Tear down the idols!

I had to remove an idol in my life this last weekend. I had been playing FarmVille on Facebook since Christmas night. It starts easy and gives you lots of rewards to entertain you and give you a false feeling of success. Then, you begin setting goals, which is a natural outgrowth, at least for me. My next goal was the next level, or a larger farm, or some other "achievement." However, the goals became an obsession. The last day I played (remember, it's a game), I started at 9:00 am. I ate lunch at my computer. I broke for dinner and then played a board game with my wife (it was our game night!). Then I went back and continued farming because I had a crop that was ripe and ready for harvest and I had to plant another crop after that in order to get the most return from my farm. At 11:30 pm, my wife came in to my office in tears wondering when she could have her husband back. Remember, this had been going on for over a month. True, she started it. She was doing it for a couple of months before I even got interested. And I was catching up to her, too. But that's because of how obsessed I had become. I began scheduling my life around when my crops could be harvested and replanted. I planted crops based upon my other "obligations" (e.g., work, church, appointments, etc.). Each crop had a different growing cycle from 2 hrs to 4 days. I seldom did the longer cycle crops, as I wanted a more immediate return. And, probably, I just couldn't stay away from it that long. Funny how a few pixels of light arranged on a screen in a symbolic form with meaning can be interpreted to produce feelings of accomplishment and success.

So, what was wrong with FarmVille? How did it become an idol? What is an idol, anyway? An idol is something you worship beside God. What is worship? When you worship something, you love it above everything else in your life. You think about it all the time. You can't wait until the next time you can be in its presence. You plan and scheme and do all manner of things to achieve your goal, which is to be with the idol. You might even lie, cheat, or steal to be in its presence. The object of your worship may be intrinsically neutral in terms of moral issues. It is your relation to it that determines whether or not it takes the place of God in your life.

But, what is FarmVille anyway? Well, it's a role-playing game (RPG) built on the concept of time management. In addition to the resource of time, other resources also have to be managed, such as coins, FV cash, fuel, trees, animals, crops, buildings, decorations, and neighbors. I witnessed a great variety of approaches and gained some insights from a couple of blogs and forums. Some people used lots of space for decorations. Some had lots of buildings. I determined that cultivated space was the true item of value. Therefore, I tried to arrange my layout to provide the most space in crops. From that, I now see an application to my personal life. I have accumulated a number of things that add no real value to my condition, such as the ability to tether my laptop with my cell-phone. I haven't used that in months, but I still get charged $15 per month on my cellular bill. I also "had" to have a smart phone to replace my old cell phone and PDA, on which I kept all my contacts, schedules, and even my checkbook. I also have a Bible program on there, which I do use occasionally. It's handy, but not necessary. $100 a month for 3 phones, $60 a month for internet access (a smartphone requirement) and $15 a month for tethering gives me a $175 a month cell bill on top of my $190 a month bill for my satellite dish, home phone, long distance, and internet access bundle with my landline phone provider. Are you beginning to get the picture?

This is about stewardship. God has given me the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18), but most of these things relate more to verse 17, wherein the individual says "My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth." They are more a testimony to my desires than God's provision. I plan to sit down with my wife and look at our situation more closely. What do we have that we don't need? What are we paying for that doesn't add value to God's kingdom? I know there's a ton of stuff and we'll be busy for some time to come.

So, again, what was wrong with FarmVille? It was me. I was wrong with FarmVille. I have a lot of areas in my life that need cleaning up. As I shared with my wife, God spoke to me and said "I wish you would show the same enthusiasm for things that are truly important." I'm still playing another online game. But its lifespan is tenuous at best. If I see that I'm allowing it to take the place of other, more important things, it will go the way of FarmVille.

Screen Capture Software