A Plea for Growth
I have been troubled lately with something I am watching happen to people my age. It seems as though people are no longer growing up.
I remember when I was in grade six, and we finally received a family Nintendo from my cousins. I remember getting so excited, barely able to contain the feelings of joy I felt. We had a Nintendo! My parents were cautious, but allowed us to use it (with regulations, of course). I couldn't be happier. I thought it would never get any better than this.
My Dad, wise as he was, warned me that it would probably stop with the Nintendo. The Super Nintendo had come out two years previous, and he wanted me to know that we most likely wouldn't be getting one of those. Because, he said, pretty soon there will be a Super Duper Nintendo, and then another one, and another. It will never stop. Never stop, that is, until I grew up. Because, he continued, when you get older you will stop thinking about Nintendo. It won't be as important as it is to you right now.
Most things my Dad told were very true. He had the experience, which eventually proved itself many times. However, this time he was wrong. I think his whole generation was wrong, thinking Nintendo would go the way of Pacman and Galaga.
Unfortunately, they never went away.
Folks my age became hooked into video games, and we found we couldn't give them up. Why would we want to? They're fun, they look cool, and we can do things inside them that we could never get away with in the real world. It is fantasy, and it becomes more real the more time you spend with it. Like a small half-truth which eventually rears its ugly head to bite yours off years later, video games became a form of worship.
The games didn't go away. They became more intense, more realistic, more consuming, until one could never think of the horrors of not playing something for a whole day. They became a drug, and they took over our lives.
I am so thankful to God that I got out. I was spared. I see a lot of people, though, wasting a lot of time, doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it makes them feel good. It's what they live for. And due to this, we as a generation have never learned to grow up. Video games have never stopped for us. We are living our childhood to this day.
It is frightening how many Christians find themselves trapped in such a reality and don't think there's any problem with it. Four, five hours a night, killing things, using magic potions, deadening the conscience. All brings a burden to the soul, which was created to commune with the High King of the Universe. Not with some computer program, created by, us.
DC Talk had a song that stays with me after all these years.
You got a gift and you best start using it
Cause if you don't you're gonna wind up losing it
Just like the brother who buried it deep
The task was simple but the price was steep
We got a mission while we're on this earth
We need to tell people 'bout our second birth
Get busy like a school boy makin' an "A"
Cause time my brother is tickin' away
And that is the truth. Each one of us is entrusted to a gift. It's a gift that we better use for the glory of the High King, not for ourselves. Let us not ignore what God has placed within us, or He will take it back.
Let's grow up. Let's mature. If we've stopped growing mentally, how in the world are we going to grow spiritually. Satan has trapped many of my generation. Let us not give him the last laugh.
When we stand before the throne of God with the many souls who have given their lives for the Kingdom of God, praising Him. Let us be able to join in with them.
I fear many will stand before the throne of God, realizing all the time they wasted. Time wasted playing video games, watching TV. Time wasted not growing in the Spirit.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ...
Joey
I remember when I was in grade six, and we finally received a family Nintendo from my cousins. I remember getting so excited, barely able to contain the feelings of joy I felt. We had a Nintendo! My parents were cautious, but allowed us to use it (with regulations, of course). I couldn't be happier. I thought it would never get any better than this.
My Dad, wise as he was, warned me that it would probably stop with the Nintendo. The Super Nintendo had come out two years previous, and he wanted me to know that we most likely wouldn't be getting one of those. Because, he said, pretty soon there will be a Super Duper Nintendo, and then another one, and another. It will never stop. Never stop, that is, until I grew up. Because, he continued, when you get older you will stop thinking about Nintendo. It won't be as important as it is to you right now.
Most things my Dad told were very true. He had the experience, which eventually proved itself many times. However, this time he was wrong. I think his whole generation was wrong, thinking Nintendo would go the way of Pacman and Galaga.
Unfortunately, they never went away.
Folks my age became hooked into video games, and we found we couldn't give them up. Why would we want to? They're fun, they look cool, and we can do things inside them that we could never get away with in the real world. It is fantasy, and it becomes more real the more time you spend with it. Like a small half-truth which eventually rears its ugly head to bite yours off years later, video games became a form of worship.
The games didn't go away. They became more intense, more realistic, more consuming, until one could never think of the horrors of not playing something for a whole day. They became a drug, and they took over our lives.
I am so thankful to God that I got out. I was spared. I see a lot of people, though, wasting a lot of time, doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it makes them feel good. It's what they live for. And due to this, we as a generation have never learned to grow up. Video games have never stopped for us. We are living our childhood to this day.
It is frightening how many Christians find themselves trapped in such a reality and don't think there's any problem with it. Four, five hours a night, killing things, using magic potions, deadening the conscience. All brings a burden to the soul, which was created to commune with the High King of the Universe. Not with some computer program, created by, us.
DC Talk had a song that stays with me after all these years.
You got a gift and you best start using it
Cause if you don't you're gonna wind up losing it
Just like the brother who buried it deep
The task was simple but the price was steep
We got a mission while we're on this earth
We need to tell people 'bout our second birth
Get busy like a school boy makin' an "A"
Cause time my brother is tickin' away
And that is the truth. Each one of us is entrusted to a gift. It's a gift that we better use for the glory of the High King, not for ourselves. Let us not ignore what God has placed within us, or He will take it back.
Let's grow up. Let's mature. If we've stopped growing mentally, how in the world are we going to grow spiritually. Satan has trapped many of my generation. Let us not give him the last laugh.
When we stand before the throne of God with the many souls who have given their lives for the Kingdom of God, praising Him. Let us be able to join in with them.
I fear many will stand before the throne of God, realizing all the time they wasted. Time wasted playing video games, watching TV. Time wasted not growing in the Spirit.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ...
Joey