As gaming has slowly but surely pivoted towards a predominantly digital future, the conveniences this has generated have typically outweighed the concerns… sure, a physical disc provides a level of tangible comfort as well as residual value as it can be traded, sold, or gifted to someone else, but they are also becoming much harder to find and purchase. The ability to simply select from thousands of options from the comfort of your couch and begin playing it as soon as your bandwidth permits is an attractive benefit, and as long as the benefits outweigh the risks the world will continue to pivot towards an environment in which all consumable media only exists in a digital state. But some recent developments have given a cause for pause… and while it won’t slow down the inevitable march towards digital solutions, it has definitely brought many of the very real concerns about a purely digital library into the spotlight. I personally have a a fairly balanced library of both digital and physical games, but if the price is the same for both, I will typically go for owning the actual disc if it is an option. When a prominent Ubisoft executive recently said, “Gamers need to get comfortable NOT owning their games”, I immediately began to worry about some of my favorite games suddenly disappearing overnight all because some publishing studio decided to erase them. And while that might sound a bit “conspiracy theorist”, my greatest fears are already starting to reveal themselves.

It all started with a bunch of PlayStation owners sharing the concerning news that they were unable to access games that they had previously purchased… their ability to play these titles that they thought they would always be able to download and enjoy at their discretion had been revoked due to a bug impacting their virtual libraries. Then the news came that Ubisoft’s “The Crew”, a game that was announced as being decommissioned on April 1st 2024, was no April Fool’s Day joke… a title that many gamers had purchased with their real-world money wasn’t just moving to an unsupported state by the studio, it was GONE. Irrevocably, permanently, erased from existence on the planet, never to be played or experienced by another gamer for the rest of all time. Sure, in the whole scheme of things this seems pretty small, and to be honest I only played the game one time and determined it wasn’t really for me so I didn’t lose much personally. But what happens next time when it DOES happen to a game I truly care about? What happens if I wake up one morning and my FAVORITE game is completely gone from the planet? What I feared the most about a completely digital future is becoming real… and I’m not a fan of this feeling.

Fear is a funny thing… whether it is based in reality, imagination, or a combination of the two, it has the power to manifest itself in our lives based on the power that we give to it. Even as a follower of Christ, fear is a factor in our lives that can disrupt our faith and create an opportunity for the enemy of our souls to use them against us. The best example of this is the trials of Job… the man who experienced many of the deepest pains a human can experience in a rapid amount of time is one of the most well-known stories in the Bible. In just two short chapters, Job lost all of his children, his health, his wealth, and any sense of the protection he had been leaning on after a life spent honoring God. In the depths of Job’s pain, he reveals a surprising aspect to all of the trauma that he just endured… this nearly unthinkable series of events was something that he had not only considered occurring, but he had greatly dreaded and feared. And now his greatest fear had come to pass…

Job 3:25-26 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.”

Let’s make one thing clear, I have yet to find any empirical Biblical evidence that we can “speak our fears into existence”… but we also know that one of the most common phrases we find coming from the voice of God across the entire Bible is “Fear not”. It isn’t just a good piece of advice… it is a command. The reality is our fears are exposing the areas of vulnerability in our faith that demonstrate where our trust in the Lord is weakest, and if I was walking in the shoes of an adversary that has spent thousands of years destroying humanity’s relationships with God, I would probably focus my efforts on these “shatter-points” (1 Peter 5:8). When we vocalize our fears, fixate our minds on worst-case scenarios, or obsess about the things we dread most, we lower our “shield of faith” in an area that creates an opportunity for these situations to occur (Ephesians 6:16).

Many times in my life, I have been guilty of verbally sharing the exact blueprints to a plan that would shipwreck my faith… and when those things ended up occurring, I would typically say some variation of, “I knew this would happen to me”. But if I’m being honest, what I feared the most probably wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been foolish enough to announce and obsess about the one thing that would devastate me in the presence of an adversary seeking that exact outcome. My fear shaped my future through a combination of my own fear-driven actions and my enemy’s machinations… the things I feared most might have happened one way or another, but they only destroyed me because I gave them the power to do so in direct opposition to the words of the Lord to have NO fear.

Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Fear isn’t always the cause of the pitfalls we face in life, just as my fears didn’t cause a digital future for gaming to occur nor did it cause the disappearing act of games from virtual libraries to happen… the limitations of technology and the decisions of others brought those to pass. But the words we say DO have power (Proverbs 18:21)… life and death are in the power of our tongue, and we are commanded to only use our words in a manner that builds up faith in ourselves and others (Ephesians 4:29). Fear is more than just a poisonous substance that can infect our lives… our words can absolutely enlighten the enemy to the deepest threats to our faith and bring these situations into our reality. The Father gave us His Spirit for a reason… it is because our human spirit is inadequate to face our internal fears with an external faith. We were given His Spirit because He has infinite power, possesses infinite love for us, and will replace our mind with the mind of Christ if we allow Him to (2 Timothy 1:7, 1 Corinthians 2:16). Let’s obey the commands of the Father to have no fear in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, knowing that He is with us even when the sky seems to be falling (Deuteronomy 31:8, Matthew 28:20). We can dissolve those thoughts and concerns that bring us fear with reassuring words of faith, holding onto the promises He has given us that will never fail (Philippians 4:7). Fear does NOT have to be a factor for us… it possesses as much real estate in our minds as we allow it to rent, and we can choose to evict it as soon as we raise our shield of faith back up and banish our fears into the bottomless abyss where they belong.

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