\n<\/p>\n
My sister used to beg to play video games with me, so I\u2019d hand her a second controller \u2014 unplugged. She\u2019d mash every button, lean side to side like she was dodging something, cheer when \u201cher\u201d character won. Meanwhile I was running both characters through my own controller, the real one, doing the actual work while she believed she was doing it with me.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t lying to herself. She just didn\u2019t know yet what a working controller felt like. She was learning the rhythm of the game \u2014 when to get excited, when to hold still, how a win feels \u2014 before she had the skill to actually play it.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s milk before meat. Paul told the Corinthians he had to feed them milk, not solid food, because they weren\u2019t ready for it yet (1 Corinthians 3:2<\/a>). Peter says the same thing with more affection \u2014 crave the pure milk of the word like a newborn craves it (1 Peter 2:2<\/a>). Milk isn\u2019t a smaller gospel. It\u2019s the same truth, handed to someone in a form they can actually hold.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the weight of it: I was still the one actually playing. Everything she was learning about the game, she was learning by watching my hands, not hers. If I\u2019d played sloppy, or cheated, or quit when it got hard \u2014 that\u2019s the game she\u2019d have learned. Paul tells Timothy to keep a close watch on his own life and his teaching, because doing that saves both himself and the people watching him (1 Timothy 4:16<\/a>).<\/p>\n Somebody right now is holding an unplugged controller, mashing buttons, learning the game by watching you actually play it. The question isn\u2019t whether they\u2019re paying attention. They are. The question is whether the game you\u2019re playing is one worth learning.<\/p>\n Sit with this:Who\u2019s watching your hands right now \u2014 and what are they learning from how you actually play?<\/p>\n \t\t