The Gamer's Bible

In Matthew 17:20, Jesus said that "if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move." So why then are we so incapable of such a minuscule amount of faith, and how do we grow that faith?

As odd as it may sound, growing our faith can be likened to an RPG. You start off clueless, needing tutorials and lessons along the way. Your only weapon is a stick sword, and your only clothes are rags, but as you progress through the game, you gain stronger weapons and armor. Potions to heal and potions to vanquish evil. To level up, you must defeat monsters, but the game doesn't get any easier - it only gets harder. As you get stronger, so do the monsters. You face obstacle after obstacle, always under pressure. As you continue to move closer to your goal and the end of the game, things sometimes seem impossible, but with patience and even failure, you can come out on top.

The cool thing about dying in video games is that you get to go back to your last save point instead of the beginning of the game. That's kind of how life seems to be, too, in reference to our failures and shortcomings. You make a stupid mistake and "get killed," and you start over from your last save point - not the beginning. There are struggles in my life that come up over and over again, things I don't seem to be able to thwart, but each time I face them I feel a little stronger and each time I fall to them, it's a little easier to get back up because I'm that much closer to my goal and my faith is that much stronger. You learn what worked, what didn't, and you adapt. Each time, you come a little closer to where you want to go.

And as you approach the final levels, sometimes a game may seem too hard. You may get frustrated, and you want to give up, but if it were easy, you'd probably get bored and move on. You need something that will keep you engaged, something that will push and challenge you.

So we must learn to grow our faith through hard work and training, equipping ourselves with the Word of God and the ability to face anything.