Over my vacation, like every millennial who has been brow-beaten by reprobate society, I have been shut in my gamer den, gaming until there was no gaming left in me. Hours upon hours of eating Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew Code Red did I consume like a good little consumer in Christ. Playing video games on Satan’s magic stupid box, known as the TV. It’s interesting considering this is the only use for the TV now since no one sane watches boomer media. Little did I know my gamer session during my vacation would actually be a traumatic experience. One that pushed me to my limits. I played a game that made me question myself and my existence. A game that provoked me to anger, rustled my jimmies, and was the first game since coming to Christ that made me take the Lord’s name in vain. That game is Silksong.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is a 2025 video game developed and published by Australian development company Team Cherry. The game is a sequel to the critically acclaimed 2017 game Hollow Knight. In Silksong, you play as a warrior-princess named Hornet, who is kidnapped and transported to a kingdom named Pharloom. A 2-D side-scrolling game; gameplay includes exploration, platforming, puzzle-solving, and combat. Much like its predecessor, Silksong received universal acclaim. However, reactions to its punishing difficulty were mixed.
Silksong’s release was considered a watershed moment in the video game industry, not only living up to the hype of its extraordinary gameplay but also making a market and cultural impact. The surge of players downloading the game took down several online stores, including Steam. But its lasting legacy will be that of an indie darling triumphing against big corporate slop. Team Cherry comprises only three Australian developers, compared to big-budget companies with armies of programmers
To understand Silksong’s success, one must first understand the first game in the series. Hollow Knight was the brainchild of Team Cherry, comprising three core members: Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and Jack Vine. Building off the flash game Hungry Knight, built for a Newgrounds game jam.
When first looking at Hollow Knight, you will notice the art direction and graphics. Every room in the game is hand-drawn by the developers, to the point it feels like you are playing in a literal comic book or cartoon. The characters are well-designed, adorable enough to be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. The characters and kingdoms of the Hollow Knight franchise are bugs with simple and cute designs, with these bugs using sewing pins and nails (implied to be finger or toenails) to engage in bug-on-bug mortal combat. Hollownest, the kingdom the protagonist explores, is dark, liminal, and, in a charming way, vibrant. Combined with this fantastic art direction and even better gameplay.
The beauty of Hollow Knight’s gameplay is that it is simple and easy for anyone to learn. Hollow Knight is a “Metroidvania,” a portmanteau of Super Metroid (1994) and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997). In these games, the entire world you explore is interconnected, like one big dungeon or a giant puzzle box, with areas blocked off unless you get a certain upgrade that opens up the path. These types of games reward exploration of the map and the discovery of secret areas that house shortcuts, bosses, hidden upgrades, and simple combat.
The Knight has a simple front, upwards, and downwards slash (or a pogo), and simple spells you can activate with one button. But it’s charm system, upgrades you get along your journey, provides player cusomization without sacrificing the simplicity of the combat system. Charms you can collect can be a simple as a compass to show where the player is on the map to boosting magic power, lengthening your sword, gaining more hit points, make spells cost less gaining more magic power or summoning a creature that helps your journey.
What Hollow Knight is most known for is its punishing difficulty. One does not face a boss in Hollow Knight and button mash. Hollow Knight requires patience, pattern recognition, and the right charm combinations to take down the boss. And often, this isn’t enough. But the more you explore Hollownest, the more you are rewarded with upgrades, get stronger, and make the boss a little bit easier to deal with. And the more you play and experience the game, the sharper your skills will be in combat. Hollow Knight also combines intense platforming areas. The controls are tight; you never once feel like you are not in control of the protagonist. This combination of simple gameplay, a huge world to explore, art direction, music, lore, and challenging gameplay puts Hollow Knight not only among the best games of all time but also among the greatest pieces of video game art.
Silksong was released to universal acclaim, not only meeting expectations but blowing them right out of the water. Pharloom is vibrant, with more color than its predecessor. The world is also massive, with more hidden passages and nonlinear paths to explore. Combat is still simple, with a “crest and tool” system that allows Hornet to use different gameplay styles and fighting mechanics. Silksong does not reinvent the Metroidvania genre, but perfects it. While Silksong received universal acclaim, the most talked-about and criticized aspect of the game is its difficulty.
Silksong is a brutally hard game, period. The enemies are faster, smarter, and hit way harder than the original Hollow Knight. The enemies and bosses of Silksong force you to stop and think, often going against natural gaming instincts. Dodge in one place, and the enemies will telegraph a projectile your way. The game also has difficult gauntlets; rooms where you must fight waves of enemies to advance the game. Pharloom itself is incredibly dangerous, with environmental hazards and traps chipping away at your life total. The platforming portions of the game are also incredibly difficult, especially in the early game, with Hornet’s diagonal “pogo” ability taking much time to get used to compared to the downward pogo ability of the protagonist of Hollow Knight. Bosses are even more brutal than in Hollow Knight, requiring careful pattern recognition and quick reflexes, and even then, most bosses can sneak in devastating cheap shots. To add to these difficult boss battles are “run-backs,” where players must navigate challenging obstacles to return to a boss after dying, which many players found frustrating.
There are reasons for Team Cherry’s decision to increase the game’s difficulty. Hornet is faster than the Knight, and an early power-up you receive in the game allows for Hornet to dash and dodge attacks way more quickly than the Knight. Hornet’s healing ability is also more flexible than the Knight’s, allowing you to heal three points at one go, even in the air, instead of the Knight’s sluggish and grounded 1 point of healing. Hornet also has access to more weapons (called tools), allowing her more options to fight her opponents than the Knight’s limited options for combat. Because Hornet is so much faster, Team Cherry was forced to make the enemies smarter, tougher, faster, and hit harder to even the playing field. One cannot tank damage like the Knight can to get a hit or be ultra-aggressive with these bugs. Every swing of your weapon must be thought out and planned. Every enemy must be studied, from the huge gurthy Clappers to the ultra annoying small bats. Exploration returns in Silksong, and once Act 2 of the game starts, the world map really opens up. Pharloom is massive, roughly thirty percent bigger than Hollownest, and the game rewards diligent exploration with more tools and power-ups.
Still, the sheer level of difficulty can be not only overwhelming but also exhausting. It can get incredibly tiresome to die over and over and over again, doing the same run-backs only to get slaughtered quickly by a boss. As a result, many game critics, professional game streamers, and casual gamers alike put down the game, frustrated by Team Cherry’s design choices.
Difficulty in video games has long been a subject of debate among console gamers, especially amid rising prices and the never-ending battle for gamers’ attention. There is an argument to be made that AAA titles from big-budget gaming companies should be made as accessible to the audience as possible. After all, make a game too hard, and word of mouth spreads, collapsing support for a title. But there is also a danger of making a game too easy, which will also be easily discarded by the gaming community, who will move on to the next challenge. Game developers can easily go from a Yoshi’s Island, one of the best platformers ever made, to Yoshi’s Story, which is easy slop not worth the time of a serious gamer. Team Cherry not only made Silksong harder than its predecessor, but also made the game’s difficulty almost damn near psychotic, to the point that the gamer playing it will have an existential crisis.
Silksong and Hollow Knight are part of a sub-genre of games called “Soulslike,” a term coined by the 2011 landmark game Dark Souls, developed by FromSoftware and designed by legendary game designer Hidetaka Miyazaki. FromSoftware has produced many of these “Soulslike” games, including Miyazaki’s magnum opus: Elden Ring.
Elden Ring is a 2022 action role-playing game in which you play the role of one of the “Tarnished,” undead exiled warriors who are summoned back to the Lands Between to compete with other Tarnished to become the Elden Lord. A spiritual successor to the Dark Souls series, Elden Ring is often one of the greatest games of all time. And like the Dark Souls games, Elden Ring has a reputation for being brutally difficult.
Soulslike games are known for their large worlds, environmental storytelling, and high difficulty with repeated character death, driving the player to master the game with knowledge of the in-game mechanics and pattern recognition, all of which Dark Souls and its sequels provide.
Elden Ring’s gameplay is no different, with death being not only common but expected. Nintendo’s Breath of the Wild is a huge influence on the game, taking place in an open world where the player can go anywhere they please at the outset. However, new players are in for a rude awakening the moment they step into this open world, as close by is an overpowered enemy riding a horse that can easily kill you in one swing of its halberd. The game’s first major storyline boss, Margit the Fell Omen, has a moveset rivaling final bosses, often killing a newbie in a couple of quick swings of his cane. Afterward, he mocks the player, telling him to cease these “foolish ambitions.” In Elden Ring, dying and failing are just par for the course, and you will often question why you spent $60 beelze-bucks on the game.
But the more you die, the more you learn. Margit isn’t telling you to cease your ambitions just to be an asshole. Miyazaki is telling you to stop hitting your head against the wall trying to kill this spammy boss, and go out and learn the world. Learn the game mechanics and get acquainted with the game. Ride around the land, kill smaller enemies, upgrade, explore dungeons, gain new equipment and spells. Once you do and gain experience, come back and try again. There is no fear of failure, because failure is guaranteed. Through failure, you learn, grow, and ultimately accomplish what is set before you.
Games like Silksong and Elden Ring are not for the casual gamer and require time, patience, practice, learning, growth, and perseverance. Slop like Grand Theft Auto is accessible to the average drek gamer looking to tickle their sinful nature by mindlessly driving and running people over. Easy games with easy gameplay. But what about games like Silksong and Elden Ring, where the challenge is at the core of the art? There is no honest answer because one’s gaming experience depends on the gamer themselves. But what makes Silksong and Elden Ring great is their communities, which often band together to figure out how to beat a boss or get through a challenge. Elden Ring itself has an online coop mode, allowing you to summon other gamers to fight a boss so you do not have to fight alone. Silksong does not have an online mode, but it does have a dedicated community online to help other players with the game. With this, no one has to go it alone or figure out the game on their own.
At one point or another, a follower of Christ will have to ask themselves what the difficulty level of following Christ is in this wicked and adulterous age. Now, the first thing more cultured followers will think of regarding the “difficulty” of the faith is the concept of “easy believism.” The idea that a person is saved simply by saying they believe in Jesus Christ, without any real change in their life or repentance. Many, yes many, in the Western church ascribe to this theology that the blood of Christ is just a key item in life that you can collect and not think about it until you die, and that sapphire throne cutscene starts playing. I do not want to bash Easy Believism or its cousin, Lordship Salvation, too hard because the debate often gets convoluted and often misses the mark. God is not the God of confusion. God’s gameplay in this world is quite simple: Love God, love your neighbor, forgive others, and have faith. But actually practicing this is the hard part.
It is easy for many Western churches to have the facade of happy-go-lucky partakers singing songs about how Jesus is muh boyfriend, praying for health and wealth in multi-million dollar church buildings. It is easy for a preacher to preach how following Jesus Christ will make your life better. To the pegan outsider, following Jesus Christ might look easy, but the truth is that being a disciple of Christ is like playing life on very hard mode.
We have to first understand that humanity, ever since the Fall of Man, has been at war with God. As Paul writes in Romans, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Instead of returning to Eden, man goes eastward, away from God’s presence, to try to craft his own way and make his own world. While God seeks reconciliation, man continues to rebel against God despite the peace offering of Christ’s blood. To put it bluntly, when Adam disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he rejected God’s gameplay design, ushering humanity and Satan to design the gameplay for themselves.
Now, I write this article in the year of our Lord 2026 in the reprobate and debased Western world where Christ has all authority in Heaven and on Earth. But the Prince of the power of the air is still hellbent on getting humanity to play his game. The World’s gameplay values wealth, power, status, individualism, pleasure-seeking, and vengeance as the true moral principles of our time and the true goals in the game we call life. If it feels good, do it. If you need to backstab or con clients to get more of that cheddar, do it; after all, money will help benefit your family, whom you secretly despise. Forget about forgiving and ending the patterns of retribution. If someone harms you, harm them back seven times seventy. Instead of playing the game God designed, man wants to become the game-maker and make up the rules for himself.
Much like Silksong and Elden Ring, following Jesus Christ and practicing The Way is more of a test of endurance than a true “game.” True Christianity asks those who believe how much punishment, trials, and failures they can take to attain the ultimate rewards? How much BS will you take to grow joy in your heart? How many headaches will you endure to have a life that matters eternally? How much pain will you endure to have a transformed heart? How much turbulence in your life can you take to have eternal life with God and a closeness to Jesus Christ Himself? Christ tells us to take up our cross and follow Him. This includes our pride, our plans for our lives, the right to seek revenge, our comforts, and what little control we have over our lives. Much like you must embrace the suffering of a difficult video game to “git gud,” you must also embrace the suffering and sacrifice of following Christ. This is in contradiction to the world and the world’s values that tell you to embrace the self.
As followers of Jesus Christ, the only correct move in Satan’s game on Earth is not to play the game at all. Christ calls us out of the world. Much like God called on the ancient Israelites to come out of their Baal-butt worshiping ways and be a different nation that follows God, so too does Christ call you out of the satanic system the world follows today that only cares about money, fame, attention, keeping up with the Joneses, and being a sex pest.
Of course, the classic boomer argument that pushes back on this call to come out of the world’s systems is that we still must physically live in this system (or this game) we are in. They say this while clutching onto their pensions. And yes, we cannot physically separate ourselves from the current worldly system we live in today. But what distinguishes the child of God from the unbeliever is our call for holiness and distinctiveness. Yes, for the 666th time, we do physically live in the world and must still pay the mortgage and taxes. But we are spiritually out of the world as Ambassadors of Christ, rather than Ambassadors of the anti-Christ-of-the-month. We are called not to be isolated from the world, but to be light and salt to the world. We are to show the world by our actions and words, the light of truth through God’s word, and to be a positive influence on everyone we meet, preserve what is good, and reflect the values of love and faith.
This means we are to make decisions and choices in life that conform to God’s word and reflect Christ’s character. Our ultimate allegiance is not to the demonic economic world system, cringeworthy political parties, greedy corporations, racial tribes, discord servers, and yes, potentially your own family, but to Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God, and His priorities. And sometimes, our decisions will butt heads with the world’s values. The world promotes wealth, power, self-interest, and competition, but Christ promotes humility, selflessness, giving, and community.
But, this is easier preached than practiced. After all, the Western mind has been polluted from the cradle to the cubicle so much lies from so many avenues that it is hard to renew the mind to the holy things and to just conform to Satan’s game. For many, yes many, they cannot endure. Because the Western mind is blasted 24/7 with consumerist ads, student loan debt bills, gaystream media BS, Hollywood degeneracy, and false prophets on YouTube preaching that what is good is evil and what is evil is good, many believers have their seeds choked out, and failing to produce good fruit.
This is especially hard in the Western world, where we were all taught and promised the “American Dream.” That through hard work and determination, you can achieve success. This dream, in theory, still works today. But the meaning and rewards of this American Dream have changed over time to include material wealth and consumerism. You are promised by the world that if you follow the world’s game, you will receive a McMansion, a pension plan that will never run out, a hot wife, hell, even a couple of healthy kids, and a puppy. But this is a lie because power, wealth, and status are a zero-sum game, and to achieve these things, the world values you must compete with your fellow image-bearer of God. And this competition (or game) will often cost you dearly. It is a tragedy how many families, friendships, and souls have been destroyed by the pursuit of worldly things, which can never satisfy or bring peace. And even more so, the player of the world game is often destroyed because wealth is deceitful and can fly away from you at any moment. Because this is a zero-sum game, there must be losers.
The fact of the matter is that this “American Dream” is slowly dying before our eyes. Every day, prices go up, and the dollar bill keeps inflating. Corporations and their upper management have sacrificed their employees in the name of profits and stock price gains, regardless of the social decay it causes. In the name of greed, people are engaging in more risky and deranged behavior to the point that younger generations are gambling with sportsball and meme coins, with the hope of making it big to escape their economic hell and student loan debt.
But the economic situation with the world game is the least of our problems. There is a profound spiritual decay happening in the world. We live in a “golden age” of self-centeredness, dishonesty, moral shortcuts, and the treatment of our fellow image bearers as disposable. Relationships and the search for a mate are battlegrounds. Dating went from a fun, chill time to a nasty, awful game like Modern Warfare III, with different guides online on how to hack-and-cheese Tinder and Bumble. Zoomers hate Boomers and Boomers hate Zoomers. Employees are doing the bare minimum to get by, while employers are trying to squeeze every last bit of life force they can from their workers. People are obsessed with attention, often to the point where they degrade themselves online just to have 6.66 seconds of fame. Just look at the average Mr. Beast video. Much like Jesus Christ is the Word of God become flesh, Mr. Beast is late-stage capitalism become flesh. Degrading and humiliating other humans by making them play his perverted games for cash instead of, you know, actually just giving them the money. All the while keeping the facade of a generous man.
I guess Paul was right about the end times when he said that in the last days, perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Now, Paul wrote this in the days of the Roman Empire, a bazillion years ago. If Rome was that bad back then, imagine what Paul would write in this wicked and adulterous age.
Still, you can’t blame many for continuing to play the game. After all, we live in an era of anxiety and loneliness with a God-shaped hole in our hearts. If money, sex, power, or your belly is your god, why not try to fill it to the best of your ability? But these things are deceitful and will never truly satisfy a man spiritually. These things are just vapor. And even more so, if you spend your whole life playing this world game, building your entire life on this world game, and then “lose”, what happens to that man? Sadly, this is the state of many in the world today. They played the game and lost, and their entire world crumbled before their eyes, leaving nothing.
But what about the things that are good? All men desire a peaceful life: Buying a house, having a wife, raising offspring, and having everything you need. This is the essence of the American Dream. But right now, the world is at a crossroads where this is unattainable for many, especially the younger generations. Because of the dire state of the economy, the abysmal state of relations between the sexes, and the zero-sum spirit of the age, the rewards for this game are unattainable, paywalled due to the spiritual repercussions of the world game. Because of this, most pegan men will fall into two categories: Those who isolate themselves from society, and those who double down, hellbent on getting wealth, status and power, regardless of what it does to the soul
The good news is this: While the world is getting more and more evil, God’s word and Jesus Christ are becoming more and more bright. As the world game is becoming more corrupt, rigged, and unhinged, the only true decision one can make is to stop playing this world game and start playing God’s test of endurance, which has rewards that neither rust nor moth can destroy. Yes, this narrow path is hard and often brutal, but the reward on the other side is a character reflecting Christ: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Can we honestly say that the ultra-elites, politicians, ultra-wealthy business magnates, celebrities, and every strange flesh that pursue the things of the world have any of these attributes? No brother, no sister, no mother, they do not. But if we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and have faith even as little as a mustard seed, God will change our hearts and minds to conform us into His perfect image and give us these fruits and give them to us abundantly.
A lot of our problems, especially among believers in Christ, are our fear of failure. We are afraid of conforming and playing God’s game because the Western world looks down upon people who “fail.” We are afraid of losing in the game of life. The Western world viciously hates people who are poor, have no status, and have no recognition, while the world worships degenerates like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and other so-called “high status” men of renown. We are afraid of being ostracized by our peers, families, and tribes for not conforming to the world game. When fame, status, wealth, and even health are taken from you, you find very quickly who your friends are and who will stick by you. You find out very quickly how faithful your wife is when she divorces you because you filed for bankruptcy. You find out very quickly how loyal the elites you serve are when you are no longer useful to them, and they discard you. And yes, you find out very quickly if the church you serve is true and faithful to you when you fall.
The fact is, there are a lot of so-called “failures” in life, those who lost the game. A lot of them have done it to themselves, similar to the prodigal son who pursued quick-rich schemes like Bitcoin and splurged cash on OnlyFans whores. Some have been back-stabbed by co-workers or peers who stepped on them to be promoted to a middle-management position. Some have been traumatized by life’s trials to the point that they cannot function normally in life. Others are just down on their luck, having been dealt a bad hand in life, whether by health issues or poor economic circumstances. Yes, I do concede with the boomers that some of the so-called “failures” in life have been self-inflicted. But more often than not, God uses these “failures” in Satan’s game to be powerful men of God.
Never is this more true than Jesus Christ Himself, who, by the world’s game, was a failure. Jesus was born with no renown, having been born in a manger in backward rinky-dink Judea. He spent most of his life as a stone-mason, neither rich nor poor, but an average schmuck. A NORP, if you will. There is no evidence that He was married or had any offspring. He only started His preaching career in His 30s, with a 3.5-year career. And while Christ did have a large following at first, His numbers started to dwindle as He preached harder and harder towards the end of His life on His way to Jerusalem. He was betrayed by one of His disciples, abandoned by His closest friends, rejected by His own tribe, and executed by gentile foreigners via crucifixion. You can theorize that Jesus did at one point have Earthly fame, wealth, and power, but threw it all away only for His reward to be killed. Yet God and God alone rewarded His only Son with a crown that will never lose its shine or rust, and He sits on His throne, having authority in Heaven and on Earth. We know these things are true because on the third day after His death, God resurrected Him from the dead, having conquered death itself. Whether you believe in Christ or not, you MUST concede that Jesus Christ is the most famous and influential man who has ever lived, whose impact on this Earth is felt even today.
How did Christ do this? By not playing the world’s game. Christ did not pursue the lusts of the eyes and flesh, nor did he pursue the pride of life. Christ pursued the things that are holy and unseen. Christ followed a path of life that all of us should aspire to. He came to serve, not to be served. He came to open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. He came to proclaim that all men repent and believe the good news of the Kingdom of God. Through His sacrifice, all peoples, from the least to the so-called greatest, can receive the free gift of eternal life. To all those who believe in Christ, you will receive forgiveness of sins and the reconciliation of the perfect God who is forever blessed. To those who believe, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who guides our paths through these perilous times.
This is, of course, why His death by crucifixion is so scandalous and a stumbling block for those who have wealth, power, and status. After all, if you have all these worldly things, if you are one of the mortal “gods” of our times, why would you bow before this strange pastor who died in the manner of a criminal? To the worldly mind that is a master of the world game, the cross of Christ is foolishness. But to the heavenly mind, which is wise, the cross of Christ reveals something profound: Satan’s game sucks. The game design is flawed and rigged. Boss battles are butt, the power-ups required for this game are piss poor. And for you to use the cheat codes, you often have to degrade and debase your body and mind. Elden Ring’s grinding for level upgrades has you beating the tale off Albinaurics. Satan’s grinding often requires your tale to be grinded on by surly degenerates if you catch my drift. You can be the perfect man, live the perfect life, heal the blind and mute, proclaiming truth and forgiving sins, but the worldly reward for this honorable behavior is getting nailed to wooden planks. Luckily, His heavenly reward was resurrection and a Kingdom that will never fall.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we have got to stop playing this stupid game created by the wicked and adulterous game-makers of our time. We have to start playing God’s test of endurance, not just for our sake, but for the sake of everyone that we love and care for. Following Jesus Christ and practicing The Way is not a get-out-of-hell free card that you punch and keep in your inventory like some worthless key item in Silksong. It is a total lifestyle change and a path of growth one goes through, focusing on the things of God rather than the things of man. Do some believers have wealth? Yes. Do some believers have power? Yes. Do some believers have status? Yes. Do some believers have fame? Yes. But these things are not the end goal of our lives, nor should they influence and control us. We are to follow God and God alone in every decision we make. Yes, this narrow path is hard, but Jesus Christ will help us with the yoke we carry if we just submit to Him and His ways.
Even more so, the Church has got to stop promoting these worldly games, worldly systems, worldly false Messiahs, and start promoting God’s game of love, spiritual resurrection, and Christ crucified. This is especially true these days, when the world is slowly decaying and going mad. The fact is, the Western church is going through a crisis where the Boomer Elders of these churches are still holding on the worldly system they have benefited from their entire lives for dear life, preaching the wonders of Capitalism, the lie that we live in a meritocracy, being a “rugged” individual, and the American Dream when all this garbage is unattainable to younger generations and completely misses the mark.
It’s time for these Elders to stop playing these cartoon games and start preaching from the Bible. The focus should be on creating new communities that love God, love people, and have a joyful faith that attracts unbelievers. We have got to stop holding onto this decaying and dying world and start focusing on the new Heavens and new Earth that God promised us. My dear brothers, throw away that filth written by Ayn Rand and start reading the stuff Paul wrote in the New Testament. Have joy in your hearts that God is preparing us for a better world, one with no death and pain but the light of God with his Anointed One, the Lord Jesus as King.
I’ll end with this: There is a term in gaming called Non-playable-characters: Any character not controlled by the player, but by the game itself. They could be shopkeepers, quest givers, or characters in the game’s storyline. They are programmed drones, made by the game-makers, and are only there to advance or challenge the main player. The term Non-Player-Character (or NPC) is internet slang for someone who gives out scripted, unthinking opinions. The harsh truth is that NPCs are everywhere. They think like the world, act like the world, believe the world’s BS, play the world’s game, and spew low-IQ Joe Rogan-esque MSNBC opinions. The truth is, we are all guilty of being an NPC at one point in our lives.
I often wonder who the NPCs in the world are, and who the main characters in life are. Obviously, Jesus Christ is the main character of this story we call life. He is, after all, the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father, except through Him. But glory be to God, each of His children can participate and make a positive impact on this decaying world by focusing on the stuff each individual can control. And even scripture says we have the potential to do greater things as long as we have faith. The world often puts false idols up, whether they be business magnates, world leaders, celebrities, Hollywood imbeciles, and internet bafoons as the main characters in life. But I often wonder if these are actually the NPCs of our time. People who have rejected the gospel to the point God has given them over to a reprobate mind, where they are willingly programmed by Satan to become mindless NPCs pursuing the lust of the flesh, eyes and pride of life and used by God to challenge the elect?
What if the angels in Heaven, instead of polluting their minds with geo-political nonsense, are watching the poor man in his 1-bedroom apartment calling his father to reconcile because that poor man came to know Jesus Christ? What if God and His angels are watching the poor woman in her trailer park as she repents in the quiet of her prayer closet, having come to know Christ? What if the old man in his dingy senior home came to know Christ and became a light to other seniors there? And all the heavenly host scream out hallelujah and amen. What we might think is trite, such as a humble prayer, can mean eternity in the greater scope of things. In Elden Ring and Silksong, picking up the right item can mean all the difference. And as in life, conforming to God’s will and playing by His rules can mean all the difference.
Now, I know life is not a “game.” For the vast majority of human resources that have walked on God’s green Earth, life is brutal and hard. Each and every one of us will go through trials and tribulations in life, from the least of us, to the so-called greatest among us. For every Joe-shmo having a major health crisis, there are kings such as David who lost a child. No one is spared when it comes to tribulations. And unlike Elden Ring and Silksong, you only have one life. To the child of God, there will come a time when we are like Jacob in the dead of night, where it is just you and God alone in the darkness, wrestling with each other. We wrestle with God about our passions, sins, lot in life, regrets, mistakes, and impeding judgement. Yet Jacob refused to let go of God until he blessed him. And blessed he was as God gave him a new name, Israel, because he wrestled with both God and man, and overcame. And this is the test every believer must go through, to overcome the world and its evil and cling to God until He blesses us. And blessed are we indeed if we believe in the name of His one and only Son, the Lord Jesus. If gamers can put in the time and find joy to “git gud” with such games as Elden Ring, Silksong, or whatever, shouldn’t we, as followers of Jesus Christ, do the same with the “game” we call life?
Jesus Christ Red Pill 