Recently I lost everything -- thankfully only in Roblox. 😋
My recent Roblox experience taught me an important lesson: You can never fully trust man (or man-made things) -- you can only fully trust God.
The back-story
For many years my child and I enjoyed playing Roblox together. For those not in-the-know, Roblox is an online
3D gaming platform. There are thousands of 'experiences' that you can join and play. Many of the experiences
allow you to join others to have group play.
Recently governments have been requiring users of online gaming communities to submit their IDs so their age can be verified. This was done to 'protect the children', but really, it's mostly for political show. These ID checks are so easy to defeat that kids are using pictures of adults (or even pictures of themselves with drawn-on mustaches) to get by them. The whole thing is a dumb mess and, again, it's only really for certain politicians to pat themselves on the back for another 'win'.
Because of these 'child protection' changes, some experiences within Roblox require you to have your ID on file with Roblox so that you can chat with others. I don't need to chat with anyone on Roblox so it doesn't matter to me if I'm restricted (my child and I chat with each other through our homemade chat system). Unfortunately, any older experience that hasn't adopted the latest 'protections' gets locked down and no-one can play it until that experience's developer makes the necessary changes. This is what hit me.
For literally years, I enjoyed playing this one experience where you harvest crops from your farm and earn 'money' for it. As you earn more 'money', you expand your farm until it's fully operational and you then can get even more 'money' quicker and faster. It's just a silly game to pass the time away and not competitive in any way. It's slightly more fun than just sitting playing solitaire.
Total loss
Throughout the years I had amassed a very large score in that farming game and was pleased that I was moving
up in the rankings. Unfortunately that came to a screeching halt when Roblox locked down this experience
because the developer had effectively abandoned it (the experience hadn't been updated in years). All of
my progress, my ranking and my score -- all lost because I can no longer play the game!
It's funny, because as I played that game throughout the years, I always had the thought in the back of my mind that all of this could be temporary and whatever gains I had made were unimportant and pointless. Major foreshadowing!
The takeaway
Everything in this material world is temporary. Money, achievements, possessions, career positions...
they all are temporary. As the Bible says (paraphrased) "You brought nothing into this world and
you cannot take anything when you leave".
What is not temporary is whatever you entrust to God! There is an account in heaven that you add (or subtract) from. When your days are done on this earth and you stand before Jesus for judgement, will your Wells Fargo bank savings account matter? Will the sweet sports-car or cushy corporate position make any difference when you face your Maker?
What fills your account in heaven? First and foremost -- if you haven't given your life to Jesus, that is the best first step! Turn your back to the sinful nonsense that so many get trapped in (that included me when I was younger, so not judging!) and turn to God, who created you. Next steps include meeting regularly with other believers of Jesus Christ, serving them by helping however you can, be sure to regularly and faithfully give monetarily to whichever group of believers you are part of. Love other believers from the heart and be giving of your time, your love and your forgiveness.
Reading the Bible and putting the wisdom of it into practice also fills your heavenly account. Of course I don't mean doing any of the wrong things that it warns against, but read the New Testament and model your life after Jesus and the other heroes of the faith. When you have a firm understanding of the New Testament, move on to the Old Testament and see, chapter-after-chapter, book-after-book how everything points to Jesus. 😀
Empty achievements
When I got my amateur extra radio license back around 2014, I thought I had arrived 🤣. I thought
I was someone important within the amateur radio community and, while I was a believer back then, I still
put too much stock in human achievements. On the day I stand before him, I highly doubt Jesus will say "Well
done, good and faithful extra class ticket holder!". I mean, he could but that's not what
he's looking for in a servant. If I used my extra class license to bring others to Jesus or to serve them
in a way that pleases God, that's different. The extra class license on its own is not that important.
Make deposits into the only account that matters
Loving God. Loving others. Serving God. Serving others. That's what's important. Those are the things that
matter the most -- not a BMW, not how much cash you hoarded in a bank account, not human awards or acclaim.
Giving whatever you can of your life, your finances and your love to serve God and serve others is what
matters, and will quickly fill up the only account that really matters!
God bless you, and thank you for reading! 😀
About me
First and foremost I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. After that, I'm a blessed husband, father and
grandfather. I do remote computer work for a living although it's mostly part-time. I'm an amateur
radio operator - AF7EC. When I'm not working on the endless list of house and car projects, I like to
tinker with electronics, like to listen to shortwave radio and write software (mostly open-source) in
C, C++ and Python. I usually bounce around between macOS, Linux and Windows for support and
development work. Overall, I am a big nobody, but always willing to share about Jesus and all that
God has done for me and my family.
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