The Role-Playing Adventure Party & Why We Need Jesus

I find my blog each morning by doing a web-search for it, and I often find other gospel-themed blogs posting about the Armor of God while I'm at it. This morning, I found a blog that links the ideas, tactics, and features of a popular, online role-playing game to principles of the Gospel. I spent a good half-hour (or more) reading his very interesting and thought-provoking articles. I'd post a link, but I doubt that you'd enjoy a blog that's half about an online role-playing game, especially when that game is World of Warcraft. (Actually, maybe I should post a link to it. -shrugs- If you want one, as for it in the comments.)

While half of the subject matter of this person's blog has a bad reputation in many circles, the articles he posted on April 2, 6, and 7, 2011 make a VERY good point, and I'd very much like to share what I've learned.

To explain his concepts, first I need you to understand something about role-playing - It's difficult to role-play alone. Even if you have the creativity or insanity to spend hours making up your own characters and adventures in your own little world, it's much more fun in a group. When a group gets together to role-play, each player controls a character, and their characters form a group called a "party" and go on some adventure together.

Since there are multiple members in the party, they each can afford to specialize in what they do. For example, the healer can specialize solely in healing magic, even though that won't protect them from monster attacks, as long as they have a warrior on the team to fight the monsters for them. And the warrior can spend all his resources on making himself a stronger warrior, completely neglecting to buy healing potions, as long as there's someone on the team who can do his healing for him. A leaning stick can't stand up on its own, but when sticks lean against each other in balance, they can stand stable and strong.

So each player controls a character, and each character plays a role in the party. Now, I may be a little biased, but I think some roles are more vital than others. You need a healer on the team or you'll never recover from the wounds you'll receive on your quest. You'll also need a tough warrior to take the bulk of the damage, or you'll end up taking damage faster than your healer can heal. A good paladin could easily fill either of those roles. It's nice to have strong damage dealers on the team to help you win your battles faster, but unless you've got a tough fighter and a skilled healer, I wouldn't count on winning at all.

The authors of the articles (as I've just realized that there are more than one author) link these concepts to the gospel by reminding us of the vital role Jesus Christ plays on our spiritual quest. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus took upon Himself our pains and afflictions. Like a warrior, He took most of the damage for us, so we would be okay. Also, by doing this, He made it possible for us to repent and be spiritually healed, so in that sense, He is our healer as well. Since Jesus Christ shows great skill as both a defender and a healer, that leads me to believe that He may be, figuratively, a paladin.

Just as an adventuring party wouldn't make it very far without fighters and healers, we couldn't make it very far in our spiritual journey without Christ. He plays two vital roles in our party, so we need to make sure we stay with Him, which leads me to another point the blog authors made: Jesus is our leader as well.

Each adventuring party needs a leader to keep all the characters working together effectively and to make the tactical decisions of how and when they fight (that's another thing that some paladins are good at). The leader needs to be someone experienced and wise; someone who knows what they're doing and what the other party members need to do. As long as the other party members listen to and obey their leader, they'll make it through the adventure okay, especially when that leader is Jesus Christ. When we follow Him and stand by Him and do what He asks us to do, He'll protect us from the greater afflictions, heal us when we suffer the lesser ones, and ultimately lead us to victory. Jesus Christ is a Paladin, and I want to be on His team.