If you time-track your nearly 30 years of life, you'll find that three activities dominate: sleep, school, and video games.
I've loved video games since I was little. I loved the story, the challenge, and immersing myself in the world. I loved spending time hanging out with my friends and frankly, I loved that I was good at it. I loved the excitement of a new challenge, the focus of tackling it, and the satisfaction of completing it. This was all good.
One of my earliest memories is explaining to an older child (probably 6 or 7 years old) that he wasn't reading Pokémon dialogue because he hadn't learned to read yet. Over the next 15 years or so, I owned nearly every major console and handheld, from the Nintendo 64 to the Xbox 360, and ended up spending countless hours on each device.
There's no way to know for sure until I stand before God and turn in my account, but I've probably spent over 10,000 hours on the game.
From kindergarten to high school, I never thought games were a problem. School was easy enough that it didn't affect my grades, and I was sociable enough to pass for someone who doesn't spend hours playing games alone. For me, gaming was an easy way to escape fear, anxiety, and boredom, and it gave me a set of goals to focus my attention on.
It wasn't until I entered university that I began to realize the connection between games and the mind.
enemy of my soul
My roommate and I were invited to a Bible study with a few seniors named Justin and Alex, who became friends (and showed us what it really meant to be good at Mario Kart). . At one of those meetings, Justin observed that sinful actions and desires often have clear triggers in our minds, and traced our sinful behavior to the point of conception and identified its I encouraged them to look for patterns in their occurrence.
When I took inventory of my mind, I found that playing games for too long increases the sin in my heart and life. As I play for a long time, temptation becomes harder and harder to resist, the fruit of the Spirit weakens, sinful fruit multiplies, and my love for God and others feels almost non-existent. It was done. I began to realize that the love of the game was the enemy of my soul.
I realized that the longer I play the game, the more sin grows in my heart and life.
My perceptions had little effect on my actions, other than causing anger in my heart. I still love video games and wanted to continue playing them. Then for four years he tried to play games sparingly, always insisting that video games were an immoral hobby and that you could still enjoy them if you just controlled your actions.
This created a cycle of overeating and quitting smoking. You keep yourself in check for a week, but then your schedule gets lighter or your self-control gets weaker, and you end up binge eating. That is, in a few days he will play the game from 3 hours to 25 hours. Later on, I ended up hating myself. I started deleting my game progress to remind myself how meaningless my gaming efforts are after I've played the game too much. This works pretty well for certain games, but there's always another game that pulls me back into the cycle.
My battle culminated in 2017 after college. I wanted to attend Southeastern Seminary in the fall of 2018, but I knew I couldn't continue my gaming habit if I truly loved God and wanted to pursue pastoral ministry. I also knew that my college years would have been more fruitful if I didn't have this habit, and I regretted the time I spent on it.
After ultimately failing to control my gaming habits, I concluded that video games occupied my mind so much that moderation was impossible. Frustrated, I reached out to a friend and asked if he wanted an Xbox. I didn't even want to sell it. I wanted to let it go but wasn't sure if my will would last if it took too long to sell.
Jesus says if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away (Matthew 5:30). I felt that nothing more would work. The next day, I left the console with a friend, and since then I haven't owned a console or his PC that is powerful enough for gaming.
new responsibility
Not everything has been smooth sailing since then. In 2019, I almost gave up and bought a new Xbox, but the Lord was gracious and gave my car much-needed new tires instead. Mobile games have always appealed to me, but they don't have the same appeal as high-quality games on major platforms. The Lord gave me a wonderful wife, a beautiful daughter, and the responsibilities that come with it, but it made it impossible to continue in the game.
Looking back, the time I spent playing video games is one of my biggest regrets in life. I laughed a lot and enjoyed every moment, but the cost was too high for me. I had every opportunity to learn incredible skills and develop amazing relationships that would have given God so much glory then and now. Instead, I chose to spend my time playing video games that accomplished almost nothing and were never of any meaningful use to anyone. Games only fueled my selfish desire to have fun forever and took away my motivation to invest in things that were important and required effort.
The time I spent playing video games is one of my life's biggest regrets. . . . [they] It accomplished little and served no one meaningfully.
I think gaming may have been part of the reason I've often had trouble forming meaningful, long-lasting friendships. I can't handle the game like Justin or Alex, who were intentional about getting to know my roommate and me, inviting me to bible study and church, and sharing the gospel with my suitemate after a few races. did.
Without an intentional effort to connect, my ability to be a good friend atrophied. I knew absolutely nothing when it came to walking with others through pain. When I finally encountered deep suffering in an intimate relationship as a young seminarian, I was either totally unhelpful in response or harmfully avoidant. Thankfully, the Lord arranged these events to coincide with my time taking a required Biblical Counseling course, so He equipped me with many of the relationship basics I needed to be a faithful friend. I did.
The Lord saved me in another way. Previously, when I was deep into the game in my mind, I would always get irritated when interruptions or other commitments occurred. Now that I am no longer constantly preoccupied with video games, I am able to serve God and others with more patience and joy. I also have time for more difficult but more fulfilling and sacred hobbies like reading, spending time with my daughter, skimboarding, and finding shows that bond with my wife.
die to idol
Given my background and circumstances, the only answer was to quit completely. But that doesn't apply to everyone. Video games are a matter of practical wisdom, not explicit commands.
Parents, we encourage your children to develop proper priorities when playing video games. It may look like setting clear boundaries (and clear reasons for those boundaries). It might look like it models how love for God and games can coexist when God, neighbor, and the game are played together (with God and neighbor being higher priorities). ). You can also find articles, podcasts, and blogs with wisdom for navigating video games, no matter your stage in life.
If you love the game as much as I do, I recommend hitting the delete button on the game or saving the file. Eliminate temptation and make it inaccessible without liability.When you neglect yourself because of love should Love, the wisdom God has given us is to deny ourselves (Luke 9:23-25). Putting something I loved so much in its proper place was the hardest kind of death I've ever experienced. As my pastor said in a recent sermon, “Idols die hard.”
When you neglect yourself because of love should Love, the wisdom God has given us is to deny ourselves.
At the end of the day, it's not about the game, it's about the gamer's heart. It is ultimately not about changing our behavior, but about caring for our souls and protecting them from idols. We encourage you to heed the words of 1 John 5:21: “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”
I still love gaming, but I can't see it as an innocent hobby. For me, games are such a burden that I have to put them aside (Hebrews 12:1). It's not easy, but take it. It's worth it.
