I believe that I’ve mentioned the addiction that I have suffered to a video game, Age of Empires. In this game, you have to balance the economy and military of a colonial power in order to wipe all of your competitors off the map. Tom and I both quickly mastered the game at the “easy” level. We can take on the maximum of seven opponents and dispatch them with little real effort. Before long, we got good at the “moderate” and even “hard” levels. The highest level, “expert,” however, continues to elude my abilities. No sooner do I get started well and my opponent sends an enormous army against me. I might possibly be able to repulse that opening attack, but I find myself so weakened that the next huge contingent—and they are huge—invariably wipes me out.
I will confess, however, that I have been known to cheat at Age of Empires. Do a quick search on Google for “age of empires iii cheat codes,” and you’ll be treated to all sorts of ways to work around the limits of the game. One code, if entered properly, gives you 10,000 units of wood. Others give a similar measure of food or gold. These are healthy advantages to the would-be conqueror. If you feel like things take too long, then type in “speed kills,” and everything happens instantly. A villager can build a house in a moment rather than a minute or can blaze through an entire forest in just seconds. Soldiers spawn from barracks faster than cheesy sequels churn out of Hollywood. Then there is Tom’s favorite cheat code: “Tuck Tuck Tuck.” This little trio of syllables will create a huge monster truck, dubbed the Tommy-nator. The Tommy-nator will destroy anything. You can send it into a forest and the trees fly like matchsticks. Drive it into a village and watch the buildings crash down in rapid succession. Tom’s favorite use of the Tommy-nator is to combine it with “speed kills.” All you have to do is park your monster truck near an enemy barracks and then watch as the enemy soldiers emerge like ants from a hill only to wipe themselves out on the truck’s grill. The Tommy-nator, it seems, need not be in motion in order to be deadly.
I will confess that it’s rather fun to abuse reality in this way. The problem with this sort of play comes when a person feels as if he is actually accomplishing something by manipulating the game in this way. In reality, he’s simply watching a computer-generated video created in potential by whoever programmed the monster truck into the game.
Why does God’s wrath rise against the king of Assyria? Is it his actual deeds? Not exactly. It’s his attitude. The Ax of Assyria sees itself as more important than the God who wields him. How often do we forget the simplest of theological truths: There is a God, and I’m not him? None of us is likely to go on a conquering rampage, with or without a monster truck for help, but we can still forget ourselves and fail to see ourselves as tools in the hand of a mighty God.
Tune My Heart is primarily an aid to the devotional life of its author, Mark Browning, who holds the copyright for this material. It is provided online in hopes that some will find it edifying. All contents, unless otherwise noted, may be redistributed freely provided that you give credit for its origin and do not charge anything.