Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A sandbox life

Over the past 3 months I've enjoyed playing a PC/Mac game called Terraria. This is a sandbox game which means it is made more for exploring and being creative rather than having a player completing traditional 'levels'. I've enjoyed exploring without the pressure of a structure in things, being able to make buildings and creations out of the blocks of the world but in reflection I've seen that as the game has no specific goals - like the end of a level or beating a boss and progressing in the game - that it's easy to spend a lot of time just playing it. With no fixed end-points, game-imposed goals or targets I find it hard to play for set times without the aid of our egg timer. In short, I need goals. I need something to aim towards.

In further reflection I wonder if this is true for our lives as a whole. Can we live contentedly with purpose if we have no end-game goal, no target to work towards? For example, I know I work better when there's a deadline on coming up, or even if a job needs to be done by the end of the day. But are these goals and targets placed in my life by work or society's view of life sufficient? What if you woke up and those waypoints in your life are gone? What then?

I think we're made for purpose - we need something solid to live for, something certain - and for me, that's Jesus, the relationship he wants to have with me, and the promise of a future with him when he comes again. Sometimes I think we set our sights too low in our targets. Are we too easily content in the familiar things in our lives?

In playing Terraria I've been reminded it's easy to live a sandbox life - content to live in my me-bubble of contentedness - and miss the potential of life outside it. The risk of real life, the love and the hurt of real life, the reward of real life. For me that real life is a life where I know Jesus. What is it to you?

TheWeeScottie