The Other You

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

The Sims™ is one of the larger video game franchises and it’s based on nothing more than ordinary life turned into a video game. It’s a “simulation” of life itself. You have a house, a job, a set of friends, whatever. Then you just make your choices and build a simulated life.

One may be left to wonder where is the appeal of an online 2 dimensional “copy” of a life you could actually live in real time. A life pictured seems a poor substitute for one lived. But whatever the game may lack in it’s ability wrap around you with real experiences it more than makes up for with this one little caveat: control. You can make a choice, click a mouse and have it executed. No other questions asked.

It may seem like a small thing – control – but imagine what your life could look like if it was as easy as programming a new pattern of choices and then have them carried out without argument, lapse of will or any other complication. Imagine if your choices were as easy as a mouth click. “Tomorrow morning, I will get out of bed one hour earlier and perform a daily exercise routine…” Or, “From now on, I’m going to read a book a week… Or say nice things… Or do my job with a bit more verve…” (Just roll with it).

I think it reveals a principle: that WE are our own complication in life. It’s not for lack of knowing what to do that we are as we are – it’s for a lack of ability to act on it. The Sims™ provide a reprieve – a chance to pretend you have it better. I’m not sure I want a chance to pretend.

The Bible asks in Proverbs 8:1, “Does not wisdom call, and understanding lift her voice?” It says in Deuteronomy 30:11 that what you need to know is not “…too difficult for you or out of reach…” It is not “…in heaven so that you have to ask, ‘Who will go up and get it for us…” Nor is it “…beyond the sea, that you have to say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us [and] get it…” No, it says, it is “…near you, in your mouth and in your heart that you may observe it.”

In it’s original context, that passage is about the lifestyle principles laid out in Deuteronomy, but I don’t think it’s a complete scandal to apply it to wisdom in general. Both scriptures seem to support the same idea: wisdom isn’t complicated. It “calls” aloud and it is “within our reach”. So again it seems that we are not held back for lack of knowing what to do. It must be something else.

I would suggest it’s the cost. The search for anything other than what’s obvious is usually undertaken from a desire to find something easier. Maybe that pursuit is costing us too much time. Could you build a better life online than the one you actually live? Wisdom calls aloud…

This Sunday is the final message in our “A Guide to the Satisfied Life” series and I’d like to end it with a strong question: is it even actually possible to really love the one in the God spot? Join us Sunday for Starbucks at 9:45 (visit our website for directions) or tune into the podcast through the week.

I hope to see you there, and I hope you bring someone with you.

CSW

CUSTOM BUILT TEACHING SERIES
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LAST SUNDAY
What are you turning your stuff into, what will matter most over time and what is the 76 year old you saying... Visit our website and tune into our podcast.

THIS SUNDAY
A final question: Is it really even actually possible to love someone in the God spot?

THE HOLIDAYS
December 24 and January 31 are both 1 hour services with a continental brunch buffet. December 24, "The Other Christmas Story" and the 31st, "Your Life One Year from Now".