I recently had the epiphany that, though most of us play video games, I would imagine very few of us know how they work. Putting a cartridge into my Nintendo Switch, I notice just how small those little pieces of plastic and micro-filament are. How is it possible that something so small could generate such amazing stories and vast worlds with limitless possibilities? Well, it is all about following the information that is passed from the source and moved through various components to come out with a gleaming and beautiful display.
In simple circuitry, electricity is the very thing that is transferred through wires. Positively charged ions move back and forth to create a current, much like water flowing down a river. This electricity cannot only send power, but also information. Through microtechnology, game creators have been able to write vast amounts of information into small cartridges or DVDs that are carried through the device and translated into a picture that can be manipulated through the use of a controller. Everything has to do with pathways, and if one of those pathways is blocked or broken, then the information cannot get through and the video game cannot be played.
In a PC or a console, it is safe to say that all roads lead to different destinations. Sure, some electronic pathways will lead to a general or wide path, but for most of the machine, each path leads to a different device or component within it. The wall outlet leads to the power supply which breaks up the electrical flow to supply the cooling system, CPU, and various other components that need power. With all these diversions, it is hard to tell which path will lead to the image on the screen, but really, there is only one path, and that is through the GPU, or the graphics processing unit. Those incredible graphics can only come to life when the information passes through the GPU circuit and is translated into a graphic image, and that is the only way that it happens.
Now, what if I didn’t want to believe that? What if I just took the GPU out of a computer or a console and said that there are other ways to produce those graphics than to go through that particular circuit? Do you think it would matter? Of course not. The truth is the truth, and if there is only one road for power to move through to make gorgeous images come up on a screen, then that is the only way that it will happen, whether I believe it or not.
This is the very way that things work; there is only one path to the beautiful picture of heaven that we see when we leave this life. It is not a path that we create ourselves, but it is one that was made for us through Jesus Christ. You have heard me say time and time again that Jesus is the connection that we need in order to get to God, but I haven’t really spelled that out for everyone. Well, I will let the Scriptures do that for me:
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6
It may seem harsh, but just as there is one way through the GPU to a screen, there is one way to get to God, and that is through Jesus Christ. He is our circuit and conduit in which we are able to truly achieve what we were made for, and that is to have communion with God. The way this works is not complicated, but it is a road that one must travel to find understanding. It has often been called the Road to Salvation, but others, like myself, like to call it the Romans Road.
The name for this path comes from the Book of Romans, a lengthy letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome around 56 A.D. It is a book that spells out the Christian faith and what it means to be “saved,” including what we are being saved from and how it spiritually works. For the next few weeks, my devotionals will guide you along the Romans Road using analogies from video games to help with your understanding of the path that you are to take.
Let’s take this journey together, shall we?
Up Up Down Down Devotionals 