The concept is simple: You are a farmer who has to manage a farm, earn money, and grow the size of your farm over time. Of course, you are NOT really a farmer. Plowing a field consists of clicking a mouse. And one can see everything from red gazing balls to chocolate milk cows on a FarmVille farm, something I’m sure my buddy Brent Campbell hasn’t seen on any farms in Oklahoma lately.
Tons of people hate FV. There are even “I hate FarmVille” Facebook groups. There are those who have tried it out, only to leave a sad four plot farm of dead crops. There are those that love it for a time, but then desert it because they have other more important things to do. And then there are those who just can’t get enough.
And all this got me thinking. We tend to respond to Jesus in a similar way. I know it sounds like a stretch, but hang with me for a sec.
In Matthew 13, Jesus talks about how each of us receives faith in Him using the analogy of a sower sowing seed (note continuing farm analogy). The sower sows seed which proceeds to fall in four different places: along the path, in rocky ground, in the thorns, and in good soil. The four landing places correspond to how we respond to Jesus:
- Along the path – Those who hear but don’t receive.
- Rocky ground – Those who hear and receive quickly, but there is no root so they desert (insert many health & wealth gospel recipients)
- Thorns – those who choose the pleasures and cares of life over Jesus (insert the “wayward” college student).
- Good soil – those who hear and receive Jesus genuinely.
Maybe, just maybe, Jesus’ parable can be applied to how we respond to many things in our lives, including something as trivial as FarmVille. We see these kind of responses in relation to sports teams, politics, TV show preferences, books, what university we attended, how we parent our children, what vaccines we choose to give, and everything else you can imagine. I’ve even seen this kind of thing in a conversation about what kind of computer you use. Those PC/MAC commercials are so popular for a reason.
We as humans love to love, we love to hate, we love to love and then hate again, and we really love to just not give a crap.
My suggestion is this: go ahead and pay no attention to things like FarmVille or sports teams or politics. Buy into the latest computer toy this week and desert it next week. Hate red sports cars just because you hate them. But if we apply these same principles to our eternal destination after this life is over, we may wish we had not treated Jesus like FarmVille.
