I am very pleased to announce the arrival of a new member of the family:

Everyone, meet NES.

More of an old friend, the Nintendo Entertainment System made its way to my apartment and back into my life via ebay and UPS. While I usually condemn my own impulse buys, there will be no remorse in this case. Remember the then amazing mysterious technology of the zapper gun used in Duck Hunt? Or how the most satisfying sensation one could feel was after finally beating Mario Bros 3, the result of weeks of stomping on turtles and eating 1up mushrooms and travelling through green pipes? Yes, there is nothing quite like the good ol’ days.

Friday night was the debut when several of my friends, similar enthusiasts and rookies alike, gathered to try out “America’s Favorite Box.” The second the 16-bit screen shot appeared, we all snickered. Since we had such a large group, we decided to play Pictionary. Now before you denounce this game in your mind, allow me to defend. Instead of simply using the primitive control pad to sketch a picture and have your team guess, you play a mini arcade game. The better you do, the more the hidden picture is revealed, allowing your team to guess based on your gaming ability.

One of the more difficult minigames involves moving wooden boxes (or I imagine them to be of wood, you can’t really tell with these graphics). You need to guide a pixilated man to move as many boxes from the left side of the screen to the right as you can. The number of boxes that you move at a time is up to you, but you need take into account reality: more boxes = heavier load = slower movement. Oh! And I almost forgot to mention that these green slime balls are bouncing around and arbitrarily knocking boxes away from you.

Here’s a quick sketch:

Not only did this game provide us with an hour of good old-fashioned entertainment, it also paints a pretty accurate picture (get it? picture, Pictionary? Ha ha?) of what it looks like when we simply dismiss Christianity as our religion. If you examine the religions of the world, their beliefs tend to fall back on the idea of man’s attempt to reach a heaven (physical or mental) or find favor with god(s). The religion is an institutionalized system with prescribed methods on how to do so and describes subsequent consequences if you fail.

Same with Christianity, right? To make it into heaven and get brownie points with God, we have to say grace before every meal, know a Bible story here and there, sing worship songs loudly with hands lifted up, and force ourselves to get out of bed at eight on Sunday mornings to sit in a pew. It’s a pretty clear cut formula, but it’s not right. Well, it’s not not right to do these things, but it is wrong to believe that this is what our religion boils down to.

This view is very much like the Nintendo Pictionary game. You are the pixilated man, and your aim is to bring as many boxes over to the right side as you can. The wooden boxes are “gifts” to God, all these good deeds that you do to please him. The more you do, the closer you are to winning the game. However, as you try to carry more boxes, you feel the weight from beneath, and it becomes increasingly difficult to move. Not an easy game, eh?

But our Christian faith isn’t a game, it’s a gift.

We can’t forget those green slime balls that keep knocking the boxes out of your hand. A strange analogy, I admit, but they are like God trying to remove those burdens from you. He wants you to stop living out your faith as if it’s a game that you need to win. He has freely given you love, in the form of Christ Jesus, so victory is already yours by his grace. The weight of our self-imposed burdens is not his desire for us. Ultimately, it will all get too heavy for you to carry, and you’ll fail. Heaven and the glory of God are not attainable by human measures, quite different than what other religions preach.

Feel free to come play this Pictionary box moving game with me any day, but let go of this other game. It’s really not all that fun.