How My Children And Minecraft Taught Me The Only Thing That Matters

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - How My Children And Minecraft Taught Me The Only Thing That Matters

My children have taught me so much.

One of the greatest lessons of my life that I’m still learning came from playing with them a computer game called Minecraft.

Minecraft is like a digital version of the toy building blocks I grew up with as a kid called Legos. But, rather than building an object as you would with Legos, in Minecraft an entire world is generated on the computer that you can build and exist within.

It was a place you could both explore and shape to your vision with resources made available from within the game: wood, stone, metals, gems, crops, animals, etc.. You were only limited by your ambition, your imagination and your computer’s computational power.

We built grand houses and whole villages. We went on adventures spanning great distances across different biomes (green forests, snowy mountains, sandy beaches). We even built machines that automated processes such as harvesting animals into food. We explored and mined vast, dangerous caves to stock our chests with materials and priceless treasure to expand our builds or to use in our next adventure.

Among the heights of items sought after were enchanted diamond tools, weapons and armor. These items were coveted because if you had them, you could practically get anything else. I never achieved this feat, but my much more skilled boys did. It took exorbitant amounts of time, exploration, and great risk to collect all the items required.

We spent hours, sometimes days or weeks building or learning to build our Minecraft world. We even had our own private hosted server (before Microsoft Realms was available) called Blockhaven.

Today, we don’t know where any of that stuff is. The server has been shutdown. The great houses, territories, troves of diamonds, lapis lazuli, ender pearls, the wonderful inventions we worked so hard and invested real time (even real tears were shed) to achieve are all gone. Even many of the memories have faded away. But, the things that remain are the relationships we built and the closeness we developed. They are forever.

Therein is the lesson.

What we learn, what we do, what we achieve, what we build only matters to the extent of what it builds in and establishes with others.

What we build in and establish with others makes everything matter, whether we’re a potato peeler or a Nobel prize winning nuclear physicist. Without it, nothing matters whether we’re a potato peeler or a Nobel prize winning nuclear physicist.

One day, this server that we exist in will be shutdown.

Consider 2 Peter 3:11‭-‬12,

“Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?”

And, Hebrews 12:27,

“Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.”

But, for those in Christ, we focus on what cannot be shaken —the eternal.

“While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.””
—2 Corinthians 4:18

What is eternal? What cannot be shaken? What can survive the fervent, purifying fire of the coming day of God?

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
—John 17:3

What is eternal, what cannot be shaken, what can survive the fervent, purifying fire of the day of God? Life —to be of the same kind of fire as the coming fire of the day of God, us being set ablaze by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ.

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
—John 1:4

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”
—1 John 4:17

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”
—Hebrews 12:28‭-‬29

The time you get to work does not matter,
That report does not matter,
That money does not matter,
That elite, grand achievement does not matter,
That world changing discovery or breakthrough does not matter in or of itself.
It only matters to the extent of how its done or how its used to build in and establishes with others something eternal.

This is why it is written in Colossians 3:23,
“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men”

Today, I implore us to believe Jesus so we can truly see what matters: what we build in and establish with others; the only thing that is eternal —relationships and closeness developed in Christ.

What Do You Do?

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - What Do You Do?

My job title doesn’t sound too shabby. Actually, I’m honored to do what I do professionally.

But, I’ve always found the question, “What do you do?” off-putting.

I hate it actually, and I’ve never really understood why, until now.

Ask a flower, or any living thing what it does and the answer is simple and profound, “It passes on life.”

When people ask this question, it’s largely a product of the plastic, manufactured system of this world.

And, when people ask, “What do you do?”, it’s though they’re sitting back waiting to calculate how much respect to give you as though your value is being assessed on the Dow Jones.

The question is essentially asking “What thing do you produce that might be of value to me according to this world’s value system?”

But, we’re not machines on a production line, we’re persons —we’re living things.

And, as with all living things, we’re part of a delicate ecosystem. Something that seems small and insignificant, such as the seemingly benign phytoplankton or the understated honey bee, would spell utter disaster for the entire world if they were loss.

God speaks of us as members of a body, a living thing, having placed each one of us purposefully, as He pleases:

“But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”
—1 Corinthians 12:18

And,

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
—1 Corinthians 12:20-22

So, we are not machines to produce dumb things to be sold and traded, but we are persons, living things created for a purpose: to pass on life.

And, what is life?

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
—John 17:3

So, the measure of my success is not in the things I produce.

Jesus said,

“Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
—Luke 12:15

But rather, the measure of my success is in the fruit I produce, life being passed along to others.

And to be clear, Christ is the vine. I am just a branch and can do nothing without Him.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
—John 15:4

So, when I’m asked “What do you do?”, I will respond with the answer to the better question, “How are you passing on life?”

And, my answer will be a description of however Jesus is producing beautiful life in me in that season, and how I’m sharing it.

I’m doing it now.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
—John 15:7‭-‬8