Deiknuo’s blog – the reflections of David Lewis

We have all seen in the news recently various items concerning highly paid sportsmen who will stop at nothing to win: footballers who dive to get a penalty awarded to them, or a rugby player who pretends he’s been injured, at the command of his coach, so that he can be substituted for another player. I suppose that the money that is involved in sport leads to the must win at any price mentality that seems to be prevalent in many sports nowadays.

I am competitive when it comes to playing games, but I hope that I would never cheat in order to win. However, recently I have been reflecting more generally on whether my Christian faith comes through in the way that I play games. How important is winning to me? Do I play in what I might call an ethical way?

Let me give you a light-hearted example. Over the last week or two I’ve been playing FarmVille. FarmVille is a game which can be found through Facebook where you are responsible for developing a farm. As you make progress and gain experience you are able to grow a bigger selection of crops and purchase better equipment. You can interact with Facebook friends who also play FarmVille, sending each other gifts and helping in small tasks around the farm.

But the aim of the game is to maximise profits and move up quickly through the various levels of experience. And so the temptation is to farm your land very intensively: your livestock is squeezed into as small a space as possible, and every inch of your farm must be utilised effectively.

I’ve decided, though, that I don’t want to play the game that way. I want to leave space between my crops. I want my animals to have space to move around in. In short, I have decided that I want to farm ethically, even if it is only a game. I may not be as profitable a farmer as some, but that’s fine by me. I’d rather play the game according to my Christian principles!

If you are on Facebook and play FarmVille, do come and be my neighbour, and hold me accountable if I start being too concerned about making a profit!