Bread and Circus

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

“Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt,” this is a famous quote from the Roman poet, Juvenal. The more time I spend thinking about it and reading the ever-alarming studies being released, the more I am convinced that modern life is geared toward sedation. 

Bread and circus. We eat as much as we want and never have a non-entertaining moment. It’s hard to be watchful when we’re basically being turned into zombies. We are so full and distracted we’re unable to see the world falling around us. 

Every app and tech company has one goal in mind: to dominate as much of our attention as possible. The mandate is to get as much of our screen time as they can because with that time they can shape our desires and affections and ultimately turn our hearts towards their products. 

After the murder of Migos rapper, Takeoff, I had a friend ask: when did society start breaking down like this? I think it’s been broken but we’ve been asleep for too long to notice. 

Be Watchful

Jesus asked his disciples to stay awake while he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. They fell asleep. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:8 that the Devil is always looking for someone to devour. We’re easy to devour when we find ourselves asleep…or awake but distracted. 

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. In his book Dynamics of a Spiritual Life, Richard Lovelace talks about how the enemy knows our weaknesses and knows when best to attack us. Far too often, we don’t give weight to this reality. Instead, we pretend spiritual warfare isn’t real, which makes us susceptible to attack. 

I understand how busy we are. But this busyness is what distracts us and causes us to fall asleep. Work has us too busy, so we don’t read and pray because we need to veg. We have to shuttle the kids off to the next event, so there’s no time for family devotions. The church frustrates us, so we live divorced from the community of God.

Each little thing is another crack in the armor. Another thing that lulls us away from communion with God, and puts us to sleep. 

Autopilot

Think about going for a drive to a place you go often. Doesn’t it feel like autopilot sometimes? You look up and the next thing you know, you’re there. Going through life on autopilot can be dangerous. 

Most of the time when we pick up our phones, it’s not because there was a notification, it’s out of habit. Most people eat the same 7-10 foods on repeat, go to the same places, and follow the same routines. Most people are just coasting through life on autopilot. 

I don’t think this is how God intended for us to live. In order for us to be watchful, we must be awake. There’s a sense of urgency there. Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. That’s an offensive attack. You can’t be on the offensive if you’ve fallen asleep. 

The Devil would prefer if we drowned in our bread and got lost in the circus. But to be sober-minded, to be watchful, is to pay attention to what we’re taking in. We have to know what’s informing us and who we are in this world. 

I’m concerned for us when our responses to the events of the world are formed by social media and not scripture. Our positions and talking points parrot popular narratives rather than trying to discern what God has said. 

When we find ourselves asleep, temptation is not far off. Sin is crouching behind the door, just waiting for the opportune moment. Not only should we flee temptation but we must do as John Owen said: be killing sin, or sin will be killing you. 

Believe me, I know full well this is not easy. None of our lives are a perpetual movement forward, we ebb and flow. So much of life has felt like two steps forward and one step back for me. 

When we’ve fallen asleep, what often happens is a slow descent back downhill. Like a snowball in the same movement, the fall backward eventually becomes an avalanche. I don’t want that for any of us. 

Livers & Laborers (I’m gonna come up with a better name for our little community), be sober-minded, be watchful, and understand where the bread and circus are trying to sedate us; because that is indeed the difference between life and death.