It has all lead to this moment… after all the countless hours of grinding through the grueling challenges, solving the devious puzzles, exploring the entire map and finishing every side quest, it is finally time. We stand outside the door of our greatest test yet… the final boss. As we enter the lair of the enemy who has been pulling the strings that has finally brought us to them, a strange combination of excitement and dread washes over us… could this really be the end of the game? No more keys to find, no more items to fetch, no more tricks up their sleeve, just this final confrontation? I suppose this is what the game has been preparing us for all along… the finality of overcoming the adversary that has been tormenting us from the first time we pressed “start” on this adventure. So… what do we do? Exactly what we were made to do… we march in there and we finish the story. We put all of our hard-earned skills to the test in a battle for all the marbles… and in the end we stand victorious over the villain who did everything in their power to prevent this from happening. And as the credits roll across the screen, I have always felt this strange, bittersweet feeling that even though the game is over, I am not done yet. There is still something left for me to do… and until I have done this, I cannot simply move on from this game and start a new one. It isn’t completely over for me yet because a new mission on my real life quest log just appeared… I have to find someone and tell them ALL about it.

For as long as I have been playing games (which is a loooooong time), I have enjoyed the act of talking to others about them almost as much as the act of playing them myself. As a matter of fact, most of the games I have enjoyed over the years are because either a friend, a fellow gamer, a clerk in a game store, or a trusted gaming journalist recommended them to me. I remember distinctly the time I walked into a video game retail store looking for something new to play and the clerk asked me what I was into… and after we discussed my interests and the games I had played and enjoyed, they placed a copy of “Deus Ex” into my hands and it was EXACTLY what I was looking for but never even knew it existed. I had an aversion to all role-playing games that involved turn-based actions because I didn’t enjoy waiting for my turn to move… and then a friend showed me Final Fantasy VII and made a believer out of me. There are entire genres of games that I never even tried until a friend let me borrow their copy of the game to try it out for myself risk-free…. and because of their willingness to share their story with me, I became a fan and a fellow player of a franchise I would have never tried otherwise.

As a seasoned gamer myself, I now carry the burden of sharing some of my favorite games with others who are searching for a title that is worth playing… I tell every gamer I know to try out “Stray”, even if they aren’t interested in games featuring cats, because it is so much more than that. I encourage people I have never even met to play the original “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” because it is more than just a great Star Wars game… it is one of the greatest games of all time. I challenge every human that owns a Switch to pick up “Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”…. and then go back and play all the rest of the games in the series. My experiences with these games didn’t end simply because my play-through with their story is over… I relive them as I tell others about them, and I get excited about sharing them with a new player who is about to try them out for the first time. But the only reason I can share and recommend these games to others is because of my experience with them… I have personally played them, I’ve learned how to navigate their challenges, I know how they end, and I am confident the journey is worth it.

Now, is every game that I recommend perfect? No… even my favorite games contain parts that I tend to warn other gamers about before they embark on them so they don’t get hung up on the same areas that caused me a great deal of frustration. I advise them on which skills to develop early in the game because they will need them… I warn them about dialogue choices they can make that result in getting a “bad ending”. To avoid “spoiling” any surprises in the game, I tailor what I say to what they need to hear… they don’t need every detail, just my personal encouragement that the game is worth picking up and playing, and that the ending makes the entire experience (even the buggy, glitchy, broken, and annoying parts) worth it in the end.

In our real world experiences, we experience many challenges that cause us “pain” and often leave us with the “scars” that tell the story of the battles we have faced. If you missed our articles on these two topics, they are linked below:

https://findinggodintheworldofvideogames.com/2024/01/28/pain-our-mission-if-we-choose-to-accept-it/

https://findinggodintheworldofvideogames.com/2024/02/11/scars-our-evidence-if-we-choose-to-embrace-them/

But once we have endured the pain of our enemy’s attacks and embraced these scars as our evidence that we have emerged victorious from our trials, there is still one thing left for us to do. And once again, it is in the example we were left by Christ Himself that we find they key that unlocks the final item on our to-do list…

Luke 24:13-15, 27 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

Luke 24:33-45 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence. Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

Even after Jesus endured the pain of the cross as well as received the scars that proved His victory over death itself, His mission was not yet complete. He did what He came to do, yes… but until His victory had been shared with those who needed to hear it, His resurrection had not yet served its’ full purpose. Both on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-27 and when He appeared to His disciples in Luke 24:33-45, He used the “test” that He had endured as His “testimony” that made the Scriptures become REAL to those who were in His presence. They had read some of the stories about what God had done in the past, and they even possessed general knowledge about the topics… but when He stood there in front of their eyes as living proof of the power of God in a situation that should have destroyed Him, they didn’t just understand or agree, they became eyewitnesses who were ready to go and share this good news with others.

For everyone who is viewing this right now, you have survived SOMETHING… probably MANY somethings. You have experienced pain in a variety of ways, you have been left scarred by some of the trials you have faced, and you now stand on the other side of these battles as a survivor. But the end of the boss fight is NOT the end of our mission… it is merely the beginning of our “commission”. In Revelation 12:11 we are told that our victory over the enemy of our souls came from the sacrifice of Christ and the word of our testimony…

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

That word “testimony” in the verse is the Greek word “martyrias“… it is used over thirty times in the New Testament, and each time it is used to describe the act of an eyewitness sharing their personal account of an event they experienced. Interestingly enough, this is where we get our English word “martyr”… the word we use to describe an individual who has paid the ultimate price for their beliefs. And as living “martyrs” for Christ, He didn’t simply ASK us to share Him and His victory with others… our commission was a COMMAND to “Go” and share what we have seen and heard from our “eyewitness” point of view.

Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

John 17:18-20 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.

As Christ demonstrated for each of us through His life and the sacrifice that He made, there is no “testimony” without a “test”… and our “testimony” is our eyewitness account of the Lord guiding us through our pain and showing us how to use these scars from our enemy’s attempts to silence us to encourage those who we have been called to reach. As we emerge on the other side of these tombs that were intended for evil (Genesis 50:20), our true mission has just started… to allow this pain to serve a purpose, to share our scars without shame, to encourage those who have endured similar hurts that He has carried us through our trials, and “testifying” of His goodness through all of these tests that we have faced. The commission of Christ was not just to His disciples or to those who followed Him during His earthly ministry… it was for ALL who place their faith in Him (John 17:18-20). So let’s follow the Lord’s example and turn what the enemy intended for our harm and use it for good… not just for our own encouraging reminders of His grace that was sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9) or His protection that showed up just in time (Romans 8:28), but so we can shine the light of His power and use our testimony to guide others to the Lord. Let’s be the witnesses that only we can be and reach those that only we can reach… the two things that overcome our enemy are the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). The Great Commission is now placed into our hands… time to testify.

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