Sometimes My Life Gets Hacked Just Like A Computer Game

Leave it to me to relate serving God to a computer game, but it was bound to happen eventually. I used to play an online game with some college buddies. I won't name the game since I'm somewhat embarassed that I used to play it, but lets just say that it is the most popular massively multiplayer computer roleplaying game of all time. Anyways, after a long hiatus from this game, I decided to log into my account last night just to check on it and see how my dusty characters were doing. Lo and behold, I found out that I could no longer access my account.

This particular game allows you to go to an online database to view your characters, so I went and searched for mine to see what was up. I was shocked to see that someone else had been logging into my account and playing my characters while I was away. They changed my account password and locked me out of my account. They also deleted a number of my characters and stripped one of the characters armor off completely. It's kind of funny having me type all of this out and explain it. You would think that I was describing the story of the man who the Good Samaritan helped, the one who got robbed and stripped of his possessions. In reality, I'm describing a bunch of digital representations that I sadly put a lot of time into creating and growing in power. The account didn't mean that much to me since I no longer play the game, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't feel a bit wronged by having my personal digital property stolen like that.

Naturally, like most things that happen in my life, my mind begins to equate them to the spiritual. I started thinking about how we often times do the same thing to God that I did with my game account. Just as I stepped away from the game thinking I could come back later and find my characters sitting safely in my account, so have I found myself doing with God. I can step away and then come right back to God at anytime, right? What happens when we do this is we leave ourselves open for the enemy to come in and rob us blind. Just as I had no idea someone was pilfering my game items, we often find ourselves losing peace, joy, happiness, and other wonderful gifts that God provides without even realizing it's happening at first. We ask ourselves how the devil was able to come in and steal those things from us, and then we get smacked in the face with a reality check that reminds us how little time we have been spending with our Heavenly Father. We stick Him in a corner to collect dust hoping that He will be there whenever we return only to find that it becomes harder to re-establish that relationship each time we stray. Sure God will be there, but often times we find ourselves struggling to draw close to Him once again.

I have an e-mail into customer support to try and get my game account back. They may help me and they may not. Regardless of whether or not I get back my game account, I want to be sure to not let my relationship with God to grow complacent. I don't want my prayer life, worship life, and Bible reading life to go unattended thus allowing the enemy to come in and rob me of the blessings and gifts that God wants to bestow upon me.

I'd much rather lose a game than lose my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I'm sticking close to God and protecting the things that I hold dear to my heart. I hope you all desire to do the same. God bless!