Hey y'all. So, if you're anything like me, then you probably like playing games on your phone. And I'm going to also guess that one of those games (whether it's your go-to game or something you downloaded, played for a day and then deleted) was Candy Crush, or another "match three" style game. Now, I myself am pretty guilty of spending way too much time playing this game. However, I am not going to talk to you about trying to strategize during the game to preserve your available lives, how to best win and use your boosters, or how sometimes after playing the game for too long I begin to imagine different matching scenarios and what the most advantageous set-ups are. Rather, I am here to talk to you about how we live our lives.

"Wait, wait, wait... Chloe, are you trying to tell me God, life and Candy Crush have something in common?" you might ask me.

Well, that's right. I want to talk to you about how your fun, time-consuming game can actually teach you a lot about our lives. Now, I am not, under any circumstances suggesting you retreat from the world and start living through Candy Crush. No, we need others in our lives, and we need to interact with the world around us. Also, I am sure you will agree when I say that life is much more valuable, sacred and important than Candy Crush.

Alright, so back to the game. For any of you who don't know (and a refresher for my frequenters of the game), Candy Crush is a match three style game where players must switch neighboring game pieces with one another in order to get three or more identical pieces next to each other. In addition, the game features boosters to help you along the way that can be won by finishing challenges or matching more than three pieces together at once. In addition, as is with most games, as you progress through the game, the levels become harder and harder. You can also reach out to friends for help with passing levels and gaining extra moves, or help someone out by doing that for them.

I think the final thing you need to know about the game is that you are allotted five lives. Whenever you fail a level, you lose a life, and it takes thirty minutes to recharge each life. However, you also have opportunities to purchase extra lives, sometimes the game will move you forwards after you have waited a certain amount of time, and you can even get "infinite lives" for a limited amount of time. Nevertheless, you always end up back with five lives.

Now I am sure you are all wondering what my point is. My point is that this game is quite similar to the way we live our lives (By the way, I know we only have one life, but just go with it for now). We are the players. Just as we face many challenges as we go through life, some of which are harder than others, we carry on, always moving forwards and never backwards. In addition, just as we are given a certain number of lives in the game, we each have a certain amount of time and energy we can give, and sometimes we have to take a break and recharge.

Just as we can give and receive help in passing levels, in life, a lot of our challenges require teamwork. Nevertheless, one of the things I find most similar between these two things is their unpredictability. I might just be bad at Candy Crush, but I find that I can usually guess what pieces will drop down or appear next, but it is fixed to a basic pattern–you could get any color piece. Also, in matching one pair, sometimes the plan I had for moving the next piece gets completely destroyed because the last pairing set off a chain reaction. Just as the game can either cooperate with your plan or do the complete opposite, so can the people and events in our lives.

I think it would be safe to assume that we all have a plan in life. However, that plan doesn't always work out, and we can be thrown into a very unexpected situation. Despite that, we always finish, and we always move forward. Potentially the most striking part of this game, you always move forward. Sometimes it may take days, weeks, or months–it can take a ton of lives and a lot of effort, but you always move on. Even if you've reached the end of the game, there seem to always be new levels being added. So, just like the game, even if it takes us a lot of time and a whole lot of effort, we continue moving forward, and we continue living. In the end, life is full of challenges, it is going to be easy in some parts and hard during others, and we are called to be present and enjoy life through its ups and downs. Like I said earlier, it will be hard at times, so just remember, if you're stuck on a "level" or challenge in life, don't lose hope–keep trying, be intentional, fully invest yourself, and you will succeed, no matter how long it takes.