Dear Cristy: Ok: Here goes:
Great comment on the video games. I just read it.
Before I did though, I have been thinking about kids and video games. I remember when I was in Bible School, between years of study in the summer, and I was working at a restaurant in Ocean Shores, Washington. Along with the restaurant there was also a Dune Buggy shop where the sons of the owner rented out dune buggies. They put governors on the dune buggies so that they couldn’t go any faster than 30 or 35 miles an hour. I asked them why. They said that people are used to driving fast in their cars, and so they think they can drive over the dunes fast. But you can’t. If you try to do that you end up turning the dune buggies over when you skirt the dunes on the side, and then they have to rebuild them. So it’s just easier to put governors on them so people can’t kill themselves. We don’t put governors on cars because, although sometimes the speed limit is 25, 35 or even 60 or 70, have police to enforce the laws so people don’t go too fast. They could put governors on cars at 70, but they don’t! Why? Well, if someone is caught in the forest and they realize there is a fire behind them then they need to go faster than 70 to get out of the way of the fire. Or if there is a tsunami coming at you, the driver may need to drive faster to get out of the way. Or who knows, maybe someone’s wife is having a baby and you need to get to the hospital before the baby comes. There are times it’s not wise, but ok to go faster.
This is kind of the way it is with violence and our brains. I grew up where there was lots of yelling but no physical hitting. So my governor was that if you get really angry it’s okay to yell and say all sorts of hurtful things, but you don’t hit people even when you are so angry that you want to. My mom was threateningly physically violent, but that freaked me out so much that that was a governor as well: you don’t chase people around the house with assault weapons. When we train our soldiers to go off to war it isn’t in the nature of the young trainee to shoot people. So what they do is they get them playing video games to desensitize them so that shooting people is no longer a governor. Now days though, we have video games for fun. And some of those games are very violent. When we go through our normal day and aren’t angry at any one and the world is all good and fine it’s not really a problem. But what if all of a sudden you run into someone who makes you really, really angry and you are thinking that you’d really, really like to hurt them. Or maybe just stop them from doing the hurtful things they are doing. Where is your brain’s governor? If you have time to think about it you may stop yourself from doing something you would be sorry about later. But, if it happens really quickly and you are just reacting, your governor has been set so far out there by the video games you watch, that you could easily do something you wouldn’t do otherwise. The same with if you happen to find a gun somewhere. We teach kids at our preschool if they see a gun they are to not touch it. They are to call an adult or the police and they will take care of it. That’s the governor we are teaching the little kids. But if a person has been playing violent video games and they happen across a real gun their governor says, “check it out.” I wonder if it does what the video games do. Well guess what!! It actually does, and someone just got hurt!!!
>>>>
>>>> All of this is so far from what Jesus taught. Jesus taught, “if someone strikes you on one cheek, turn so they can hit you on the other.” the Bible teaches, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay says the Lord.” Jesus said, “Forgive and you will be forgiven. If you don’t forgive neither will your Father in Heaven forgive you.” That’s a whole opposite reaction from what video games reactions need to be to win. Video games teach us to shoot before we are shot. Kill before you are killed. Splatter blood everywhere. That’s actually not our Godly goal. Splattering blood all over the place is actually going to be God’s job and it’s not that far away if Christ is coming soon.
>>>> When Jesus was told by the Samaritans that they didn’t want Him coming thru their town on His way to Jerusalem one of his disciples asked Jesus, “Do you want us to call down fire from heaven and consume them?” Now where did they get that idea? They got it from the Old Testament. When God was ready to judge Sodom and Gomorra God reigned fire down from heaven on the two cities and killed everyone. So, why not reign fire down on Samaria? Jesus said, “no way!” And they went around Samaria and Christ laid down His life and died on the cross for our sins. That’s why it’s God that does the spattering of blood and reigning down of fire on people. It’s because He only does it after He has exerted an awful lot of patience and forgiveness. Why doesn’t God reign fire down on the people who are persecuting Christians? Same reason! God is not willing that any should perish. God knows the Pauls he wants to call out from among the vicious persecutors of Christians. Christians are going to heaven when they die. Their persecutors are going to hell unless God’s patience waits to give them every chance to repent of their sins. We want to train ourselves, and our brains, to have Godly reactions. Not natural human reactions.
That’s just my thinking.
Love ya, love ya,
Mum - Patti Leng
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