We are down to two months and counting my friends… at the time of this writing we are counting down the weeks until the release of Starfield, one of the most anticipated game launches of our modern era. While game release dates can be fickle (see Starfield’s previous launch date), we are seeing all of the signs that point to its’ imminent arrival… the developers are showing actual gameplay videos, accessories based on the game have been built out and confirmed, and the ability to “queue the game” for download on launch day has been enabled. This is NOT a drill… please place your seat backs and tray tables back into their upright and locked positions and prepare for landing… we finally have a date with destiny that cannot be denied. No, not “that Destiny” game… sorry, Bungie. For a little while, we are going to need you to pack up your things and prepare to be offloaded so we can make room for the installation of the game we will be playing instead of you for QUITE some time. Starfield is on its’ way, and it is time for us to clear the decks because we are “go for launch”.

Starfield represents more than “yet another” open-world experience in a sci-fi setting… we have already been there, done that, and we have the achievements to remind us just in case we forget. This title has captured the eyes and the attention of gamers across MULTIPLE genres because it represents the first game that Bethesda has personally developed based on an original IP in twenty-five years, and if this game lives up to its’ pre-release description of being “Skyrim in space”, we are ALL about to lose a lot of time off of our gaming calendars to this one. I don’t know about you, but in my experiences with Bethesda’s previous releases from their massively successful Fallout and Elder Scrolls’ franchises, I have spent hundreds of hours exploring these worlds… and now that my available gaming time is more limited than ever, taking on the mission of exploring Starfield’s vast galaxy of planets means I have something I need to do before I embark on this new adventure. Actually, I have SEVERAL things I need to do… or even more accurately, I have some games I need to FINISH before Starfield arrives and I run out of time to play them. Now that I know I am running out of time, I have some games I was in the middle of playing that I need to wrap up with urgency, because once I have crossed the event horizon of Starfield’s gravitational pull, it is “game over” for those titles… perhaps permanently.

Whether you are a fan of Starfield, looking forward to a different upcoming game, or simply trying to finish a game before it leaves Microsoft’s Game Pass service, we all have a very similar problem in our gaming experiences… we reach a place where we are running out of time to play what we currently have in front of us because what is coming next is going to disrupt our status quo. For me, Starfield’s launch will cause me to press “pause” on playing the other games I was previously investing into… and if history repeats itself, those games will get pushed off of my hard drive, fade into the background, and remain in a state of 86% completion for the rest of all time. So, whatever I am going to do with these games and their currently incomplete stories, I will need to do QUICKLY… and that makes my remaining wait for the release of Starfield to suddenly feel like it is not long enough. And in my real-world adventures, I have found a similar concept reveal itself as another imminent launch is showing signs of approaching… a return that is almost two thousand years in the making… and it compels an identical review on what I am doing, how much time I have left to do it, and what MUST be done before time runs out.

Throughout my life, I have discovered a nearly endless number of books, lectures, sermons, and recordings on the subject of eschatology… the theological study of the “end of days”. I have either read or listened to a vast amount of interpretations of the events depicted in the book of Revelation as well as the prophecies found embedded throughout the Scriptures… and throughout the centuries I have found that almost every generation seemed to believe that their generation was “the one”. As a matter of fact, even the first generation of Christ’s followers clearly viewed His second coming as an event that would happen very soon…

Titus 2:11-13 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

James 5:7-8 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

1 Corinthians 1:7-8 So that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.

The end result of all of this watching, waiting, and getting our hopes up after reading our 2000th book on why Christ is returning in the year 2000 (spoiler alert: He didn’t) is that we can become desensitized to the reality of Christ’s return simply because our arbitrary and inaccurate predictions about His “launch date” have come and gone. And if we aren’t careful, we can lose our sense of urgency on what we need to do before time runs out on our mission. While it would be nice to have a “confirmed date of release” like it seems we finally have on Starfield, Jesus made it abundantly clear that is NOT happening. But within His guidance that NO ONE would ever know the day or hour of His return, He also gave us all some very practical and critical advice to follow as we prepare for a countdown that is closer to the end than the beginning…

Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 

Matthew 24:42-46 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.

Luke 19:11-13 Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’ 

Throughout the centuries, believers in Christ have preoccupied ourselves with images of Armageddon, Christ’s return in the clouds, and if we are living in the “end times”… and while Christ clearly admonished us to be “watchful” in regard to His return, He always refocused His follower’s attention on what we should be DOING while we are watching. Our fascination with eschatology and prophecy shouldn’t make us “so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good”… like the final countdown gamers are experiencing as the long-awaited release of Starfield draws near, this awareness should press us into a state of ACTION. And rather than allowing this over-saturation of eschatological teachings (and the inaccuracies that many have presented) to cause us to feel numb to His eventual return, we should lean into the remaining missions that we have been given with a renewed sense of urgency. We all have less time to complete them than when we started, and whether He returns in ten years or ten thousand, Christ’s message remains the same… let Him catch us COMPLETING the missions we were assigned (Matthew 24:46) and OCCUPYING until He comes (Luke 19:13).

2 Peter 3:3-4 Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

2 Peter 3:8-12 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

As the calendar slowly ticks down on the days until Starfield’s release, I know that anything I want to do in the games I am currently playing will need to be done before it gets here… or they might not ever get done. And as I see the day approaching, many of the smaller and less-critical side-missions that I was chasing in these incomplete games suddenly decrease in importance as I realize I need to wrap these stories up before I no longer have the time to see them through to their ending. As my awareness of the limited time that I have left with each of them reaches a greater state of clarity, the actions I take while playing them are infused with a greater sense of purpose and priority so I can at least see them through to their respective endgames before placing them back on the shelf for the final time. And in this same spirit, whether Christ returns in my lifetime or my great, great grand-children’s, we all know we have less time playing this game of life than when we started. And just as we feel when we see that countdown clock ticking down to zero in our games, the actions that we choose to take as we are reaching the end often have the greatest meaning and carry the deepest resonance. Regardless of our belief that the end of days and the return of Christ is either distant or imminent, our response remains the same… to live each day like someone’s salvation depends on it, because it DOES. And as we consider how we should live with the knowledge of eternity in our hearts and Christ’s return on our minds, the answer is not to simply stop living and wait for the inevitable to occur. It means to start living like it MATTERS… and all the more so as we see the day approaching.

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