What I've learned from video games. (But mostly the Bible)

I don't mind telling you that in my life I've spent a lot of time playing video games.  Looking back at my youth and college days I guess you could say there was not much I'd rather do.  In college I'd buy a game, play it whenever possible, obsess over it when I wasn't playing it, and then put it on a shelf after I defeated the last "Boss".  Then off to the next video game.  And so it went.  As life advanced and responsibilities increased, video game time decreased, but not the lack of desire for it.  Especially when traveling.  I'd buy a game on a 2 week job and play it every evening after the days work.  Until I beat it of course.  I've even replayed games to see if I could make the story turn out different.

A few weeks (or was it months) ago in our Sunday School Class we were reading through Ecclesiastes.  If you've never read it, I suggest doing so.  King Solomon (the most likely author) had more possessions than anyone before him.  The book of Ecclesiastes documents his quest for happiness.  He documents the results of denying himself nothing that his heart desired, and the emptiness of it all.

"Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 2:11

Here is a man who had 700 wives, and 300 girlfriends.  Obviously he got whatever he wanted.  Built vineyards, houses, monuments for himself, but found no joy in them.  He realized that life is but a breath, and someone can easily mismanage and ruin all that he'd built within a generation after his death.

I may be the only video game addict I know but I doubt it.  Once I start on a video game I can hardly stop until I've beaten it.  Then I get to watch how the story ends and the credits roll.  Thing is, I've played very few that were worth playing through again.  Then you are left to look for the next video game to obsess over for 2 weeks and then put on the shelf. 

Now for the tie-in. 

Video games are basically life accelerated.  In two weeks you can sneak aboard enemy ships, free hostages, learn to be a Jedi and save the Galaxy, etc.  all in the course of a few days or weeks.  But in the end, what have you gained?  Nothing really.  This need not only apply to video games, but could be a book, a TV show, whatever. 

Whether you're waiting for the season finale of 24, reading, playing video games, etc. you are living vicariously through something of the world.  The only thing that truly matters in this world is that we build a relationship with God and do our best to see that our friends/family do the same.  I'm going to paraphrase C.S. Lewis because I can't remember the exact quote, but essentially the only reason we're born is chiefly so that we can die. 

You and everyone else you know ARE GOING TO DIE.  No one gets out of here alive.  I'm not sure how many of you have read the entire "Chronicles of Narna" series, but as always I highly suggest it.  In the book, "The Silver Chair" Eustance has just watched the death of a dear friend, King Caspian, who has aged many years in the time Eustance was back in England.  After a solemn moment, in which Aslan weeps, (I'll try not to spoil the whole thing) King Caspian is restored to youth and life.  Eustance is reluctant at first to approach or touch him, fearing him as a ghost. (probably a slight paraphrase)  "Don't be an ass." Says Caspian.  "I've only died.  There are very few men who haven't."  Which is strange to think about but certainly has a ring of truth to it.  Our chief responsibility then, it seems should be to bring as many people to a relationship with Christ as possible.  But how to do that?  Bring yourself into as close a relationship with Christ as possible so that He can show you how.  To me that is time much better spent than "Saving the Princess."  My apologies to Mario.