Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

• James 1:2-4

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

• Romans 8:28

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
    but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

• Proverbs 1:7

You will say, “How I hated discipline!
    How my heart spurned correction!
I would not obey my teachers
    or turn my ear to my instructors.
And I was soon in serious trouble
    in the assembly of God’s people.”

• Proverbs 5:12

I recently downloaded a flower sorting game.  There are many such games, but this one had a “Hard” option on the home screen.  I started playing it, and it required using up all my boosters, and then running out of time, watching idiotic advertisements to get one more minute of play, just to have a virtually impossible task.  They overdid their “hard” option.  I became irritated, and a voice asked, “Why do you play the game in the first place?”

That was an interesting question.  The answer for the general public could be as numerous as there are people who play games, but let me narrow the focus to games that are downloaded onto computers and cellphones (and other such handheld electronic devices).

I confess that when I got an Atari computer back in the day, I spent hours using a word processing software package to write short stories and books, never selling any of it.  One of those things about not having an agent and no agent would touch my stuff without me being a proven published author.  The standard Catch-22.  But I also purchased some game cartridges that the boys loved, and I enjoyed playing them too.

After carefully dodging the boss who relied on me on one hand and tried to find ways to fire me on the other hand, I would go home each day and play a mindless game just to escape.

After new gaming systems came along, my sons decided what games were the latest “good” game, but most of them involved shooting people.  The back story might be that you had to shoot the evil guards to rescue the fair maiden, but let’s be honest.  A lot of people shot the guards imagining they were the boss who drove them to the emotional state where they had to escape this life by going into a fantasy world where they were the hero and there were no rules.  And when you died, you just hit the reset button and started that game level over again.

With the empty house syndrome, I got rid of all such killing games.  I do not like what it does within your mind.  You can deny that happens, but you might be surprised at yourself if you film yourself playing the game and then watching the film.  A brain scan might scare you.

I like puzzle games that keep my mind sharp.  I have none on the computer, but I have a few number puzzles, word puzzles, and even some jigsaw puzzles on the cellphone.  The flower sorting game was a non-first-person shooter game that would not fit in the aforementioned three categories, but if you applied numbers instead of flowers, you get a number game, a dumbed down numbers game, but…

So, I started playing video games to escape.  Now, I do so to sharpen my mind, expand my vocabulary, and overcome the blahs of writing.  I will not admit to writer’s block, but my head gets fuzzy, and I just need a break.  Doing a simple crossword puzzle or an expert Sudoku clears the cobwebs and I feel relaxed.  Using countless boosters to clear flowers from vases just to get full vases where no matches can be found is tedious, irritating, and blood pressure-rising.  All those things put my mind into more of a fuzziness than when I left the computer for a break.

And I deleted a game recently, actually two games.  As I played harder and harder levels, my mind was well engaged, but I found them addictive.  I have an app, or is it a widget?  It tells me how much time I have spent on each phone activity.  Note: talking on the phone is usually so small of a number, it rarely is on the list.  So, is it really a phone?

But back to my point, when this widget tells me that I have spent hours playing a game, I delete it.  Why delete it?  Does that not mean that you like the game?

My life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  If I spend hours playing a game, those are hours that I do not spend writing or researching.  Game playing is not part of that equation.  The short little puzzles are great at hitting a reset button in my brain, but hours points toward addiction.

But back to escapism.  The Scriptures above were selected because of that thing.  If we play games because the trials at work are too hard to handle, are we rejecting the plan God has for our lives?  We need to learn how to thrive in crisis mode.  Me need to know how to rely on God rather than escape from the trial.  When all things are meant for our good, I think some of those things will make no sense until we see Jesus face-to-face, but if we rejoice in our trials, God will give us the “why” on rare occasions.   And when He does, we will not be faking our rejoicing.  We will be praising God that we had measurable growth as a Christian due to the trial.  We might miss it if we simply escape.

And why do we escape?  Some bosses are sadists.  They persecute because they enjoy the emotional rush by exerting their power over other human beings.  But some demented souls have an ulterior motive.  If you can learn from their torture, you will become a better employee, able to handle more tasks, able to lead others into difficult projects.  They might even say of you as the team I was part of said of me.  “The impossible done while you way, but miracles may take a little longer.”  And no, I was no miracle worker, but to someone who had not endured the baptism of fire, it seemed like a miracle.

If you continuously escape and fail to learn from either the discipline or abuse, you miss what the boss intended to do, if he had such motives, but you really miss what God intended for you to learn.

Your reason for playing a game on your phone might be different, but I think escapism is near the top of most people’s lists.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.