I admit I’m not really into video games (though I play a mean FreeCell!). I find myself lost, and not particularly wanting to find my way as gamers explain the levels of their latest games to me—and how long it took them to move from one level to another, or all the way through the levels. I couldn’t even muster excitement when my grandson told me he was hoping to get more levels of “Angry Birds” because he had mastered all the levels he has. This idea of endless new levels seems to be a pretty blatant attempt to keep the gamer’s attention—and so keep the gamer.
But it dawns on me that there is a parallel here with our relationship with Jesus—“The Jesus Game”.
Yesterday I was talking with a man who has been seriously growing in his faith for the last two years. He was telling me that he has a new perspective on things around him (he found it a bit unsettling). He said it is as though it is an entirely new level of life.
Click.
I shared with him that in my 40 years of following Jesus I have had many such experiences. I get to the point where the Christian life seems “normal”. I understand it, and how I relate to the world around me as a Christian. It even begins to feel somewhat comfortable (too comfortable?). And then I read something in the scripture or run head on into a major life challenge or the Holy Spirit fires a neuron in my brain around a certain thought and it is as though the entire world changes. It doesn’t, of course. I do. I see things differently.
This has happened to me again in the last year. As my roles in life gradually shift, I find myself wanting to “play the game” the way I used to. But I can’t. I have changed. The expectations people have of me have changed. My understanding of who God is and what he is doing in my life has changed. I’m not playing on the same level as I used to.
So, I begin to play the “The Jesus Game” at a new level. Each level brings me closer to an understanding of who he is (not that I’ll ever get the full understanding—he is infinite and I am not). Each level gives me more tools with which to approach the problems life throws at me. Each level gives me new pieces of knowledge (insight, perspective) into what life is really about—what is important and what isn’t. So, I take these tools, insights, pieces of knowledge, abilities…and I apply them to life as I encounter it in order to complete this level, and perhaps move on to the next.
When will it all end? “The Jesus Game” has a goal. It may be difficult to reach it, but when the game has accomplished its purpose in us, the result is righteousness and peace.
Take joy in playing the game!
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