Pitfall

This is not one of those “in my day, I had to walk 10 miles in the snow up a hill” posts, I promise. I do believe it could be hard for people today to understand, truly comprehend, video games “back in the day” did not have pause or save functions. That means if your parent told you to get off for whatever reason, you lost progress. You could not go back to where you were. You could not resume. All was lost. For example, I remember having over half a million points on Asteroids before my mom told me I had to get off my Atari 2600 to eat. Poof—just like that—all those points were gone.

While progress may not last or be saved, the games themselves were durable. I can’t say as much for the joysticks. Phones back then—you know the ones in which a person had to actually rotary dial and one misdial meant starting all over—were pretty durable, too. (Don’t ask me how I know these things!) There was no internet, no online presence. People today do not transition from no internet, to dial-up (yeah, search that one, kids), to cellphones and broadband. Certainly, everything has their pitfalls.

One of my favorite video games from my childhood was, in fact, titled, Pitfall. Players had 20 minutes to guide Pitfall Harry by jumping, running, climbing, swinging, and sliding his way to capture treasures while avoiding various—yeah, you guessed it—pitfalls. There was even a Tarzan yell while swinging on vines.

It’s the little things we need to appreciate.

Players had three lives and 20 minutes. If either of those expired before the treasures were found, GAME OVER.

Life is like this. We all have a time limit. While we may not have lives per se, we are sometimes granted second chances, or for some of us, maybe a lot more. We may not dodge rolling logs or avoid crocodiles, but we all have hurdles and pitfalls.

And, comparatively, doesn’t it seem like there are more now?

More everything. There are so many distractions out there. So many places to go for information. Certainly, like some body parts, everyone has an opinion, including me. For a long time, I was very self-centered, very self-focused, an anthropocentrist in my own little world, if you will. While my tendencies still make me sway toward my wants, desires, and/or needs, I am not the center of the world. And the people said, “Amen!” But, for me, Christ is (see Christocentrism). I thank God for that.

When I Burger King things (that is, “Have it my way!”), I really tend to screw them up. I can Clark Griswold life with the best of them, even the man himself! Thankfully through work, prayer, and help from my friends and family, especially my loving wife, I have gotten better about knowing my limitations, seeking help, or sometimes just not worrying with whatever it is. I can recognize my shortcomings and things I need to be aware of better as well. It is so important to know these things. It’s hard to get to where we’re going if we don’t know how to get there!

If you’ve ever driven a car that needed an alignment, you’ll recall your car wanting to veer to the left or right. It’s hard to keep it straight. We are like that! Sin is hard for us to understand. For lay folks, it’s loosely akin to poor behavior. That is so not what it is, but maybe that helps. You might have heard, “We are sinners saved by grace.” Sinners, meaning, we all have this tendency to be off-center. We veer. We sway and are swayed. It takes great effort to remain on course. Christ gives us the waypoint, the North Star. He gives us grace freely. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve; mercy is not getting what we do deserve. These concepts are super hard to understand whether you believe in Jesus or not, read the Bible or not.

“You mean I don’t have to do anything to enter heaven?”

That’s correct. You don’t earn your way. It’s a gift. You just have to accept that Jesus is LORD of all. Believe He came, died, and resurrected on the third day. Confess your sins or shortcomings.

That’s it.

Jesus did it all.

So we don’t have to.

The rest of our lives, we spend trying to dodge whatever pitfalls we encounter.

#pitfalls #roadblocks #distractions #adventures #life #Jesus #Christ #grace #mercy #salvation #sin #free