Bungie’s latest game fuses first-person shooter with MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) elements to create a game that should keep you busy for a few months if not the better part of a year. You play as a guardian who is tasked with protecting the last city on earth from an invading darkness.
At the center of this is a mysterious object called the Traveler. As you defeat aliens, level up, customize your character, and team up with friends online you live out their advertisement, “Become Legend.”
Well, there is a better way to become legend.
The day Destiny came out I woke up to a shocking Facebook post, “Max-level players are already being spotted in Destiny.”-IGN
Hold up…this game was only out in the US for about 8 hours at this point and not even 24 hours for the rest of the world. There are seriously people out there who played Destiny so much in one day that they maxed out their character level?! That scares me, because there is a better way to become legend.
Let’s think back to another blockbuster game: Skyrim. The fifth installment of the popular Elder Scrolls serious was another massive release about 3 years ago. Skyrim had over 200 hours of content in it. In other words, you could play Skyrim for 200 hours without completing the game. I do not know about you, but I do not play Skyrim anymore. Every once in a while I go back in time, drag out my PS3 and give Skyrim a chance but it is old news (look at those graphics…the game looks terrible now).
Each time the next one comes out the former quickly becomes forgotten. All the hours spent moving up in the online rankings and customizing your character are all for naught as soon as Call of Duty 31 hits shelves. This game shows more than anything else that all games eventually become old news.
All the hours spent on a video game are truly a waste of time. Stop and imagine what you could have done with 200 hours more in real life instead of playing Skyrim or Destiny.
What if you spent a little less time trying to be the best at Call of Duty only to start over again in 6 months and spent a little more time investing in people or serving the Kingdom of God?
Hear my heart, I play video games and enjoy them, but I have learned that at some point they become incredibly unhealthy and even an idol.
They detract us from the Kingdom.
There is a time and place to play video games and a better way to become legend.
They are a great way to veg out on your day off and you can play them with other people. I personally think they also help with creativity and storytelling (if you play games with good stories, i.e. The Last of Us).
As a preacher in training, I think one day we will regularly use video game illustrations in sermons. The danger comes when we start to let video games escape a healthy spot in our schedule. They threaten to pull us out of life and actually stop us from becoming legend.
You might be thinking, “It can’t be that big of a deal. It’s just for fun. I think you are going overboard Dewell.”
Well…here’s the truth…
Grow up!
Video games come and go but your ability to impact the world requires you to play in real life!
Do you seriously think that spending hours on a made up character saving no one from no real danger makes you a legend? What makes people legends is based on what they do in real life!
Children play video games for hours on end because they have no real responsibility.
Adults make sacrifices for other people.
Mature Christians fight to advance the Kingdom of God!
Imagine what it would be like for someone to personally want to spend time with you.
Spend time investing in younger students.
Then, as you watch them become more like Christ you can know you had a role in that.
Serve people.
Mow some yards.
Help an older couple around the house.
Share the gospel with the people God has put in your life as in your friends, neighbors, teachers, teammates, even the weird kid who sits by you at lunch.
If we truly lived our lives pushing the Kingdom we would not be bored. Video games would not be nearly as exciting as we make them.
What’s more exciting?
Killing the final boss in a game that will collect dust on your shelf one day or watching your friend that you have spent hours investing in give his life to Christ?
Your friend will never collect dust on a shelf. He will join you in serving the Kingdom. You can know that God used you! For God to use you, you have to play in the real world.
That is how you become legend.
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Justin Dewell
is currently a student and Resident Assistant at Ozark Christian College studying New
Testament Theology.
He works as an assistant in the preaching department and in the library. He serves on staff at College Heights Christian Church for the College Age Ministry. In his free time you can find him running, playing video games, or reading something by Andy Stanley. He wants to plant a church someday and by God's grace watch it grow.
He works as an assistant in the preaching department and in the library. He serves on staff at College Heights Christian Church for the College Age Ministry. In his free time you can find him running, playing video games, or reading something by Andy Stanley. He wants to plant a church someday and by God's grace watch it grow.
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