StarCraft. A computer game most people who ever had to do with gaming will know about. It has been around for more then 11 years, a sequel just came out last July. For Koreans it is what football would be for Germans. It’s the great dynamics and balance in the game that made it so popular so that for some there never was a better alternative in gaming. Now competitional gaming can be fun, brain and thought stimulating, helping to take a break from work (or studying) or even make you make connections all over the world. It trains efficiency, analyzing and even multi-tasking.
But how does this affect my relationship to Jesus? Is it just evil? Is it beneficial? Is it something grey in between? Because I had a problem with gaming that led even to addictive behaviour this is something I need to deal with. (And maybe you do, as well)
Now Paul says in the New Testament ‘So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’ (1 Cor 10:31). And this verse is in the context of things that hinder people from coming to God but don’t have to (namely eating meat that was sacrificed to idols).
Now for me it’s quite hard to be gaming in a way that glorifies God because of my past with gaming. For me, the tendency would go towards not beneficial. Yet I believe it still is possible to be gaming in way that brings glory to God. But where’s there a border? When does gaming obsess and control me, keep me away from God?
And now this is not any longer limited to StarCraft or gaming. It’s a point where we all need to be honest with ourselves because nearly everything has the potential of driving us towards or away from God (yes, even preaching or singing worship songs, if done in a not beneficial way).
So I got to ask myself: ‘Where’s my weakness?’, ‘Where’s my thing that drives me away?’ or likewise ‘Where’s the thing that drives me towards God?’
