LOVE IS A GAME?

I skim through Facebook and other social networking sites, and I see all of these people posting detailed personal business.  I don’t just mean their individual personal business.   I’m talking about husbands and wives having divorce-level arguments in real time.  People name names, dates, places, and positions from their last date for all the world to read.    An online it literally means ALL OF THE WORLD.    

O.K., you have a public persona.  Fine.  No problem.  But here’s where I’ve been perplexed.

The same people who publish this material in the most public of all public forums then add addendums like,

“Mind your own business.”

“Who asked you?”

“All you haters stop worrying about what happens between me and my man.”

???

You uploaded pics and conversation summaries at 5 minute intervals.  You created an interactive online timeline of your romantic involvements. 

But you think it’s ------- private?

I was so confused, but then I had an epiphany.

“Love is a game.”

Actually, it isn’t, but we say that it is. For years, maybe for centuries, people have referred to  the “game of love.” 

Now, follow me with this.

It used to be that we thought about romance as an analogy of some activity involving points, loss, victory, and strategy played on a board, in a room, or on a field; but played within defined boundaries.  When we talked about the game of love, we imagined a metaphorical game of basketball, or football, or chess, or cards. 

Now, when people hear the phrase, “Love is a game,” they think of Halo, or World of Warcraft, or Mario Kart for Kinex.   The virtual worlds of those games give the illusion of privacy while actually broadcasting and sharing massive amounts of data about your every move.

And now, “love is a game” in which people you don’t know join your quest and have crucial influence on your success or failure.

Now, “love is a game” in which unsolicited character wander into your area and affect your gameplay.

Now, “love is a game” that’s played online.

So 2 things.

First.  Stop playing the game of love over the internet.   You’ll never really win.  There will always be someone adding a new puzzle, a new character, a new algorithm to waste more of your time.

Second.  Stop playing with love.   It isn’t really a game. In games, somebody wins, somebody loses, and inevitably somebody cheats.  That’s how romantic love often is, but it isn’t what such love is meant to be.

Romantic love between a man and a woman is the creation of God Himself.  Eros love is the Divinely designed, earthly manifestation of God’s plan of grace. 

^“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (Ephesians 5: 31-33)

Love is meant to be lived-------not played.

And definitely not played online.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
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Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116