You Should Be Watching

I love watching anime. I'm sure that this comes as no surprise to any of our regulars at Checkpoint Church or To The Point readers. One thing that I've recently discovered is that anime providers (Toonami, Funimation, CrunchyRoll, VRV) all hold different places in my brain depending on their stinger music for their product. My favorite is the haunting "A-NI-PUH-LECKS" of the Aniplex theme. These infectious little ear bugs are hard to craft, but addicting once developed.

I was watching Funimation the other day and got to thinking about the impetus of their slogan: You Should Be Watching. That must have been a tough one to pitch. It's a bit presumptuous, right? Should I be watching? Odds are I should be doing something else. Exercising, working, filing my taxes, whatever. But then I realized—I am a Nerd Pastor who writes weekly devotionals on these shows. I actually should be watching. It literally is my job.

One step further, then—why do you watch? What's your should for the media that you consume? Is it purely to fill a void of boredom and complacency? Or do you watch to discover great stories? Are you a writer? Are you looking for inspiration?

At Checkpoint, we are consuming media to find the Creator within the Creation. We watch as an act of exploration. Adventure. Discovery. We want to find out what makes these artists do their thing and what role divinity might take within the stories that they tell. We don't assume foul play, but divine play. And, so far, God is found in all of it. So, we keep adventuring.

What's your why? Feel free to let us know in the comments of the blog version of this newsletter or reply to this email. We'd love to know what inspires you.