Am I an 8-Foot Consumer or a 16-Inch Participant

I love Seth Godin. Well, I don’t actually love Mr. Godin, because I don’t know him. But I love what he writes. I read his daily blog, uh . . . daily. His approach, attitude, and action points are all 99% on-target for me. In today’s Seth blog post, he quotes Ted Leonsis who once said that “the difference in the TV and the internet is TV is an 8-foot activity where you are a consumer, while the internet is a 16-inch activity where you participate.”
As is normal for me, that translated over into my faith. The Holy Spirit began His information interpretation to me.
With the Lord, am I an 8-foot consumer or a 16-inch participant? This morning, did I sit down and look into His face, awaiting his Word to me to interact or did I stand at a distance to see if He would entertain my whims? With people that God placed in my path today, did I stay back at an 8-foot distance, staring non-committedly, or did I engage at 16-inches, caring about what is going on in their lives?
Isn’t it interesting how the Lord knows the answer to that question and the people we are around know the answer to that question, but we can be so distracted that we don’t remember, which means we consumed, we took, and sadly, we lost.
So ask yourself today: Am I going to be an 8-foot consumer of the status quo or a 16-inch participant in the abundant life?
“Wherever you are, be all there.” I have no idea where I originally heard or read this, but for many years I have used this phrase. Even though I too often fail at this, I do work hard at it. It’s a great one-liner to remind us all to participate, to engage, and frankly, to be alive.