It’s a Saga Alright!

Sitting at my niece’s high school graduation a couple of months ago, I noticed my sister-in-law several seats down doing something on her phone. Since I couldn’t get reception in the coliseum, I wondered how she could. I asked my nephew sitting beside me what his mom was doing and he replied, “Oh she’s playing this game called Candy Crush,” to which I replied, “what is that?” So Jack began to show me how to get the app and then he said, “but Aunt Julie don’t do it because you will get addicted.” I should have heeded the warning but didn’t!

That was 2 months ago. Now I’m stuck on level 65 and can’t get passed it! Lest you think I’m consumed, there are people who are on level 300  something! What? I think that is all they do in a day. If you are one of those, I’m not judging, I’m just jealous you are so far ahead of me. I don’t think I’ll ever get there!

The saga is that you have to work your way to different levels but it’s not as easy as it sounds. You only get 5 lives to do it and then if you lose all your lives, you have to wait for 30 minutes until you get another life or ask Facebook friends to help you. To get help, you must send a request to your Facebook friends asking them to send you an “extra life”. When your friend obliges, you get a message that someone “gave you a life”!

Here’s the confession. The app is free, so I thought there would be no harm in playing. I did fine without spending a dime and then…I had fluid on my ear and was on medication that kept me up ALL NIGHT for THREE NIGHTS. So what do you do in the middle of the night after you’ve prayed, read, checked Instagram, Twitter, etc? You play Candy Crush! But then you lose all of your lives and there are no FB friends awake to share lives with you, so the only way to continue playing is to purchase a new set of lives for .99!

I couldn’t believe I was doing it, but I justified it in my mind while all the time thinking, “Sid is going to kill me!” The next morning when he checked our bank account, the first question was, what did you spend .99 on? BUSTED! I know it’s crazy and I can’t believe I did it, but it was the middle of the night and I was wide awake and…well…I did!

The more I got to thinking about the sharing of lives, the question hit me, “Am I more interested in sharing lives for Candy Crush than I am sharing with people how they can find life in Christ?” I admit I was convicted that I play way more Candy Crush than I ought too!

However, each time I see a request from someone to “give them an extra life” or that someone “gave me a life”, I am reminded that I need to be sharing with others how to receive eternal life by telling them that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life”. Real life is found only in Christ, and it is my job as a Christ follower to tell others about Him.

What a privilege it is to be able to tell others about Jesus! This past year Long Hollow saw over 1,000 people experience new life by placing their faith in Christ and following through with baptism. That is absolutely amazing!

I pray that sharing our faith becomes addicting! Once a person receives eternal life, they can never lose it! Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Now that’s good news!