I felt really funny that evening, my mind was going crazy… I saw a thousand different kinds of sweets before me, and one-for-one they exchanged places, exploded, and changed color … Now this wasn’t some kind of vision – my brain just kept playing Candy Crush in my mind. Earlier that day, I probably sat for four hours long and only played Candy Crush. I knew I had a problem.
For those of you who have never played Candy Crush: It’s a game where you move sweets on your screen to reach certain “goals” – and it is quick to eat up your time. Now there is nothing wrong with Candy Crush itself, but I think sometimes we do not understand how things like it take away our days and our time completely while having no worth in the long run.
So if it does not matter, why do we do it? Researchers have shown that it is the satisfaction of each win that brings us back for more. The fact that we have to wait when we lose gives us great temporal happiness once we come back and beat a very difficult level. The game is simple and it distracts us from the things that happen in the world around us. But imagine if we gave the same attention to the things that were important and valuable?
One of the greatest ways we are distracted from God is through the kind of things that divert our attention – for long periods of time. It’s the kind of things that make us depend on ourselves and then when reality hits us, we seem to be so far away from our eternal purpose of getting to know God. Paul wrote to the Ephesians saying,
15 So be very careful how you live. Do not live like those who are not wise, but live wisely. 16 Use every chance you have for doing good, because these are evil times. 17 So do not be foolish but learn what the Lord wants you to do.
Ephesians 5:15-17
Should we live according to a purpose? Do we have a reason to spend our time better? I think the answers to those questions will always be ‘yes’. We will never know God well enough. Until Jesus returns as He promised, we have a responsibility to make a difference in the world. Why do we allow ourselves to be completely taken away from God’s reality by pursuing things that have no future value? Let’s be more focused on getting to know God and spreading His love to the people around us. This is our true goal.
