Psalm 119:87 1UP

What's a 1UP?  (It's not 1/7th of a 7UP.)

If you're playing a video game, you generally start out with more than one life for your avatar. Three is the usual standard. If your character gets killed during the game, you get start over  again with another life.

Many games also have a feature known as the 1UP. If you achieve a certain goal or touch a certain object, you'll see the characters 1UP appear, and an additional life is added.

You don't get a 1UP so you can sit and just watch the game play itself out.

You don't get a new life so you can go do something else.

It's not so you can just keep your avatar standing still, enjoying the view.

And the 1UP doesn't mean you can start ignoring the rules of the game and make your avatar go fishing instead (unless it's a fishing game).

No, you get that new life  so you can keep moving, heading along the path, on mission.

They almost wiped me from the earth,
but I have not forsaken your precepts.

Psalm 119:87

This past week, I was given a 1UP.

The heart attack began early Thursday morning. By Friday afternoon I was enduring a heart characterization procedure, made exceptionally long and painful due to the abnormal and backwards layout of my anatomy.

There was more than one point during the procedure that I was convinced I was going to die on that table. And yet here I am today, three days later, at home with my laptop, writing about the experience.

God didn't give me this 1UP just so I could back to living life the same way as before. I'm looking forward to exploring what new adventures God has in store for me.


You don't have to go face to face with death to find yourself in desperate need of a 1UP.

There are plenty of times on the 1 road of life that a 1UP would be nice to have. Actual life is a lot like a video game that way. There's always something trying to knock you down, aiming to distract you, hurt you, discourage you, or put you out of the game.

But God, through Jesus, has offered the best 1UP of all. At the point where you've completely messed up your life and are drowning in your own sin, He offers the opportunity to be immersed in His grace and to be raised up with new life in Christ.

And just like the video game, that new life means you need to continue living by the rules, the precepts.

God didn't give me a new life so I can just show up at church once a week and watch the preacher play out God's mission.

Christ didn't sacrifice His life for you just so you can take your new life and go do something else.

You weren't raised up out of that watery grave of baptism so you can become a spectator in church.

And your new life in Christ doesn't mean you can just ignore the scriptures and head off chasing your own priorities and your own agenda.

God has a mission and whatever role He has planned for you, it's grounded in His Word. You're going to need to pay attention to the precepts in order to be up to the challenge of the adventure ahead.

Ready Player One?