I found the following quote by Austin Duncan in the book Right Thinking in a World Gone Wrong to be challenging and a bit convicting as well . . . From the most complex games to solitaire on your cell phone, games take time. Much of what can be said about video games in this regard could also be applied to other aspects of electronic entertainment—such as blogging, watching television, and surfing the internet. When large amounts of time each day are devoted to these activities, it means that in fact large portions of life are being wasted. Regarding television in particular, John Piper says this, “No one will ever want to say to the Lord of the universe five minutes after death, I spent every night playing games and watching clean TV with my family because I loved them so much. . . . Television is one of the greatest life-wasters of the modern age” (Dont Waste Your Life, 119-120). The same could easily be said about video games. Due to their computerized complexity, today’s video games often require days to master and weeks to beat. A game that only costs forty or fifty dollars to purchase may actually cost hundreds of hours in wasted time. In many games, the player’s character develops as he advances through the virtual storyline, becoming more skilled and better equipped. Yet, players themselves gain little more than carpel tunnel symptoms and an otherwise useless knowledge of fictional weaponry. Time invested in such pursuits is lost, and cannot be reused for things that matter. Hours that could be spent working, praying, reading, serving, fellowshipping, evangelizing, or just thinking, are instead wasted on activities that have no lasting value. God’s Word teaches us that time is precious (Ps. 90:12; cf. 39:4–5). Using it wisely is an issue of good stewardship. We must not forget that our lives are not our own, we belong to Christ (1 Cor. 6:20). When we waste time consistently, a few hours each day, we waste the very lives we have dedicated to Christ.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 15:55:43 +0000
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