Radlands meets Christianity
The Mimic Card
In Roxley’s Radlands, the person, Mimic, is a 1 cost water, “?” cost ability who uses the ability of any of your READY people, or any undamaged enemy. The card is basically a copycat of another card. The “?” for the ability cost means you pay the same cost that the person you are copying pays to use their ability. For example, if Mimic copies Repair Bot’s ability, Mimic must pay the 2 water cost to use Repair Bot’s restore ability. Mimic can really play mind games with your opponent because even their own cards become a threat to themselves. On the other hand, Mimic is only as strong as the people in play. If there are no other people around, Mimic is just a meat shield in front of your camp. I like how Mimic can put your opponent on tilt and have them second guessing playing a stronger character with the threat of you copying that ablity on your next turn!
Christlikeness
Just as Mimic is designed to copy other people, so too the Christian is to copy Christ. But how does a person in 2023 copy someone that lived across the world, in a completely different culture, over 2000 years ago. Let’s define “copy”. By copy I do not mean dress like Jesus, eat like Jesus, physically look like Jesus but instead copy Christ’s selflessness. In other words, copy how Jesus lived for God and for others. Jesus’ example goes against the American individualism that is taught today. That is, look after YOURSELF, take care of YOURSELF, better YOURSELF. Even God can be “worshiped” for the selfish reason of living YOUR best life. But Jesus did not count his relationship with God as a means of elevating his status here on earth. Instead, Christ claimed the greatest in the kingdom, is the least, the one with the heart of a servant. Jesus ate with sinners, washed his disciples feet, hugged and loved people that society threw out. So, how can we move from living like Christ? David’s Busic book, Way, Truth, Life shows two equations we can choose from in the Christian walk:
The Popular Equation
Salvation + Time + Individual Willpower = Spiritual Growth
The Holiness Equation
Grace + Cooperation with God + Christian community = Christlikeness
A Look into the two equations:
- What is popular is not always what makes you holy.
Holiness, or to be set apart for God for a purpose, means that God uses his Holy Spirit to begin transforming us from the inside out to reflect God’s character most clearly in the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus.The popular equation focuses on “doing” where the second equation focuses on “being”.
2. Grace and earning it.
The opposite of grace is not “effort”. The opposite of grace is “earning”. Earning says receive X because I put in Y. Grace simply says that X is a gift and cannot be earned or taken, but only received. Justice is getting what you deserve. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve. Grace is getting what you do not deserve. The grace Jesus offers is forgiveness of sin, purpose, and eternal life.
3. Time and cooperation with God.
Although there is nothing you can do to earn grace, there is some effort on our part that we can put ourselves in to receive grace. The popular equation says you just need more time to “get good”. Holiness says you need a relationship with the Creator. So although we can’t earn grace, we can put in effort to receive it. There are things we can do – errands, pay bills, wash a car. There are things we can’t do – control the weather. But there are things we can’t do, but can create a setting to allow it to happen i.e. sleep. Have you ever tried to put your child down for bed and they say – “I can’t sleep.” They are right, we can’t force sleep, but we can turn off lights, close our eyes, and relax until sleep comes. Cooperating with God by attending church services, praying, reading Scripture, accountability, admonition, and serving others puts us in a position to receive the grace of God. The grace of God is revealed through what the Bible calls the fruits of the Spirit – love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.
4. Individualism and community
There is the idea that the Christian faith is a personal and individual matter. In some sense that is true. It is a deep personal decision to follow Christ. But it is not meant to be lived out in a vacuum. The church is not a cruise ship to heaven, it’s a battleship that is meant to partake in spiritual warfare that is going on inside each and everyone of us. Jesus warns us that cleaning up our life and straightening up is not enough. We need to fill our lives with people that encourage us to do good and lovingly tell us when we have done evil. Be Careful if all the friends you have are the ones you pay. Surrounding yourself around people that benefit from your bank account is dangerous. Most will tell you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear. Instead, surround yourself with someone that knows the truth and grace of God. For they have experienced the grace of God and the truth of God as revealed in Christ.
5. Spiritual growth and being like Christ.
“I am not religious, but I am spiritual.” Perhaps you have heard that term. I do not know exactly what it means. Perhaps it’s meant to show the open mindedness of the individual that is not restricted by “religion”. The truth is that we are all “spiritual” in the sense that there are things we experience that we can not quantify like ethics, love, and a sense of purpose. There is no such thing as a foot of love or an ounce of purpose. These things we cannot put our hands on and place in a test tube, but they are very real to us. When we aim to grow spiritually, it’s easy to fall into the trap where we worship God, or a higher power, for the sake of bettering our spiritual life. Many Christians fall into this sin, it’s called works-righteousness, and it’s something Christ did not model. What Christ did model was humility and reliance on God the Father.
Conclusion
Where the Mimic card cost 1 water, the ability to copy Christ has already been paid by his blood shed on the cross for you and for me. All you have to do is humbly ask God to reveal himself to you, read the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John for yourself, and ask – is Jesus reliable for me to put my faith and trust in. If so, accept him as Lord by asking him to forgive you of your sin and to come into your heart. Then you will have the Holy Spirit living inside of you that will give you Christ’s ability to deny self, love and worship God, and love and serve others. If you do not find Jesus reliable, reject him. But do ponder these questions – what are you living for and what is the evidence that what you are living for is true, real, and reliable. God bless you as you make that most important decision.