Are video games your god?

Pheonix28

Pheonix28

Slave to Christ.
Are video games your god?

I know this will be controversial, even though it shouldn't be. My goal here isn't to cause strife; it isn't to be judgmental or accusative. This is something that I had to learn and grow in my own life. My goal is to get you to look at your own life, to question yourself and see what the reality is.


Ask yourself, what are you most passionate about? What do you spend the majority of your free time doing? Is it playing video games? Is it growing closer to God? It is serving others? I can assume for a large majority of the people here it is playing video games, after all we are a gaming group.

What you are most passionate about tends to say a lot about you. In fact, you could say that what you are most passionate about becomes your god. Is there something in your life that you are more passionate about than God? Do you spend hours of your time playing video games, while only spending a few minutes reading or praying? Does God get any of your time? Do you neglect your relationship with God so that you can beat that next level, or get that next achievement?

When you're upset do you turn to video games or to God? When you're stressed to you pray or do you dive into a game? When you're hurting do you turn to the Bible or do you play to get your mind off of it? Are you playing games for enjoyment or to escape your problems? Take an honest look at these questions. It is easy to say "I pray" but in reality you still lean on the games instead of God.

I'm going to take this a step further, do you pass up opportunities to serve others so you can serve yourself? Are you missing opportunities to share God's love with others? Being a Christian doesn't mean just receiving God's love and grace. We are called to share that. Jesus didn't die just so we could live out our lives doing what we want. He died so we could share that with others, so we could bring others to Him.

This being a Christian gaming group, it is easy to say "But I'm talking about Christ to others while gaming". This might be true, and this is one reason I love this community. However, are you using that as an excuse to keep you from really sharing Christ? From my experience playing, while there are occasional conversations about Christ, it isn't something that takes front and center.

If you look at Jesus' life, He wanted everything from His followers. He didn't want a little chunk of their day, a little piece of their life.
Matthew 8:19-22, Matthew 19:16-22, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:25-35. He wanted to be front and center, the first and only priority in their lives. His expectations didn't change for us.

Gaming isn't a bad thing, when done in moderation. Gaming is addicting, and I think most of us can attest to that. By all means, continue to game, but don't let it become your god. Don't let gaming be the most important thing in your life. Don't let gaming be above God. If you 'don't have time' to read your Bible and pray daily then you surely don't have time to play any games. If you can't find time for God but find time to game then gaming has become your god.

It isn't (or maybe it is) a conscience decision to let gaming become your god. It is very easy to let things take over our lives without our even knowing it. It doesn't have to be gaming, it could be sports, work, drinking, eating, sleeping, money, possessions, sex. Any of these things could become our gods if we let them.

I found out in my own life I had let games take over God's place. Gaming wasn't the only thing that took His place, but it was a big one. That doesn't mean that I have quit playing video games, or that I think gaming is 'evil'. It doesn't mean I don't still enjoy to play games, or read up on games, or talk about gaming. What it does mean is that they no longer take the stage in my life. They are no longer front and center. Gaming is no longer my god.


Who or what is your god? Be honest with yourself. Is it video games? Look and see what makes you most excited, what makes you most passionate. If you're more excited about a game than you are God then gaming is probably your god. This is the sad hard truth, and it is scary.
 
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As a Christian gaming community, we need to keep asking ourselves this question.

Don't dismiss it or throw Phoenix under the bus. Read it seriously.


Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm busy revving up the bus...
 
Good news: My Bible commentary collection still outweighs my game collection, and I haven't built a shrine to Mario. haha

Seriously, though. This is a good post, with honest reflection. We'd all do well to evaluate ourselves over the issue of how and where gaming fits into our lives. That said, we should also keep in mind that this may look radically different for one person than another. And, like Pheonix said, judgment has no place in any conversation that follows.
 
I only had a chance to skim Phoenix's initial wot but he reminded me of something I picked up at a breakout session at our regional conference last week. We were discussing a movement called "the huddle" it's kind of a guided small group thing. One of the topics they deal with in the huddle is Rest/Work, making sure there is a balance between the two. (Side note: our guide pointed out that Adam and Eve were created on day Six, so the first whole day humans were around was on the Sabbath. He suggests we should work from out rest rather than rest from our work. Still unpacking that...) They break activities down into three groups Bad (its obvious what that is) Good and Good. The first good are good activities which do not build the kingdom, the second are good activities that build the kingdom. The take away was that there are good activities in our lives which do not build the kingdom. They shouldn't be cut out completely, but rather they may need to be trimmed back (like a tree or bush) so that they are healthy and productive.

Gaming can fall into that first good category where we need to monitor it and at times trim it back so that it remains a healthy diversion helping us recharge so that we can be more effective in the second category of good as we work to build the kingdom of God.
 
You are poking the wasp nest again Pheonix, good for you. I agree that it should be an ongoing evaluation not only of our game time, but other hobbies and free time activities. For those of us who are on the retired, disabled, or disabled/retired list it is even more difficult delineating what is what. One note on combining the two. I frequently join the GW2 Bible study on TS and leave my game idling in the background so I can keep tabs on chat, and if possible invite people in.
 
I tried posting a new thread about the next few things I'm going to discuss, but that was 3 days ago and I haven't seen it approved. However, it goes along the same lines as what Pheonix is talking about above and I figured this would be as good a place as any to "hi-jack" a thread.

I want to share a resource that has helped me greatly over the past couple years. It has much to do with what consumes us in everyday life. Pheonix brought up a great point about what we put before God in our lives, this has to do with more the emotional side of our being. Is there an attitude or "personality trait" that puts a barrier between you and God? It could be many things, and this site is one that has great testimonials from famous individuals to everyday people like you and I.

http://www.iamsecond.com

Check out the link above. I visit this site regularly, and they have some cool swag if you're really interested. I got a bracelet.

This has really helped me overcome certain things in my life and grow my relationship with Christ. I hope it can be of use to the rest of you as well.
 
Part Time Player said:
I tried posting a new thread about the next few things I'm going to discuss, but that was 3 days ago and I haven't seen it approved.
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Sorry about that but your thread was displaying in a bizarre manner in the admin new threads list so I've been missing seeing it. It's approved now.

Also, so you know, basically the forums automatically moderate threads/posts with links made by members with low post counts. No one put it or the above post in moderation.
 
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This thread is wonderful and necessary and a very important read for any Christian gamer.

I could go on at length (and probably will, at some later time), but that's the very condensed summary of what I wanted to say.
 
It is so easy for us to get wrapped up in things that really don't matter. So easy to get caught up in 'everyday life' that we miss what is really important. We are so quick to turn from God, whether we mean to or not. Look at the Israelites back in the OT. They were constantly turning from God.

Jesus sent the rich young ruler away because He was unable to give up his possessions to follow Christ. If we cannot give up our time, then we are no better than that rich young man. He wanted to do what was right, he wanted to follow Christ but he couldn't overcome his love for his 'things.'

So do we love games, money, food, politics, etc. so much that we forget about following Christ? Are we so engrossed in our own lives that we ignore the only thing that really matters?

On the flip side; God wants us to enjoy life. He just wants to be number one in our lives. He wants us to lean on Him when we're hurting. He wants us to rely on Him when we are upset. He wants us to talk to Him, to praise Him, to worship Him. He wants us to come running into His arms when something happens.
 
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Patriot said:
Eh? Where does the Bible state that God wants us to be happy?
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Kahiel said:
I was kind of wondering the same thing. The "abundant life" doesn't necessarily mean a happy life on this side.
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I'm sorry, I should have chosen my words better. I usually go with what works in my head, and I understand that sometimes how my brain works isn't how everyone else does. A large majority of people use 'happy' and 'joy' synonymously, and I understand they are not the same, but that's getting into semantics and completely sidetracks this conversation so I will leave it at that.
 
That's ok, I make the same mistake often. We just have to be very careful how we use words with our society the way it is.
 
Pheonix28 said:
A large majority of people use 'happy' and 'joy' synonymously, and I understand they are not the same, but that's getting into semantics and completely sidetracks this conversation so I will leave it at that.
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I wondered if you were thinking along those lines, but I didn't want to put words into your mouth. Thanks for clearing it up.
 
And, I'm pretty sure that God wants us to be happy. He just has a lot better perspective than we do, and knows that he is the only true source of happiness, and that destruction puts a damper on things.
 
I think I have trouble with that because it is an emotion as opposed to something like the fruit of the Spirit:

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

The fruit tends to be something that is lived out, while happiness is experienced. It is more fleeting. Not that there is anything wrong with feeling happy, just that I don't see it as a real high priority to God as opposed to something like holiness and the sanctification process. And sanctification quite often generates feelings quite different from happiness.
 
I agree completely that it isn't a "real high priority." But I would say it is a (albeit lesser) goal of his.

He loves us, after all.
 
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