally all of the hours per week on entertainment vs prayer: what would that ratio look like? 

If I was to tithe 10% of the time I spend on being entertained, to prayer instead: how much more time would I spend in prayer? 

If I was to repeat that process every month, tithing 10% of the new reduced sum, how much more would I be praying after a year? How diminished would be my need for entertainment? 

How much less would I be tithing to an industry that despises me and mocks my values and my Lord? 

How much more of my income would be freed to give to my local parish, or the local food back, or the homeless person in front of me, or the local crisis pregnancy center? 

How long would I persist? Would I give up after a few failures in sustained prayer, and allow the glowing screen to pull me back into its cold embrace? Or would I turn away from the screen, pull myself together, and keep going?

What if I don’t want to pray more? Do I at least want to want to pray more?

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief! - Mark 9:24