It started way back with MTV's Real World. Then Survivor took MTV's concept, added a competitive element and was the first step in making reality TV a regular part of prime time reality whether we like it or not.
Since then, judging by the polls, there are plenty of viewers to go around. From the sleazy Temptation Island, to the watchdog Big Brother, the travel adventure Amazing Race and the packaged Pop Stars, love it or hate it (or love hating it!), reality TV seems to be here to stay.
The birth of this new genre makes me wonder at its popularity and what it may reveal about us as people.
On these shows, it seems like the cameras are always on. Everyone can see everything that happens. That is Reality TV. And it seems to have some strange appeal to the general masses. Why?
Today, there were no TV cameras in your life, no pauses for commercials, no one to vote you off of your island. There were no endorsement offers based on what brand you happened to wear. There was just you in your environment. That is reality.
Today, I sat in Houston's Herman Hospital as my mother and my brother disappeared behind the swinging doors of the surgery ward. A whispered prayer, an encouraging smile, and they were gone. A kidney transplant was underway.
It was a day saturated with unspoken tensions and quiet fears. Would my brother's body accept the foreign organ? Would my mother's body handle the shock of losing a kidney? It was a major event in our family's life…. And yet it was an unknown event. None of the other thousands of patients in the Houston Medical Center had any idea of what was happening in our reality. They were too busy dealing with the challenges of their own existence.
Perhaps it is the same for you. Good day or bad day. Tragedy or triumph. Praise or pink slip.
The people around you have no clue what is happening in your reality. It is taking all they have just to deal with their own lives… their own ups and downs that no one else seems to care about because it is taking all they have just to deal with their own problems…. And the cycle goes on and on and on… All we long for is to find someone who cares!
Maybe that is partly why Reality TV is so attractive. It lets us offer to the TV personalities something that we long for ourselves -- to have someone watching who actually cares about what happens to us...
- Someone who cares that your grades in college algebra are too low to transfer.
- Someone who cares that a rude customer insulted you.
- Someone who cares that your boyfriend is pressuring you.
- Someone who cares that your girlfriend wants to break up with you
- Someone who cares that your parents are not getting along.
- Someone who cares about your reality.
The day after a Survivor series ends, people are talking about what happened to the competitors on the show. People (amazingly) seem to care!
Wouldn't it be so cool if we knew that there were people who cared about what happens in our reality? Wouldn't it feel great to know that your moves were being observed by someone who gave a flip about what happens to you? Wouldn't it be sweet to realize that there was someone who was looking out for your best interest… Someone who was constantly tuned in to your reality because they cared about you?
I could go for that. That is the kind of reality I could tune in to.
There is someone watching… More than one someone… This can be comforting, or it can be frightening.
Through the hustle and bustle, you may feel people are judging you. You may even be the one judging yourself. Or you may even at times feel like life is unfair and judging of you when you find yourself asking "why me?".
If you've ever felt the pressure of life, pressure from others, or pressure from yourself getting to be too great, there is someone watching who's goal is to help you. Even if you do not know Him. Even if you claim to be His enemy, this truth remains. His goal is to help you. He wants to be your ally.
The only way to move beyond survival mode, the only way to really live (instead of just surviving), the only way to make it through the boot camp of life on earth is to give your life to your ally.
His name is Jesus. If you will give your life to Him and let Him lead you, then you can smile about the truth that someone is watching you and who wants you to help live life the way it was meant to be. You do not have to live in fear of all the oppositions and hardships in life.
Remember… someone is watching!
Mike likes painting his face green and wearing cowboy hats. Copyright 2001 iamnext.com May not be used without permission.
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