I am no video game expert. In fact, the last video game I played was Atari. For some of you that will reveal how old I am. For others who are still scratching your head and Googling what Atari is, never you mind. Thanks to my teenaged son, however, I am familiar with the term leveling up.
In the gaming world, leveling up is a concept in which a character experiences some sort of progression that usually entails unlocking new abilities, skill, or access to new items or a new area of the game. It can also be a benchmark of how far into the game a character has gotten. Leveling up is a measuring stick, if you will, of a gamer’s success.
Gamers advance their skill by committing countless hours to their game, much like a musician becomes proficient learning to play an instrument or an athlete, a sport, dedicating hours to practice.
In a Christian’s faith walk, there are also levels of progression. How or why we come to God is our own individual story. More often than not it involves some sort of falling-down-and-getting-back-up scenario, followed by repentance, and then becoming followers of Christ. At least that was my experience.
But then what?
Then, we begin to build a relationship with God. And with each new discovery, we level up.
Charles R. Swindoll once said, “The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail.”
I have found my faith walk and rate of progression is only as good as the attention I give to digging into the Bible to find out who God is.
Now, before you think that spending time in the Bible is obsessive or unnecessary or irrelevant even, consider that Hebrews 4: 12 tells us that “the word of God is living and powerful”.
L I V I N G
We’re talking about a God that’s accessible. To me. To you. To anyone who comes knocking. In John 6:37, Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”
There is no better time to level up when it comes to knowing God. Sure, we could spend this time scrolling through Face Book reading other people’s opinions. We could mindlessly watch television and saturate ourselves with images that add nothing to our lives. We could play video games and hone gaming skills in a pretend world of virtual rewards.
Or…
We could spend time getting to know the great I Am, the one who said “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3)
Will you keep climbing in your faith? Will you give it more priority than all the other things that compete for your attention? When it comes to having a relationship with the living God, what level do you want to be on?
DawnLeighDavis 