The new design for the next generation of Xbox is here and, well… it is a square tower.  Possibly the most squarest, most tower-est looking game console in the history of all time. Now I am going to keep it real with you… if it was announced that I have to purchase a Dyson vacuum, plug it into a Popeye’s spicy chicken sandwich, and wear footie pajamas made of aluminum foil all at the same time in order to play Halo:Infinite then I am down for that.  That will HAPPEN.  But hopefully it will not come to that. Mostly because that would be a tragic waste of a perfectly good chicken sandwich.

Christened the “Xbox Series X” and boasting to be the fastest and most powerful home gaming console ever, the new Xbox also strikes an interesting shadow in terms of it’s generously proportioned size.  Best estimates list this bad boy at approximately 6 inches wide, 6 inches deep, and almost 13 inches tall based on comparing it to the controller it is positioned next to.  So while the jury may still be out on if this will truly be the fastest, most powerful console choice once the PS5 hits the market, it is safe to say it should at least be the LARGEST. Now this may certainly seem superficial, but the truth is for many of us this system simply may not fit in our current entertainment centers or it will at least require some major adjustments to our entertainment status quo.  Fortunately, this new system will be backwards compatible to the ENTIRE history of Xbox games through the years, so you can safely relegate your original Xbox, your Xbox 360, and even your Xbox One to the attic/garage once this hardware launches.  You could also just make space in your kitchen…

Okay… maybe that is a SLIGHT exaggeration.  But you get my point… this thing is a BEAST and it is going to take up more space than any other console you have previously owned.  Will it be worth it or not?  We will have to wait and see.  In the meantime this whole subject of “accommodating” a behemoth such as the Xbox Series X console put me to thinking about another common complaint that I have personally felt and have heard others share as well.

If you are anything like me life is BUSY.  Between work, school, church, relationships, spouses, children, friends, household chores, vehicle maintenance, watching the Mandalorian… the 24 hours we start with each day seems to disappear incredibly quickly leaving very little room for an actual relationship with God.  The day to day business of just LIVING often leaves most of us without any room for our Creator.  Just scratching out some daily devotional time can be a challenge for even those with the most exceptional time-management skills, and to be honest even then it can feel like we are just giving the Lord our “leftovers” once we have fully exhausted ourselves from the challenges of the day.

Just like our soon-to-be overloaded entertainment centers, it can be a struggle to find room for something new when there is already so much there.  Can we stack these on top of each other?  What if we lay this on it’s side?   Do we even USE this anymore?  Some stuff gets moved, others get squished, and we do everything we can to squeeze one more thing into the over-loaded entertainment centers of our lives.  And the sad thing is, we have the intention to give our BEST in each area but end up only being able to give the REST of what we have to offer.

Now for the good news.  The God who designed us knows all of our needs (Matthew 6:8) and He fully understands our needs for food, clothing, shelter, meaningful employment, satisfying relationships, socialization, and fun.  He CREATED us, so these are not surprises to Him.  As a matter of fact, He set out to satisfy those needs quite early in Creation, giving Adam a place to live (Eden), food to eat (from the garden), a job to do (tend the garden), and a wife (Eve) to share that experience with.  But before God ever gave Adam any of those things, He gave him something that we ALL need, and can absolutely use on a daily basis.  God BREATHED into him…

Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

It is as simple as it is complex.  Adam was simply a shell of a human until God breathed into him.  He lacked any form of vitality… he lacked LIFE.  He was still a flawless creation of God, but he was all structure without the Divine breath to give him substance.  Similarly, the challenge for us each day is not to simply carve out time for God at the end of our long, exhausting day to fulfill some kind of “spiritual quota”.  It is great if you can do that, but that will not provide you with what you need to get through each day.   The problem is not about our intentions… it is in our ORDER.  Receiving breath from God came FIRST, then Adam received the remainder of what God had for him.  Our problem is that we often act as project planners when the Lord is the actual DIRECTOR of the story.  Look at what we find in Proverbs 16:9…

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.

There is a world of difference between planning and directing.  Looking at the original Hebrew root words…

Plans (chashab) – to think, devise, account for

Directs (kun) – to be firmly established, made preparations for

We get up in the morning and we build a plan for the day.  We think about what needs to be done, we account for potential challenges, and we craft our agenda and race to the finish line.  The Lord is telling us to stop and take a BREATH… from HIM.  He is the director of your day, and He has made all the preparations and plans for everything you will be doing.  And if we give Him that time to BREATH into us first thing in the morning, we can receive His direction and have confidence we have made ourselves a vessel for His plan instead of trying to squeeze Him into ours.

I don’t have room in my current entertainment center setup for this new Xbox Series X monstrosity, and the task seems a bit daunting if I am being honest.  But I can tell you this… any machine that gives me the ultimate Halo: Infinite experience is going to be placed at the center of my entertainment center when that title launches, and everything will simply find their way around it or find themselves “storage-bound”.  Similarly, when we allow Christ to take His rightful place at the start of our day instead of trying to shoehorn Him in, He will be in the optimal position to direct our path.  Let Him breathe into you at the beginning of each day through prayer and some Scripture reading.  Allow Him to be the centerpiece of your day/life rather than exhausting yourself trying to figure out how to squeeze Him into your agenda.  You will be amazed at how much more fluid the rest of your day goes when you start each day with a fresh breath from your Father…

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