i’ve spent bits and pieces of the winter break hanging out w/ channing and playing the Wii Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword game. the game is fantastic! i have been away from video games for so long that i suck at it which is thoroughly entertaining for channing to watch me fall off of cliffs and die.

i’ve been thinking about why we like video games so much. the graphics, the story line, and the music are absolutely incredible. it’s like you’re in a whole different world. and that is where i think our love for video games lies. we like to immerse ourselves in the story, in an alternate world/universe, an alternate reality.

this reminded me of a sermon that Dave Huynh preached on Revelation 3, when John writes to the church of Laodicea that they are “neither hot nor cold.” Dave described this as when you’re there but not really there. he talked about how so many people live their lives vicariously through other things on the internet, or how people have secret lives that no one knows about. this is a dangerous thing. it’s dangerous because we’re saying that our present lives are not good enough, and that we would rather escape to an alternate reality and lose ourselves in it to hide ourselves from the things we face in our actual reality.

it was good for me to have these thoughts. it’s good to not fully immerse myself in some other world when God wants to do so much in the real one that He’s given us. we need to know that the power of the Holy Spirit is so powerful that we can experience a rich and meaningful life in actual reality and not in alternate reality. i will enjoy playing this game in bits and pieces with channing laughing at my skills or the severe lackthereof. however, we can never allow video games (or any other idol) to be anything more than a hobby or a temporary relaxation so as to take the place of our actual reality.

I have come that they may have life and that they would have it to the full