Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, Joab led out the armed forces. He laid waste the land of the Ammonites and went to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and left it in ruins., Joab led out the armed forces. He laid waste the land of the Ammonites and went to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and left it in ruins.

• 1 Chronicles 20:1-17

Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin.

• Psalm 106:43

I caught myself wasting time the other day.  I was playing a silly game on my phone.  Each time that I finished a level, it said that I was in the lead amongst everyone in my group, but I had 10-12 people nipping at my heels.

Then, I noticed that they were the same people and every time that I finished a level, I was two levels ahead of the number 2 player and 4 levels ahead of the third player.

Okay, if we are playing the game at the same time and the skills are about the same, that could happen.

But then, my phone needed charging.  I took a shower.  I fixed supper and ate it.  Then I went back to see that the phone was charged.  I played another game, and I was the same amount of levels ahead of the rest of the players, down to the ninth best player.  That is statistically impossible.  Someone had to keep playing during that hour and a half or so.

Then I realized that the programmers of the game programmed fake names into the leaderboard, more than one hundred for each group of the game.  I shut off the game for twelve hours.  I came back and I was ahead of the other nine players in the top ten by the same amount.  I realized that I had reached a grouping that no one else had reached.  I was playing against fake players.  I had watched countless advertisements to try to get three games ahead of the competition, but that was never going to happen.

Don’t worry, I kept up with my writing.  It was my restful time that was wasted.

I looked up verses in the Bible that had both the words “waste” and “time” in them, and they are both quoted above.

Joab laid waste to Rabbah while David whiled his time in Jerusalem.  Odd, there is no mention of Bathsheba in 1 Chronicles, but that same whiling away David’s time in Jerusalem got Bathsheba pregnant in 2 Samuel.  Okay, I did not waste my time in that fashion.

The other verse, from Psalm 106 talks about how the people of Israel wasted away in sin when God had rescued them from danger.

Again, I sin, but not like that.

But I became obsessed until I realized what the game had done to me.  It was more a sin of omission.  I could have written a couple of posts instead of wasting my time, all the while being tricked by slick programming.

And while we need our rest, if we get too much, it takes time to rev the engines back to normal speed.

They talk about how the games have “In Game Purchases” to play the game more efficiently.  I have never fallen for that trick, but I did fall for the “In Game Trickery” to get me obsessed trying to beat someone who never was there in the first place.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.