Okay, I must admit that while I should have been doing other much more responsible things, like washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, doing the laundry, or even writing, I have been struggling through a couple of simple yet ridiculously-challenging games: QWOP and GIRP.
Both games are surprisingly simple in concept. For example, in GIRP, the goal is to climb a wall. To climb, the player simply needs to press the letter that shows up on the screen near the climber’s hand, and press another button to flex the climber’s arms. Yet, as I was playing, my hands would become more and more twisted on the keyboard, until I would accidently let go of the wrong one, and my climber would once again fall into the water.
In QWOP, the letters Q-W-O and P control a runner’s thighs and calf muscles. Your task? Just move the legs in the right order to get the running to move forward. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, after my first few tries, I had managed to move 1.3 meters forward. And one time I managed to stumble backwards for 6 meters. Hardly a success. Even my best attempt could hardly be called “running”; I extended the right leg out front and kept it there, and then I inched forward with the left knee dragging on the ground behind me for meter after meter. And I still fell over eventually.
If I compare real-life running to the way I limped forward on QWOP, there’s hardly any comparison. In real life, running has rhythm, power, movement, and even finesse. In my QWOP running, there’s some movement, but little else.
Of course, it is possible to run in a semi-normal rhythm in QWOP, adding rhythm, power, and even finesse back into the motion, but to accomplish this requires careful practice, with a commitment to learning the basics.
But in my first attempt at playing, I had clearly demonstrated that I’d rather just move forward than learn the basics. So rather than run, I limped, crawled, and slid.
It seems that I often try to live my life in the same way that I try to play QWOP. QWOP could be done with finesse, but I’ve skipped finesse because I’ve skipped the basics. Similarly, in my life there are many ways that I could move forward with grace and confidence, through the power of the Holy Spirit, but instead, I slither and stumble along, having never taken the time to put the correct foot forward. I work hard, but I don’t get very far.
I’ve allowed myself to become content with moving rather than running.
As with QWOP, in my life, I need to go back to the basics. But what does that even mean for a Christ-follower?
One way to go back to the basics as a Christ-follower is to learn about God, the creator of the universe, his Son, and learn from the lives of his followers. Hebrews 11 offers a great summary of faithful, God-honoring men who learned the basics through living with God. In the process, many struggled with sin, many attempted to just move rather than run, but they also had great successes. In learning about God’s followers, we can learn more about God. We can learn the basics.
The author of Hebrews writes:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3)
As we focus on Christ, as we learn the character of God, as we are filled with his presence, we stop struggling and squirming to move, and we start actually running. And suddenly, the movement we’ve been working so hard to generate starts to come naturally. We begin to learn to work with God’s power, rather than our own. We begin to run.
Let’s get back to the basics. Let’s learn to run, not QWOP.
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