FarmVille

I spent the first 6 months of my tenure on Facebook clicking "ignore" to all of the FarmVille requests and hiding all of the FarmVille activity on my Newsfeed. It was annoying. Why would grown-ups want to work a virtual farm? I asked myself.

This past week, our pastor began a series called "FarmVille". So I decided I ought to check it out to see what all the fuss was about. Since I expressed such skepticism about an adult playing with a virtual farm, I know you're expecting my outlook on the whole thing to have changed since I now have firsthand virtual farming experience. However, now I'm standing in my virtual fields in my denim overalls still scratching my head and asking, Why would grown-ups want to work a virtual farm?

Thankfully, the value of the sermon series at church surpasses the value I see in plowing a plot of land which is 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch, planting it with a click of the mouse, and then harvesting the plant within a day or two. Last week we talked about being neighborly. You see on Farmville, you can visit your friends' farms to weed their gardens or shoo away gophers for them. You get Farmville cash when you do good deeds like this. In real life, though, we're supposed to be doing nice things for our neighbors without being paid or rewarded in any way. This coming week we are going to be talking about the farming metaphor in the Bible--weeds, cultivating, watering, etc.

I'm enjoying the series, and I get why the pastor titled it as he did; the title piques the interest of the many Facebook users in the congregation. It's the actual game or application or whatever you call it that I don't get. My kids would definitely get into this; they are not permitted on Facebook, however. Perhaps I'm just not kid enough at heart and am completely missing the entertainment value of the virtual homestead. I suppose that's a good thing in this instance, though, because what I don't need is another time waster!