Why is it prevalent in our society to find 20, 30, and 40 year olds wrapped up in playing video games? Is it a regression into childhood? Is it a refusal to grow up and mature? Is it a way of escaping reality to experience a fantasy world? These may be correct answers, but I believe they simply surround the true issue and don’t pierce it to the heart. I believe the reason grown men are playing video games, is that they have a God-given desire to conquer and dominate.
Let me explain what I mean by this. In every man is placed by God, the desire to dominate, to overcome, and to be the best. We see this in the “manly” pursuits of hunting, sports, and exercise. Men have a desire to outsmart nature, to challenge their comrades, and to be the strongest they can. This may manifest itself in different ways and to different degrees in all men, but it is, nonetheless, there. And that is why I believe so many men are consumed by the gaming industry. It is one of the few places where they are allowed to, “get to the next level”, or to “be the hero”.
In our feminized culture, where the genders have been blended to near indistinguishableness, men are not permitted to be men. In the work place they are surrounded by women and are being controlled by them. In the home there is a co-governorship; where the authority and breadwinning has been split between the husband and the wife 50/50. In the Church men have taken the back seat to women and have gladly given up their responsibilities. Men are constantly degraded and put down (obviously and subliminally) by TV, comics, and music. They are portrayed as the “stupid” sex. And they have accepted it more than they are willing to admit.
And so, in our society, where men are not expected to grow up, and are never required to; they never do. They have quietly and gladly given up their responsibilities to whoever would take them. But, still deep in them is the desire to lead, to conquer, and to take dominion. And where does this manifest itself in our feminized, effeminate culture? In the millions of men who are obsessed with staring at a screen for hours! Men have found a pitiful place where they can have some semblance of leading, of being the hero, and of conquering new things; however childish their means may be.
It is time that the church stood up and called men back to their “true” calling. And that is to use their God-given desire to dominate in the ways that God has set forth. It’s time they put the joy-sticks down, pick up their Bibles, and lead their families in God’s word; not in the newest playstation and Wii games. It’s time they took their eyes off of the screen and looked at God’s vision of taking dominion of the world for Christ. In short, it’s time they stand up and show themselves to be men, using their God-given desires to do what He put them there for.
"...Be thou strong therefore, and show thyself a man." 1 Kings 2:2
Written by: Ben Nelson
