It has been an interesting couple of months here at Go Godly. God has me working on game mapping. To some of you that may sound cool. To me it has been quite the adventure. One that I should add, had me saying “Are we there yet?” to God over and over. I was not having fun sightseeing in my brain for the best way to convert what is literally and without exaggeration 200 plus award adventures into role playing video game worlds.

Let’s start at the beginning, I promise not to drone on long.

I originally planned to do this game world that was part game and part at home education with a trust factor on submitting completed portions of the curriculum. I figured you would go into the house and their would be a living area (remember it’s ancient Israel) and then you would mouse over and if something moved you would click on it and the worksheet would appear in an you would read, answer questions on a form or do a craft and take a pic and submit it to your award wall for each activity. Once complete a little award icon would pop up on the award shelf. Easy peasy.

Then we have God’ s plan. That started with the original video and my son who does play RPG’s and video games and board games and is a pastor. He looked over the original plan and said, “What if you opened a door and were in a maze instead, or a waterpark?” And my brain exploded.

And so began the journey I have been on for a bit now. I am not a gamer. I played Pong – PacMan – and was pretty skilled at Centipede back in the day. I may have played Wii Bowling with my daughter a handful of times too. None of this has prepared me at all, nor has 27 years in business and finance, for what I am undertaking right now. It began with a study on Romans for the teams that happened in the garden with the mosaics and ended up in the forest with a bunch of pitfalls. This adventure showed me quickly that most all of my content currently needs to be drafted differently for gameplay online, while other which needs to remain interactive either outdoors or with hands on learning needs to also be reshaped for inclusion to the game playing environment. Then all of it – and I mean all of it needs to be framed into each age groups land and adventures in the detailed game mapping that has reminded me why I hated algebra.

BUT GOD…The lesson here is after much kicking and fussing about what I can and cannot do, God reminded me – He knows what my human limitations are. He created me. He isn’t relying on my knowledge or skill or even understanding. He is relying only on my obedience and He can do all of it. Whatever is needed, He is there and can do anything.

I occasionally forget that this is not about me and God certainly doesn’t need me. He is using me to accomplish something wonderful. All I need to do is be faithful – which ironically was the word of the year I got when I prayed for direction with our church’s women’s group. The word faith pops up so much. You have to have faith. You need more faith. But, God showed me my faith is pretty good most of the time, my struggle is in being faithful. Yes that did sting a bit. He also reminded me that He is always faithful, always present, all powerful and can provide every need.

With that I was set back on course, learning a lot from my wanderings. Most of all realizing what an amazing game we are developing here. Truly, it is astounding to me when I read back the directions and all the steps and descriptives within the mapping for the curriculum. It’s a lot – more than I would have imagined in a million years, but a little like Kevin Costner in “Field of Dreams” the development and building takes courage and faith, but if God is with you then every single piece will fall into place seamlessly.

God is good!!