Hi, my name is Chelsea and I play too much Flappy Bird.
I didn’t mean to get addicted. My husband came home from a church high school retreat in January and casually asked if I had ever heard of Flappy Bird. The answer was no and as I watched him lay awake at night trying to dart a bird through some pipes, I thought, Gosh, that game is a waste of time! I didn’t even ask to try it on his phone, I was NOT going to waste my time on that silly game.
A few weeks later I saw something on Twitter about Flappy Bird disappearing the next day. What? As I investigated more, sure enough, the app creator was removing it from the iTunes store after realizing it was becoming too addictive to people.
Huh? It’s going away forever? You mean I won’t have the option to download it later? What if I decide I want to play it? Or what if I am missing out on something? And how could someone allow themselves to become addicted to a game like that? That would never happen to me …
Seconds later it was downloaded on my phone. Just in case it really did go away the next day. (Which it did.)
It started casually. One night after exhausting other mindless things to do I clicked on it. A few gentle taps and my bird dove to the ground.
New game.
Tap, tap, tap, tap tap tap, tap …
2! I made it through 2 pipes!
This was a lot harder than I thought.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap tap tap, tap ….
3!
Fast forward to a few weeks later. Tap, tap, tap tap tap …
Last week I laid in bed tapping, methodically trying to get my little red bird through as many pipes as possible when I was hit a challenge, I needed to blink, but I couldn’t.
Okay, not couldn’t, but wouldn’t. If I blinked I would have to take my eyes off the screen for a split second and surely would plummet to the ground. 74, 75, 76 – I was flying through the pipes, but I needed to blink! My eyes!
*Blink*
Plummet.
DANG! I knew that I had to somehow work in my ability to blink while playing the game. The next 20 minutes were spent trying to train myself to blink and play at the same time, but whenever I would think about blinking and attempting it, I would dive into a pipe. One game I got my left eye stuck trying to re-open from a blink, but was too afraid that the movement would distract me too much from the game and ended up playing a round of 85 with only my right eye. (It ended because I blinked with my right eye and well, you know the story from here, plummeted.)
I knew I had a serious problem when I sat there tapping and started to refuse to blink.
Mind over matter, keep tapping! Do. Not. Take. Your. Eyes. Off. The. Screen.
Ahhhh, my eyes! So dry! Can. Not. Blink!
Well that game ended because my contact fell out of my eye. I kid you not. Apparently blinking is not something you can just will yourself not to do.
I found my dried, shriveled contact on my blanket, I set my phone down and walked away. I will forever remember that my score of 102 was at the expense of my contact.
(proof)
But all this made me think – I fell into a moment where I could not think of or do anything other than what I was focusing on. It became impossible for me even to blink because I only allowed myself to have one thing that could hold my attention. It reminded me about how easily we can fall into that same routine when we are going through something or worrying about an issue. We can become so focused on the obstacle, the challenge, the trial, that the simplest act of living can be put on hold as we obsess over our circumstances.
My Flappy Bird experience reminded me that I have to have balance.
It can be so easy to get drawn into our Thing. I can start to focus on infertility and all that surrounds it – the what-ifs, the how-comes, the why-thems, and it’s like I forget to blink. Infertility starts to define my life instead of being a small part of what I’m facing. It was a great reminder to me that it’s okay to want something, but it’s not okay to lose myself in the process. I have to blink.
John 10:10b says “I [Jesus] came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Regardless of our situations, we are meant to experience life – all of life, not just one piece of it.
The definition(s) of “abundant” are as follows: richly adequate, occurring in great quantities, generously supplied, abounding.
When we tap into our great resource, our Source of joy, He is able to provide us a life that is richly abounding. It doesn’t mean we won’t have challenges – life is made up of different seasons, the good and bad, but with Him as our focus, not our circumstances, we can recognize that all of our needs are generously supplied.
I have been able to ease up on my Flappy Bird addiction. I still can’t figure out how to blink and play the game at the same time. And because of that, I am not able to enjoy the experience as much. So for the sake of my contact supply, I will cut the ties. It won’t be easy, but a balance is necessary, as is blinking. Today I encourage you, stop being consumed by your Thing. Being focused on anything other than Him will only lead to you plummeting. And, well, we all know plummeting is no fun!!
Trials Bring Joy 
another great post! Thanks so much for you perspectives!
waitingforbabybird.com
XOXO!! :)
Reblogged this on waiting for baby bird and commented:
In our journey through life, we have to find balance….
As this wonderful blogger points out….It can be so easy to get drawn into focusing on infertility and all that surrounds it – the what-ifs, the how-comes, the why-thems, and in our journey through life we have to find balance. If we are not careful, Infertility can start to define our lives instead of being a small part of what we are facing. It okay to want something, but it’s not okay to lose ourselves in the process….
Check out her blog!
Good post!!!!! I love how God uses silly things like Flappy bird to speak to us and give us perspective <3 xoxo
He is so faithful like that!! :)
You’ve gone and done it again! Made an awesome point!! We do sometimes tend to focus so hard on our Thing that it almost just makes things wose!! I realized today that since we’ve reall been focusing on building our house, my focus on getting pregnant isnt as prominent in my mind as it has been in the past. Glad you have taken a break from your addiction! ;-) take care friend! Xoxo.
Why thank you my friend! I always wonder if things just make sense in my head, so it’s always a joy to hear a reader relate and validate. :) But isn’t it so true! Taking our focus off of our problems can make things much easier! Have a great evening Elena!!
I love your comparison and reminder to not let IF take over our lives. I’m really trying to focus on this lately. Great post and thanks for sharing!
My heart goes out to you as you battle this too! We can do this though! We can break the cycle of that focused thinking/worry! Thanks for the comment!
Agreed!
This is such an amazing, insightful post. I loved it! You had me rolling with laughter! But then when you brought your point home I can relate. TTC has taken over every thought for me and I am definitely trying to just give that up to Him. Pressure is off when you give it to God! I can blink now. LOL
Mel! Your comment put the biggest smile on my face. Thank you for relating and sharing your experience as well. I pray that you can “blink” and give it over to Him in every aspect! It’s SO tough and a daily challenge, one that I can often fail! Sending you hugs!
I’m adding you to my blog roll. There’s nothing I like reading more than an encouraging Christian based blog – I find such inspiration from strong, faithful women such as yourself. I love how bold we are able to be through Christ who strengthens us!! Thanks for the hugs! Sending some straight back to you!
Why thank you! This truly is humbling! AMEN! He really is the one who gives us strength!!
This is great! I love the analog y – but I have to admit, I was laughing picturing you addicted to this game! lol Flappy Birds…who would have thought??? lol (It’s for this reason I won’t even play Candy Crush!). Thanks for sharing this, Chels. It’s so easy to lose perspective. I’m a huge advocate of not letting Infertility control us. Too many other good things in life. Thanks for this reminder!
HAHA! I will NOT every try Candy Crush! I can’t do it! I am seriously shocked I let myself get sucked into this game! NO MORE!!! But thanks for commenting and laughing with me, I agree that this can NOT control us! We are made for so much more! XOXO!
Great message! I was laughing about your addiction because it’s all too familiar :-).
Dangerous right!? :) Thanks for reading!
What a word. A change in perspective is so important on this journey. I am working on that myself and this speaks to me!! xo
I love this piece of your post: “Regardless of our situations, we are meant to experience life – all of life, not just one piece of it.” To that I say AMEN!
Thank you for reading and sharing what touched you Evangeline! I appreciate your support and comment! God bless you!
This was great I do this with baby “things” getting so caught up in what we would get, the newest, latest, best baby stuff. It makes me focus more on the fact there is no BABY. So thank you , I really enjoyed this.
Thank you Tiffany, for reading and for your comment! So glad that you understood what I was trying to say! :) Hugs!
Awesome article! As an addict of Flappy Bird myself, I can sympathize with the difficulty of it. When hearing that Flappy Bird was going to be yanked off the AppStore, I too gave in and downloaded it. Just like everything else in life, success doesn’t come easy. It is very relatable to my current situation of being a college student. Although perfection is completely unattainable, the harder you try, the closer you’ll become. Thanks for the great read!
Thanks for reading and sharing your own personal situation! You are right, one step forward is closer than one step backwards! Keep working at it! :)