Life Beyond

If there are misconceptions amongst non-gamers as to what board gaming is about, that is peanuts compared to the misconceptions amongst the general public as to what the Christian life is about.

Isn't it about being a good person?

Not really. Lots of people are good people, including those of other faiths and those of no faith at all. Which is clearly a good thing. I'm all for being nice to one another and helping those less fortunate. Loving your neighbour and standing up against injustice ought to be part and parcel of everyone's life regardless of their beliefs. If it isn't, then there's something drastically wrong with those beliefs.

But the Christian faith is much more than the way Douglas Adams described it in the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change..." Jesus's message was much more profound than "be nice".

Isn't it about believing things which are unscientific?

Not at all. Many of those we now honour for their contribution to science were Christians who believed that God had created an orderly world which was worth exploring. They wanted to appreciate the way the universe ticks because it would help them appreciate the glory of its Creator.

I like to think of myself as a rational being and a logical thinker – a necessary quality if one hopes for success in board games. My background is in mathematics and I have a reasonably good grasp of physics. I believe that human beings are the culmination of millions of years of evolution in a universe which is billions of years old. I also believe that there is more to life than can be measured and analysed using the scientific method. This should not come as a surprise to gamers. After all, a game is more than just the components and the rules. Something happens during a game (or at least during a good game) which brings it to life and defies easy analysis.

Aren't Christians arrogant to think that only they have grasped the truth?

I wouldn't want to claim that I have exclusive access to the full truth about Life, the Universe and God. I can easily believe that I have got some things wrong and that other people have insights which are more accurate than mine. But I do believe there is a truth to be grasped, and that Jesus has revealed more of that truth than any other person. When he said "I am the way, the truth and the life" he wasn't just pointing to some belief system, he was claiming that to know him was to know the truth. This moves 'truth' from being the target of scientific study into the area of a personal relationship.

I do not fully understand my wife. (Which husband does?) But I have a good personal relationship with her. That sounds way too formal, but you know what I mean. Over the years we have grown closer. I am more and more able to understand life from her perspective. That's the same kind of relationship which I seek to have with Jesus. I want to grasp life from his point of view.

Isn't being a Christian dull and boring?

Well I have to admit that my own life wouldn't make a terribly exciting action movie (unlike some Christians whose faith has led them into all kinds of dramatic experiences.) But it has been far from dull. One of my favourite sayings of Jesus is this: "I have come that they might have Life, and have it to the full."

Jesus was a party–dude not a kill-joy. The riff-raff and the outcasts loved his company. It was the respectable religious lot who thought he was having too good a time. I believe that Jesus gives us Life with a capital L. Some of that enjoyment of life can be found in the gaming hobby, but games are not the be-all and end-all.

There is LIFE beyond the meeple.