Positioning Ourselves for Perspective

     I have a confession to make.  I have a new addiction, and it is called “Plague, Inc.”  I ran across it while browsing through “Staff App Picks” section of the “Google Play” store.  It looked both disturbing and intriguing, so I clicked the icon to read up on what the game was all about, which subsequently moved me to download it and eventually spend the $1.00 to purchase the full version of the game.
    The concept is simple.  The player creates a basic plague – a virus, bacterial, or fungus, then a map of the world is revealed and the player taps on a country to start the plague.  One get’s DNA points as the sickness spreads, and you can use those points to “purchase” ways of transmitting the disease, the symptoms of the disease, or the resistance of the disease to cures.  The player manipulates these factors, but as the disease is discovered, scientists and nations come up with a cure.  The goal: kill off humanity before a cure is found and distributed, but note, everyone has to die.  If you just take out 99% and the hosts die taking the disease with them, you lose and the survivors repopulate.  (BTW, Madagascar and/or Greenland are tough to infect!  Very little air or water traffic coming in and out.)
    Yes, I know.  I’ve already been told by my wife and daughter that it sounds terrible, and my sons, who by the way are now playing it on their iTouchs, get a bit of a chuckle at their Pastor father playing a game with the goal of annihilation, but if you think about it, most of the things that compel us have a dark side.
    Though I haven’t been playing Plague too long, I have found myself fascinated with what happens when I play.  I take on the perspective of one whose goal is to take over the world, not as a scientist manipulating a disease, from I become the disease and try to figure out how best to conquer the world.  As this happens there is a desire for control, a need to win, and a mentality that gets anxious when good begins to prevail.  I get caught up in survival at all cost.
    As I have recognized this I’ve begun to think about the parallels between playing the game and playing the game of life.  After all, we have an innate desire to be in control, and we live in a culture that teaches us that the strongest and most powerful will win and that willing is the point of life.  The goal is to have the most things, to gain power, and spread that power across our sphere’s of influence.  We’ve all seen how such power can spread like a plague.

    I heard a sermon recently where the preacher described “the wilderness” (his biblical reference being both the Israelites and Jesus’ temptation story) as that place where we are taken to discover our true selves.  He talked about how the Israelites were forced to rely on God because they had nothing else, and the same happened with Jesus in His battle.  And God’s invitation was for them to position themselves in the wilderness to look to the one constant, the one thing that was reliable and trustworthy, God.
    A modern day example of one in the wilderness given was Lance Armstrong.  He’s stepped into his wilderness.  Imagine how he feels.  He came clean with a deep lie.  He doesn’t know where this will all end up, and he has nothing and no one to turn to.  His battle with cancer may have taken him to a place where he faced his true self and resolve, and the same could be said about winning 7 Tours, but the focus of those was victory.  It was winning at all costs.  Not so in this wilderness.
    He does not face a battle, he faces surrender.  He doesn’t face the external demons and competitors but he faces himself.  He is not striving to win OVER anyone, instead he’s just trying to survive, and he has to so so under a different set of rules.  I’d venture to say that this is a different game, different sporting for him right now, and the way he will emerge alive will be to position himself from the right perspective.

    One of the things I have always said is that “faith is about perspective,” for in order to have faith we are invited to position our lives from the perspective of faith, look for God at work, and be willing to trust in God.  This is not a position of power but it is a position of surrender and even servitude.  It is a positioning that places us in opposition to the world’s plaguely ways, but we position ourselves in places where we risk the wilderness...risk discovering our true selves...risk everything for God and others.
    This is one of the main reasons it is necessary for Christ followers to be a part of a community of faith.  On our own and left to our own devices, it’s easy to create our own faith stories, even create situations where we come out on top, but when we turn toward others and ask  the hard questions about who they see us as, or how they see God wanting to use us, we find our control threatened.  We can no longer rely on ourselves, but there is a community that relies on us.  Even harder, we realize that we need the insights of others on our own lives, in order to be positioned to see the world from the right perspective and truly live.
   
    Are there any “plagues” in your life?  Is there a wilderness time on the horizon, and if so will you dare to listen for what you can learn through it?  How might you position yourself to keep perspective and allow God to use you?