Life is a Game of Candy Crush

Last summer I got bitten by the Candy Crush craze.  One day I decided to see what all the hoop-la was all about and I played my first Candy Crush game.  It was easy and kind of a fun way to spend a few minutes.  It was fun to pass off each level of play, and see it get a bit more difficult as each level was passed.  After a while I started to wonder what the next level would be like.  What kind of a challenge would it give?  One good thing about Candy Crush is that it forces you to stop after five 'lives', forcing you to wait a while to play more.  Why is that good?  You can definitely get addicted to the game!  Oh, you can beg for more lives, but I suggest you don't unless you have all the time in the world to just sit around and play games.  (There may be times in your life you actually need to do such a thing, but those times are few and far between.)

This morning I played my limited five sessions of the crazy game.  I have been stuck on level 107 for a few weeks now, and as I was trying my best to pass this level, I realized that this game mimics reality.  I then realized I needed to write about it before I forget my thoughts.  So here goes.

The goal of Candy Crush is finish the task that is set for each level.  The task changes at every level. You might need to clear the jellies, drop a certain number of ingredients, or other similar tasks.  There are different obstacles in the way to prevent you from achieving these goals.  The board is covered with different candies that you must move around to get three or more similar candies in a row.  Getting different numbers of candies in a row results in different outcomes.  Three in a row simply moves the candies down or over and they disappear allowing other candies to move into their place.  Getting four in a row produces striped candies that can clear a row or column in one move.  The player must plan out their moves to make the best possible combinations that will allow the best outcomes, with the hope that you can achieve the goal with the highest possible score.  

As you play along and reach a level that challenges you, you can be stuck for a LONG time.  After finally being able to conquer that level you might be able to breeze through the next few levels with no problems at all, only to be hit with another difficult level.  Some people seem to be able to move through these levels with no trouble, even if you are stuck there for a long time.  It is all just the 'luck' of the game board.

As I said, I have been stuck on 107 for a few weeks.  This morning I was thinking I was finally going beat the level because I had 10 chances to clear just the lower right corner and then I would be able to move on.  I was sure I could do it.  But each move didn't give me the outcome I was hoping for.  I came to the end of the game with that darn corner jelly still in place.  I wasn't able to clear that corner.   Lucky for me, I still had four lives to play.  Again, coming to the end of the game I had one corner left, the lower left.  Again, I was unable to clear that corner.  The next game only lasted about eight moves before the bombs blew up and the game was over before I had accomplished anything at all.  That was when I realized that this game was teaching me a lesson.

Life is a challenge.  We are presented with problems to solve, game pieces to move around the board, hoping we can make the right moves to overcome our obstacles. When I focus on one problem, like the corner piece, the rest of the game is responding to my moves, and they don't always work out for my good. Sometimes it turns out for my good, and sometimes it doesn't.  When I focus on one problem it might distract my work on another area of my life.  The pieces of our family or life move around without our control while we focus on one area.  Hopefully it will all fall into place and we can reach our final goal.  But sometimes it causes more concerns, things that weren't planned.  It seems like those game pieces have a mind of their own!

After those game pieces fall into their new place, they might open up an opportunity that you hadn't noticed before.  We might see the same thing with situations in our real lives.  Pieces move around and open up opportunities for new lessons or blessings to come into our life.  Or it can cause more problems for us as we try to negotiate around the new problems.  

Then suddenly, when we least expect it, we can clear the board and achieve our goal!  You just never know when that miracle will happen.  It might take several weeks, or months, but you keep on working on it until you finally get it done.  You move on to another level, which might be a breeze and you are able to conquer it the first time, then move on to the next.  But for sure, you will come to another trial that will take a while to work through.  You will need to plan each move, watch as nothing works, wonder why those darn pieces don't fall the way you planned.  You might be left with a few places that just don't seem to work at all.  You move one piece, and ten move in a way you didn't plan.  Again, you feel you are doing everything right but it just doesn't work out the way it should.  

I look at the situations of my life, knowing they are my life and no one else's.  I see myself moving one piece hoping the others will fall the right way, but they don't, leaving me to try to work around a new problem.  Even though my husband is there beside me experiencing the same game, we move our pieces around in a different way, resulting in different feelings and outlooks. I am the only one who can play my game.  I am the one who struggles through my game board.  

I wonder where my pieces are going to fall today.