I found this game today while browsing someone’s YouTube account. It’s called ‘And Everything Started to Fall.’ If you’d like, I wouldn’t mind if you went out of your way to stop reading this post and go try playing the game for a while. Try it. It’s very interesting. The link’s right there in the first sentence.
If you’re the sort that’s not willing to play it, then go ahead and watch this video.
I bring this to your attention because the author of this game made three comments about the message this game brings.
The first message is found here:
A game about life and it’s unavoidable end , death and the things that could happen in between . A story told trough images . A pretentious attempt at making art trough play mechanics . Start as a baby and grow all the way into the grave gaining and loosing [sic] abilities as time passes you by.
The second message is found here:
The only intention behind this game is to present the reality that it doesn’t matter how you live your life the end is always going to be the same, death .
The third message is contained in the game itself (hit F1 when playing):
The world never stops moving representing the fact that time doesn’t stop to wait for us . A clock on the background not only spins faster as you grow but also shrinks representing how closer to death we get with every passing day , we are running out of time .
. . .
After this you simply reach a very old age in which you can do as much as when you were a baby , just move left and right gameplay wise , and someone is actually doing this for you since you are on a wheel chair . At this point you are not very far from dying so this is a very short stage .Once you reach the final ladder you no longer have control over the character , the clock starts spinning faster and backwards and you will start having flashbacks until you reach your tomb at which point the clock stops , the screen stops , your last memories fade away , is all over , you are dead .
Essentially, the summary is the same no matter what: you live, you do things, and inevitably, you die. Everything you do is in context of death. The choices you make, the memories you keep, the friends you make, career choices, whatever it may be – death hovers over you like an overcast shadow. As the sun sets upon your life, the shadow looms ever larger, eventually to the point that they join all other shadows and consume all that you have ever set your foot upon.
That is, the futility of life.
This blog is mainly for me to discuss community, and so here is the question I ask and also seek to answer in my short thoughts: How does community fit in with the futility of life, aging, and death?
The short game captures a sense of how short life really is. In a span of about three minutes, we watch a child being born, grow up, live, get married, perform work, age, watch people die, and then die himself. A vapor of the wind. Whatever actions we do are undone by the work of the sands of time. Empires that we build, relationships we forge, memories we make, all come crashing down by the weight of time. It is so easy to despair.
It is not unfamiliar to those who read the scriptures.
The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise? And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 2:14-17 (ESV)
So what then? What point is there in what we do? The same idea is expressed in the Bible that this game speaks out upon: no matter the choices you make in your life, you will die. Your fate is independent of your choices. You will die. You will become united with the ancient earth that you rose from so many years ago. You will kiss the earthen bride and make the earth your home once more. That’s it.
Our marriage to futility and meaningless death ended, however, with the Cross. Is that any surprise that I find myself coming back to the cross every time? Peter states it quite eloquently in 1 Peter 1:23-25:
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass / and all its glory like the flower of grass. / The grass withers, and the flower falls, / but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
First, it is through the Cross that our lives have been brought out of meaningless death and meaningless toil. In Christ, what was once imperfect work leading to inevitable death becomes redeemed work raised up to build His Kingdom with Christ as the cornerstone. Peter writes that first, we should no longer see ourselves as dust in the wind like all the seed and life on this earth. Instead, Peter exhorts his people to see that in Christ their actions have meaning and permanence. Their lives have permanence both figuratively and literally.
Figuratively, their lives have permanence as their works are insured by the guarantee of the Cross through the Holy Spirit. We have him as a down payment for the hope in the return of Christ, for the accumulation of the Kingdom Come. By the Holy Spirit, we are assured that our actions have purpose, meaning, and direction. We are sure because we know the end is in Christ’s return – therefore everything that happens from now until then will drive towards the inevitable conclusion. So like those in the early church, we, too in our work we can rest knowing we do not have to say ‘vanity of vanities!’
Literally, their lives have permanence because they will be raised again from the dead. As Christ bears the first-fruits of resurrection, so, too will the body raise from the dead and be given new, glorified bodies. They shall never taste death again. How, then, can anyone with a glorified body lament their lives as mere dust in the wind? And so with hope of the resurrection, we also understand that the choices we make become meaningful, as we will live to see how Christ brings our actions to fruition. We will live to see the day. We will rise and see the dusk bringing to light all our choices in the past. We will glory in God with all the things we do, then.
Tomorrow I will continue on by talking about how age and community interact in light of the promise of permanence through the blood of Christ. Good night~!
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