Why Not Play Your Life on Legendary?

Video games have gotten far more “realistic” since the days of pixelated two-dimensional plumbers dealing with monkeys. I use quotation marks because they are often unrealistic by portraying a world of science fiction weaponry or magic. Also, the games I know allow players to run without getting tired and usually heal their wounds instantly by contact with a health pack that promptly vanishes after use. But the three-dimensional graphics are amazing.

Another kind of realism has also developed. In some games, “you” or the character you control can gain abilities with experience. You “level up.” This concept goes all the way back to the game “Dungeons & Dragons”—played with paper and dice long before first- and third-person shooters were developed for computers or gaming consoles.

Again, the realism here is also unrealistic in some ways. But the point remains that people have spent hours immersed in stories in which they play characters that develop by dealing with adversity. They gain the ability to fight monsters by fighting monsters.

(By the way, if you despise video games, there is still something to learn here. What we are talking about are stories. The games are attractive, in part, because they involve adventures within a plot that transforms a protagonist. The hero conquering the dragon through a quest is a concept that goes much further back than video games.)

The point is that one is changed by going through crises and thus one becomes equipped to be victorious over the villain.

No one questions this premise. If doesn’t matter if we think the games are a waste of time or not, or if we find them enjoyable or not. We all realize that this element in the games makes them more compelling for those who like to play them.

Then we get upset with God that our lives aren’t easier, as if he has no legitimate interest in transforming us.

I am painting with a broad brush here. If none of this applies to you, then just ignore this post. I am overgeneralizing for the people who might be helped by reading it.

Not only do we pretend that it is somehow inexplicable that God doesn’t grant us our dream lives, we also often imagine that the reason we don’t shine more brightly as amazing people is that God hasn’t given us the proper circumstances in which to do so. The fantasy element in the video games obscures the whole point of stories. We fight dragons in virtual reality but assume there is no opportunity to do so in real reality because our problems don’t come to us in reptilian scales or breathing fire.

But what if God watches us live our ordinary frustrating lives the way gamers watch “e-sports” online? What if he thinks that our lives do have dragons that we should feel privileged to fight them? As G. K. Chesterton wrote, “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” Or to bring Chesterton into the twenty-first century: Video games don’t teach children there are boss fights. They already know there are boss fights. Video games teach children that boss fights can be won.

People play games on the “Legendary” difficulty setting in order to show off or because they are genuinely curious about how well they will do. Why wouldn’t God want to see how we would do? If that seems too anthropomorphic (God being omniscient and all that), I will rephrase: Why wouldn’t He want to show us what we can do with Him? After all, God got quite frustrated with Moses when he insisted he wasn’t up to playing the game on such a challenging level. And, when Barak demurred from accepting a quest without help, God accomadated his doubt but also made him lose a lot of his experience points to someone else who completed the mission.

God seems to think we can do amazing things. But we disagree. Other times, we disbelieve the things God has for us to deal with are really amazing.

But the promise of transformation through trial is clear in the Bible.

• “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2–4 ESV).
• “Through him [Christ] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:2–5 ESV).

Of course, we can think of all sorts of glorious trials and ways of suffering that we would consider worthwhile and heroic, at least in our self-flattering imaginations. But one thing that makes trials hard and sufferings real is not seeing any point to them. Those frustrations are the ones we are called to count as joy. We rejoice in the continual irritations we have to deal with. They mature us.

Or at least trials should mature us. “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts” (Proverbs 17:3 ESV). But if we meet our trials with a sense of outrage or despair, we may blunt their effectiveness. Don’t do that. Pray as you have needs and wants, but rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Recently, I got Level Up Your Life by Steve Kamb from my local library. While there was stuff in it I didn’t find convincing, some of it was brilliant. This post is obviously in part a reflection of what he wrote on making one’s life a game. In fact, I realized I had read some snippets on his website a few years ago and I now wonder if his content helped me write my book on Proverbs. It is not a Christian book at all, but it contains some good advice and helpful perspectives.