The year has been flying by! Just a month ago everyone was talking about how amazing 2018 would be, and here we are in February already. If we do not use our time wisely, it will walk right past us and we won’t even notice it. For me though, I have been trying my best to try new things and push toward my goals for this year. I was blessed with going on a weekend trip to Orlando for OneThing, which is a Christian conference my church goes to every year. The time we spent there was great, refreshing and a nice change of pace. It also was part of the reason why I got to writing this post. Doing something outside of the usual is healthy, exciting and can open doors that were otherwise closed.

I prefer to try new things, food, and anything else I can that’s foreign to me in life. For example, I love to travel, eat at different restaurants, or buy clothes that are more my style than ones I already own. What happens to me and many others though, is we ain’t got time for all that! Our schedules get pretty full, or at least they get into a routine.

My routine is waking up, getting ready for work, make breakfast/lunch, go to work (I’m a teacher), drive home, relax a little, eat dinner, then do one of the following: gym, church, Netflix, read, write, or play PS4/PS3. It depends on the day of the week, but that’s the gist of my life at the moment! It’s nice, and I am thankful to God for it, but it got me thinking about a dungeon crawl in an RPG (random, I know). Can life be like one, and what does that have to do with my personal schedule?

Many games have dungeons but don’t necessarily have to be a dungeon. It can be a cave, field, volcano, snowy plain, or any other landscape you can think of. The point is, they can be boring because nothing that pertains to the story occurs while you are there. Generally, it’s a place between point A and point B. Let’s say the character needs to get to a town, but there’s a forest before you get there. As you walk through the forest, there are monsters and treasures all around. There’s lots of battles, items, and maybe a little bit of dialogue between the party members but that’s it. Nothing happens, you forget about that place, and the game moves on.

The most important aspect of dungeons in games though is the experience and items you receive from them. Sure, it is boring and there are lots of battles, but you come out of it much stronger. Just like life, when we go through obstacles or circumstances that don’t make sense. There are bad situations that either we are placed in or we placed ourselves in. When we are going the “dungeons” of life, it’s best to keep in mind that we come out of it stronger in the end.

When we are going through them, the last thing on our mind is how this is going to benefit us. God’s word teaches us to focus on a particular promise, that He will turn it around for our benefit.

Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Life isn’t easy and can be very challenging. Some of my personal dungeons have come from my family, church, friends, school, and various jobs to name a few. I am the only Christian in my family, I have lost friends because of my faith since they thought I was “too religious”, I had to work hard on my own to get my Bachelor’s degree in college without anyone’s help, as well as having to switch jobs every year for 3 years because of unstable schools that I worked at. When I think back on those times, I know I would not be the person I am today without those experiences. I am not perfect and make mistakes all the time, but I am definitely a better man than if I didn’t go through what I have so far.

The hardest part is reminding myself that when I am going through a dungeon that I will make it out in the end, stronger. I am going to level up, get some rare items (memories, lessons learned, new party members), and my journey will continue wherever God leads me.