Last updated on May 28, 2013
Imagine for a moment that you are playing one of your favorite video games. You’ve controlled those pixels for hours and hours and now you’ve finished the game. Suddenly, the screen goes black, the credits roll, and a sense of pride and satisfaction swell up in you. The mission has been accomplished. The goal has been completed. Victory is yours, you good and faithful player!
Now imagine for a moment that you are that character in the game. This present moment that you are living is not some video game but real life! This life is your video game adventure! In other words you, yes you, are the star of the show, the main character, the soldier, the warrior and the hero. You have been created and put in this created world made especially for you. The world isn’t made by a video game designer, but by Almighty God Himself! God also knows the reason why He put you here. He’s given you a purpose, which is your calling, and a mission, to tell people about God’s love for them. Ultimately throughout your life’s adventure the Lord your God is hoping , if your willing , to conform you to His image – in essence, that you become more like Jesus Christ.
We all know that being conformed to the image of God is a life time event. Fortunately for us, God does not leave us to fend for ourselves. Instead, He gives us His Spirit and His Word the Bible. The Bible serves as life’s player’s guide, inspired by God and written by people just like you and me. As God knows all about His creation, we can usually count on a perfect creator knowing what is best for his creation. A video game designer often knows the best possible strategies, resources, and paths to take to finish the game without issues. It’s no surprise that writers consult with said game designers when crafting game guides (at least the retail version). Thank the Lord that He gives us His player’s guide so we can have abundant adventures in the big video game that we call life. ” …I have come that they may have life , and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
Playing video games, from my experience, is wonderful and fun. Better than any video game, though, are the real-life adventures that occur through the sixty six books of the Bible (Editor’s Note: a Protestant Bible!). The adventures are unique and incredible; they are inspired by God to teach us all about God, ourselves and life in general by echoing our experiences. Each person God chooses to tell us about their life’s adventure had all the things that we feel as human beings. They each had their share of pressing problems, pain, suffering, trials and tribulations, fights and even battles. Like, real ones.
They felt and encountered discouragements, defeats and at times hopelessness as well. They were genuine human beings and had real things happen to them, good and bad. However, each one did not stay in those really bad states of mind or those really negative places for long (well, depending on your perspective, of course!). Instead, each one made a choice: to ask God to help them and set their minds and hearts to trust Him. Clearly, we can see it was their faith that made their adventures most astounding! Many generations of people around the world have enjoyed reading and applying them to their lives for centuries.
I have many favorites, and I imagine that you do too. David, the shepherd boy without any armor who one shots (This sounds like a World of WarCraft player talking) a giant and kills him, shows us the power of God in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. Then there’s Abraham a man beyond retirement age (If not “being able to walk and move around age”) yearning for a child. He then becomes a father in old age, a physically impossible thing, and he leaves a legacy as the keeper of a promise to all nations.
Gideon was a farm boy (a winemaker, in fact) faced with leading an army of 300 soldiers against 70,000 Midianites with little more than loud noises. Jospeh’s brothers sold him into slavery when he was a young boy; after many years, a complete foreign Jew became functional leader of Egypt just beneath Pharaoh. His brothers beg him for food and, even bow to him later in his life. Daniel turned into Babylonian hostage/college student and later became adviser to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and Darius of Persia. Not to forget, of course, Daniel’s sentence to a lion’s den left him completely un-scarred.
Caught in a storm out to sea and afraid for his life, Simon Peter gets out of the boat and walks on water. Jonah gets swallowed by a big fish (not a whale!) but doesn’t drown or find himself digested. Paul, a murderer of Christians and an enemy of Christ becomes the exemplary Apostle to the Gentiles. They were all amazing adventures! A metaphor to their very own “video game” that we call life! Like many video games, we know we must slay the enemies to move forward. We must defeat anything and everything that prevents us from completing and beating the game. Psalms 60:12 declares, “Through God we will do valiantly, for it is He who shall tread down our enemies.”
As we read God’s Word, we know we will have battles in life. We must come dressed (GEARING UP?!) for the adventures that may come our way. Being a child of God gives us the advantage; God’s already taken care of our preparation as we simply have to put it on. Ephesians 6:10-12 tells us “Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Is our life not unlike video games full of warfare, in physical, mental, and spiritual ways? For we fight in opposition of the powers of darkness. In essence, we are God’s soldiers and whether we realize it or not our lives are lived on the front lines of the battlefield! Only in God’s strength can we go forth and continue. Humbling ourselves and submitting to Him is the only requirement for true victory! Let us not forget though we fight here on earth to do what is right and to go the right way as we face obstacles and challenges and enemies we cannot even see sometimes. God did not say it would be easy, but it would be worth it. He has already won the fight and He will forever be the Victory!
Let us see ourselves as God sees us strong, victorious, and loved. Judges 6:12 sends us off with this to say, ” And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him , and said to him, “The Lord is with you , you mighty man of valor!” So what’s in you adventure?
