Players VS The DM

It's unfortunate, but D&D players and their DMs can form hostile relationships. When this happens, it's fairly understandable. The DMs create and control the monsters that challenge, attack, and sometimes kill the players' characters. The players control the protagonists and the DM controls the antagonists. If the lines between players and characters get blurred, players can easily begin to see the DM as antagonistic. However, I've learned that this perspective is pessimistic and short-sighted.

Firstly, some players view the DM as an enemy because he (or she) causes and/or allows bad things to happen to the characters, but such players may be ignoring the fact that the DM also causes and/or allows good things to happen to the characters as well. Yes, the DMs confront the players with hostile NPCs, traps, and monsters, but the DM also gives the characters friendly NPCs, treasure, and XP. Now, some might argue that the players earn and deserve treasure and XP for killing the monsters, so that's not really a gift from the DM, but DMs sometimes give the characters more XP and treasure than they actually earned.

And, to the extend that characters truly do earn XP and treasure for fighting monsters, that actually makes my second point for me. Players often see monsters as obstacles in the way of getting the XP and treasure they want, but those monsters are actually the vehicles by which they can get their much-desired treasure and XP. To claim a dragon's hoard, one must deal with the dragon. One cannot exist without the other. So, when the DMs give the characters monsters to fight, they are also giving the characters opportunities to earn the XP they crave. DMs give players challenges so they can justify giving the players the rewards of overcoming those challenges.

Of course, all of this applies to us and God as well.

As long as we only think of the crummy things God does to us or allows to happen to us, it can be easy to think that God is against us or that He enjoys watching us suffer, but that couldn't be further from the truth. God loves us and wants to bless us, and He often blesses us far more than we deserve. Yet, some blessings have to be earned, so God presents us with the challenges we have to overcome in order to earn those blessings. For example, the Gift of the Holy Ghost can only come to us after we've been baptized, so God commands us to be baptized. Other commandments bring other blessings, so we would do well to keep those commandments, even if they're hard, so that we can earn the blessings.

So, good DMs aren't against their players any more than God is against us. Instead, we need to trust that their machinations, while seemingly evil at times, are ultimately designed to work or for our benefit. If I can fight through the encounters I need to earn the XP I need to level up (without getting mad at the DM), then I can keep the commandments I need to gain the blessings I need to become a Paladin (without getting mad at God).

God is the DM of real life. I trust Him to give me encounters designed for my benefit.