1 Life Remaining.....

Okay, so who has ever played The Sims?

I have. In fact, I used to love that game.

For those of you who are totally un-cultured, The Sims is a simulation game (hence "sims") where the player controls an individual and family throughout their lives; building houses, buying furniture, going to work, meeting and socialising, using the toilet, sleeping, making dinner etc etc etc (you get the general gist)

The original game- bought out in 2000- is the best-selling PC game of all time. The Sims 2- its sequel arriving in 2004- is number 2. The Sims 3- a more recent version- is also near the top of the list.

The world loves The Sims.

It is a PC game which can eat away hours upon hours upon hours. But what is the aim of the game? What is it all for?

Hmmmmmm.

Have you, like me, reached the point (countless times!) where you realise that your sim- although physically designed to your own standards of attractiveness, although rich beyond your wildest dream, although sporting over 20 "Friends" and 100 "Acquaintances" (Which in Sim terms is pretty amazing!) and although living the 'American Dream' with a huge house and great job- actually has no purpose whatsoever?

After spending hours building up your sim's social life, work and investments, you discover that actually there is nothing left to aim for. Even if the sim was a real human being his life would still have no point or purpose. It is all futile.

Ultimately there are no objectives, no secondary objectives, no missions to complete, no leader boards to reach.

Hmmmmmmm.

However, it would seem that millions upon millions, countless peoples live in a virtual 'Sim world'. They try to build up their homes, they beautify their faces, they stack up their 'simoleons' (sim money!) and work their way up the corporate ladder.

They are totally 100% engrossed in a game. Except this game is real.

But why?

Will a dream home really satisfy us or are we made
for something better?

In The Sims there is no mission to be completed, no 'level-up' to reach, no 'checkpoint' or 'save game here'. Is it true that in real life as well there is no Final Score? No Scoreboard to climb?

By default we are all living in our own sim worlds.

Conversely the Lord God- who lives outside of time and, so to speak, outside of the game- entered the game. He became 'sim' and walked onto our PC screens.

Perhaps I am taking this metaphor too far, and I don't want to sound irreverent, but God truly did something as astounding as this. He loves us so much that he came into this world to transform us and to give us a purpose.

He gave his life so that we can have his. The Bible says that whoever keeps his life will lose it but whoever loses his life will gain it. Sound confusing?

Well, Jesus is asking you this: Why hang on to your boring, pointless 'sim life' when you can have life everlasting in him?

Are we living simply to keep our
diamonds green and happy?
Or is there a greater purpose?

None of us deserve eternal life. In fact, we all deserve punishment and eternal death for what we have done. We have rebelled against God- rather than taking the life he offers us we have turned up our noses and decided that we can do better on our own. We have rejected God's plan and design and have constructed our own 'sim city' (otherwise known as 'sin city').

Through Jeremiah, God put it like this:

for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters,

and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water.

We deserve God's punishment for our rebellion. But God, loving us so so much, sent his son to die for us. Jesus Christ bore the punishment that we rightly deserve. He died so that we might live. If  we confess our sin- our rejection and rebellion against God- and ask his forgiveness then he will forgive us and give us true life: a life worth living!!

So, are you going to give up your pointless, unsatisfying and pixelated "life" and receive true God-given life or are you going to continue playing the game?

Spoiler Alert: Life without God is not life at all. It gets boring and repetitive and dull. Its tough: there's no easy mode to play.

And, crucially..... there are no cheats in real life!