It has been about five years or so since I wrote my first blog post here, yet I never stopped to explain why I even started in the first place! You would think that would be the first article a blogger should write, but nope, not this guy right here.

There are a few other posts where I explained why I write what I write, but not the reasoning behind making Gaming & God a reality. It was all God, He gets the glory for putting this all together. However long this project continues or how much of an impact is made in the gaming community is yet to be seen, I am here for the ride and I’ve still got lots of ideas I want to try and work with the staff here as well.

So years ago, as a gamer, anime fan, and overall geek, I wondered how I could put together my hobby of playing videogames and being a Christian together. I had no reference, except for a couple places online like GameChurch (no longer around) and Geeks Under Grace. What I decided to do first is not recreate the wheel, so I asked GUG if I could write for them and see what that would look like. Since they already had some kind of structure, I thought that would be the best place to start.

GUG was a great place to start because they helped me with editing, keeping deadlines, and working on a team to make articles or collab posts come together. It was also nice to have other Christian geeks to talk to also since we aren’t a very common group!

At the same time, I was putting together this blog and trying to figure out how to buy a domain on Namecheap, what in the world WordPress is (.com or .org?), how to add images, and all the other details that go into creating a blog post. Eventually, I got my first few posts up (they are not my best work!) with zero direction of what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted to write about video games with a biblical perspective but wasn’t sure how to do that.

As time went on, I wanted to take this blog more seriously and have a vision and purpose for what I was writing. Little by little, after testing out different styles of posts like analyzing characters, topics like gaming addiction or gaming reviews, I noticed that I was all over the place. If you look at my first bunch of posts, you will notice that but I think most bloggers start this way! We have no clue what we are doing, just throwing content out onto the interwebs and see what happens. It’s a good way to begin though, as it’s much better than hesitating and over analyzing everything and then not taking any action.

Colossians 3:23

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

The next step on my journey was when I started writing for Beneath The Tangles. As of this post, I am still part of the team, and I can say that Twwk and other members have pushed me to become a better blogger. It’s the excellence that they put into their articles, website, podcast, and groups among other ventures they have that made me want to take this more seriously. Sometimes I wonder if my niche is too small, but then looking at BtT and how many people come across their work daily or weekly and I see that it’s not that tiny!

After sharpening my skills more, I nervously applied for a free panel at a huge anime/geek con in Miami, FL called Animate. It’s no longer around, as they keep changing the name almost yearly. The main one we have here is called SuperCon, which I’ve read there are several others in the USA.

So if you didn’t know, panels are often free since they are just giving you a space in a room for a limited amount of time, and it’s up to you to do everything. Mine was called “Finding God in anime and video games”, which you can read in detail what happened. It was, for me, a way to take my blog outside my laptop and into the real world to see what God would do. He did not disappoint, a lot of people showed up and the gospel was shared.

For a few years though, I didn’t keep up with the blog too much and just let it gather digital dust. I did not put the amount of effort and time I wanted to, life doesn’t stop even for bloggers. Lots of new seasons were happening in my personal life over the last few years, like traveling, buying a home, working at a new school, focusing on my health more (eating healthier, exercise), growing an eCommerce business, and that’s just off the top of my head! I like to keep busy and take advantage of this short life we live, what can I say.

I can say that since last year, I have pushed this blog into new platforms and I keep looking for new ways to do so. The internet gives you different ways to add fuel to what you are already doing, like starting our Instagram, increased conversation and posts on Twitter, using new tools like Buffer or Recurpost, and just seeing how else we can reach to the gaming community. Whether that’s through interviews, praying for people online or in chats, sharing articles that will lead people to Christ and positive gaming experiences, I am open to them all.

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Have you been following this blog for some time, or just found us recently? Let me know what you think of the site, and how we can serve you, do better, or any ideas you have for being a light in a dark place with other gamers.

God bless and thanks for reading.