Yesterday I posted on Twitter that I had done one of the most difficult yet most freeing things in my entire life.  To some, what I am about to tell you may seem completely ridiculous.  To others, I pray for a revolution of obedience!

As of yesterday, September 15, 2009, I have stopped  playing World of Warcraft.  Hi, my name is Matt Brown and I am a WoW addict… phew… I finally got that off my chest!

Right now, you may be wondering why this is such a huge deal.  Let me show you:

I started playing World of Warcraft on January 12, 2005… 2005… 2005!!!  Do you get that?!  That’s almost FIVE years ago!  Let me add this.  When WoW first hit the stores, it cost $60.  Tack on to that two expansion packs at $40 a pop.  (for the non math folks, that’s $140 just to buy the game)   Add to that the $15 per month cost to play the game ($15/mo X 57 mo = $855).  Add those two costs together and  you get:  NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE SMACKERS!!! I have invested almost a thousand dollars into a video game.

Let me show you something else:

WoW has a built in timer that logs your the number of hours you have played.  In other words, if I played for 5 hours today, and 2 hours tomorrow, and 4 hours the next day, I would have a cumulative time of 11 hours played.  If you notice, on ONE… just ONE of my characters, I played SIXTY-SEVEN days total.  And I had 4 other characters.  The total number of days played for all my characters was almost 120 days played. To help put that into perspective, if you started playing right now, you would have to play for 4 months straight with no breaks to eat, sleep, or pee!  That’s 4 straight months of my life that I can never get back.

All that to say, I have invested A LOT of time and A LOT of money into World of Warcraft.  I hope that helps you to see why this is such a HUGE breakthrough for me.

Here’s why I did it…

Ever have Has God ever asked you to give up something?  Ever have God press His Almighty finger on one certain area of disobedience in your life?  Ever feel the weight and pressure due to the inward battle between selfishness and holiness?

Well I have…

And it is not very fun…

And WoW just happened to be that one area of my life.

The truth is only 2 things last forever:  God & His Word and People’s Souls.  I have invested all that time & money and have NOTHING to show for it.  All my characters… GONE!  All the fake digital money I made… GONE!  All the phat loot… GONE!  All the high scores & achievements… GONE!  And now I have the choice… I can invest my time in and money towards things that can be deleted… OR… I can invest my life in the things that are eternal.

Here’s some other truths that influenced my decision:

• Life is just a vapor (James 4:14) and the one thing we canNOT do in heaven is evangelize!
• We are in a war zone.  People are on there way to hell.  There’s no time to play games!
• Where we invest our time and money reveals our true passions.  (Matthew 6:21)
• “If the enemy can’t destroy you, he’ll distract you.  Distraction = doing an incredible job at an insignificant activity.”  – Steven Furtick
• “How can a man get a word from the Lord when he hasn’t taken care of his wife?”  – Marilynn Blackaby
• “Following Jesus is all about doing the next thing that you already know He has led you to do.” – Kevin Childs
• How can I do the next thing God has planned if I haven’t been obedient with the first?

So I sit here today feeling FREE!  Like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.  I hope this inspires you to obey whatever God is asking you to do RIGHT NOW!  No matter how ridiculous it may seem.  Don’t put it off until tomorrow.  Don’t wait until the turmoil becomes unbearable.  Just be obedient and let God use you!