Tamagotchi Theology
Back in 1996, Japan introduced a cutting edge toy that took the world by storm. It was an electronic handheld pet called the Tamagotchi. I never had the privilege of owning one, but I do remember countless children and even teens walking around with this nifty little toy. Since 1996, over 70 million Tamagotchi’s have been sold worldwide. These toys were great because it taught children the importance of responsibility and nurture. I remember in Junior High School our health teacher made us carry an egg around school for a week. If it somehow got cracked, you failed the project. The Tamagotchi took this idea to a new level.
As life-like as the Tamagotchi was, one way in which it was NOT like an actual child was this one particular feature that it had: the reset button. If you failed to feed your Tamagotchi for an extended period of time, or if you failed to take it to the doctor when it got sick, your Tamagotchi could actually die. But if it did, you didn’t have to worry. Why? Because all you had to do was press the “reset” button, and you could start all over again. You had a fresh start, a new beginning. When you play any video game, what do you do when you run out of lives? Just start all over again. When your wireless router is acting up, what do you do? Hit the reset button and it starts fresh again.
Too bad our lives don’t have reset buttons. Wouldn’t life be so much easier if each time we made a mistake, we could just push a button and start all over again? Wouldn’t it be great if each time we hurt someone, or was hurt by someone, we could simply press “reset” and all could be forgotten? We easily forget names, faces, and phone numbers, yet we always seem to remember hurts, regrets, and past sins, whether we were the victim or the transgressor. The inventors of the Tamagotchi were onto something by including a reset button. Though I doubt they were thinking theologically when creating this toy, the idea of a reset button is quite Biblical. It’s actually the heart of the Gospel message. A reset button in the toy realm is what we in the real world call “forgiveness.”
Jeremiah 31:34 says, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” God is great at everything, but He’s actually pretty bad at one thing: remembering sins. Because of what Christ has done on the cross, God chooses to forget our sins. We can have a fresh start, a new beginning. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? God has a reset button! This is the Good News of the Gospel. In the same way that you can reset a Tamagotchi and start all over again, each time we come to God asking for forgiveness, God sees us as pure and blameless, choosing to forget our sins.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is John 10:10 where Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Many regard salvation as something we experience when we get to Heaven. This verse teaches us that the salvation we have in Jesus Christ is something that begins in this lifetime. Jesus doesn’t want us to trudge through life, just barely getting by. He wants us to have an abundant life; a life to the full. So theoretically, every person who has accepted Jesus Christ into their lives should be living an abundant life. But are we?
As I write this article, New Year’s Day is just a few weeks away. This is usually the time when people start setting goals or “New Year’s Resolutions” for the upcoming year. It’s not uncommon to see people determined to lose weight, or quit smoking, or take up a hobby. Though these goals are indeed good goals to set, maybe it’s time for us to consider taking a different approach to the New Year. Maybe a goal that we should be setting as Christians, and as human beings for that matter, is to learn the ability to forgive. I’d venture to guess that one of the main reasons why many Christians are not living the abundant life that Christ came to give us has its root in our inability to forgive, whether it is forgiving someone who has hurt or disappointed us, or even being able to forgive ourselves for mistakes we’ve made in the past. And what happens when we refuse to forgive? We become bitter. Living a life to the full is extremely difficult, if not impossible when we have bitterness in our hearts.
Do you have a reset button? Are there people you need to forgive or grudges that need to be let go of? I’ll be the first to admit that one of my greatest struggles as a Christian is to become a Tamagotchi and just get reset. As we begin a New Year, I hope and pray that we as the Body of Christ might remember the forgiveness that we have in Jesus Christ, and learn to extend that forgiveness to others. Bitterness will kill the Church if we do not kill it first. Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it…that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” In 2010 and beyond, let’s do our best Tamagotchi impersonation. Not only can we honor God by doing so, we can begin to live the abundant life Christ came to give us. 