Life is Not a Game

 A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a computer game titled Bubble Shooter.  Skipping more mentally challenging games (which I sometimes visit to exercise my pea-brain), I turned on this simplistic, rote-played, bubble game.  In the game, the top of the screen has an array of connected bubbles, each one of 4 colors, and the bottom has a single-colored bubble which you aim, to hit a similar colored bubble above.  It’s pretty much a simple game for children, until --- I noticed some patterns and ways you could hit more bubbles, until your limited number of shooter bubbles runs out.  And then, I further noticed that you could begin to analyze sequences of the differing colors of the shooter bubbles, and plan even further ahead based on likely outcomes.  And, while it now becomes a more thinking, strategic game, you can’t let yourself ignore the game basics: you are aiming one bubble to hit another, and if you don’t focus enough on the simple act of aiming, you miss, and waste one of the limited number of shots available during the game.

I’ve come to realize that the bubble game could be simply played by a very young child, or strategically played by a sharp-minded adult.  And then it happened today:  I suddenly saw the relationship of how this game is played, to how we live our lives: very simplistic, follow-the-rules, follow others, or ---- having a keen focus on the end goal, and realizing that the limited time we have and how we play the game will affect the final outcome.  And in life, that final outcome is heaven or hell.

            I’ve had some wonderful conversations with friends in recent days and weeks.  We’ve noticed the workings of the Holy Spirit in the world, in the lives of others, and as we better focus on prayer, hearing Him in our own lives also.  The word “joy” comes to mind today; it’s the best word I can use to describe the feeling you get when you see God in action all around you.

In a recent podcast, Fr. John Riccardo (now of ACTS XXIX) told how Jesus recently spoke to him, telling him how his life is NOT a game (as I just described) but a story, the story of the world, a sometimes-scary story in which he has a role. But Jesus told John to relax, and just do his part.  “I wrote the story; you know it has a happy ending.  Trust me.”

There is one key point to note here:  The story God wrote has God as the author; He is in control of the outcome.  If I choose to live my life as a game, I act as if I am in control of the outcome.  The unifying factor between what I try to do and what God created me to do is grace.  Through the grace of God (and His mercy), I can better see the life-path intended for me, my part of the story, and then choose to live it.  Grace moves me from the realm of sensual choices --- what “feels good” as in a game, to spiritual choices, what IS good for me, even if it sometimes doesn’t feel so good.

Yes, we were created in the story of God’s creation as free being; we can choose how to live our lives.  We can play life as a simple game, follow the basic rules, and just enjoy ourselves.  But there is a bigger story than just our lives, and we are part of that bigger story.  We were written into it --- we have a role to play, a purpose in the bigger story of creation, to help bring it to a happy ending, for all involved, and most especially a happy ending for the Creator of the story.

If we don’t do something good with our lives, we’ll just be written out of the final story, and not be part of the happy ending.  We’ll miss out on the final grand celebration, where everyone “lives happily ever after”.  God wrote the book of creation, but we can choose to be part of the happy ending with everyone, or we can choose to live our life as a game, content to do simple little things as we want, alone.

Life, REAL life, is not a game, and was not given to be played alone.  Life was created to be lived in community, family, interaction with God and others, where we choose with grace (through our focus and actions) to love God and our neighbor.  We know how to live life as it should be lived; He came and lived the lead role in His Book to show us how we should play our part.  And if we should be proud of anything, it is that He created us in His image. We shouldn’t worry that life is hard; we were made for this story.  Just study the role the Creator, Jesus, played in it; He’s leading the way, as a Good Shepherd, and “you know the story has a happy ending”.