[...]But their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. (Psalm 1.2)Some of the things in my life are really challenging for me to reconcile with God. For example: video games (specifically violent video games). Now, I know that it might seem to some like video games are rather inconsequential in the grander questions of life and I'd be the first to suggest that violent video games are not the reasons children go on shooting sprees at schools. My challenge with reconciling violent video games with a life of God isn't merely found in the influence of them on my psyche. Rather, my challenge is what am I placing as a "god" in my life?
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of the scoffers; (Psalm 1.1)One could take this to mean that I'm struggling with video games as a sin. The part that gets me, though, is at the end of 1.2 that says that happy people meditate on God's law day and night. I play video games day and night. It's my stress release. It's my escape. My guilty pleasure. When I'm home from a summer filled with traveling for work, I want to empty my brain.
Am I emptying my heart, too? What if spending time with God was my new stress release? What if I could escape into studying God? What if my guilty pleasure was spending time with God in other people?
And there's my excuse. I get to keep up with my hombres from college when I'm playing video games. We can catch up, talk about what's going on in each other's lives. We can, but rarely ever do.
Video games - even violent ones - are not a sin. They are not the advice of the wicked, the path that sinners tread, or that which the scoffers play while sitting in their seats. They are - for me, anyway - a distraction from God, and one that I need to be more intentional on spending time with God as opposed to with my controller.
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