I am a nerd if there ever was one. Who could see life parallels in something as worthless as a video game? I actually saw an applicable lesson in the video game Gears of War 2 not too long ago. So fellow nerds, game lovers and skeptics, follow me if you dare! Muhahaha…ha!!! In Gears of War 2, the Locust Horde, a group of aliens who have been living deep inside the earth and have been coming up whenever they want to terrorize humanity, are now sinking entire cities underground. They have found a way to do this, and, along with sinking entire cities, they are taking human hostages. The Gears (a coalition of freakin’ awesome soldiers) are going deep underground to find the Locust heart and rip it out. While on a mission underground, they rescue a fellow Gear named Baird and board a hostage transport. They rip some Locust butt and free a few hostages, one in particular being a Gear named Tai. While in captivity the hostages were tortured to the breaking point. Gears and civilians alike are being reduced to terrified victims. The Gears release Tai and there is another wave of Locust soldiers coming for them. Marcus Fenix, leader of the group tosses Tai a shotgun so he can join the fight, but while Marcus is giving orders, he hears the shotgun’s action being cocked, and something tells him to turn around. Tai is holding the shogun to his chin, ready to end it all, because he cannot and simply will not stand to see one more of those wretched Locusts cross his line of vision. In some way, what I saw in Tai was something I’ve seen in myself. Not to the point of being suicidal, but in a less dramatic sense, there have been times in my life when I have been desperate, wanted to make the wrong choices, or just end what I was doing. There are times when we can find ourselves feeling very isolated. We can be in a room full of people, and still feel like we are alone. We could have a wonderful group of friends and still feel like nobody really knows us. One thing about being lonely is that it definitely sucks the life right out of you. Pretty soon we don’t even know what it feels like to actually want to get out of bed in the morning. I have a group of guys at my church that I can go to with just about anything…just about. Part of me wonders where I would be today if it had not been for them caring enough about me to say, “Tell me about your week, bro.” Or, “What’s new with ya?” We talk about our passions in life, things we look forward to, things we’re afraid of. We talk about what we want to be doing in five years or so. These are people who I can talk about real stuff with. In a way, they are my fellow warriors. On the battle field, people hear things like, “No man or woman left behind,” “We ride out together.” These guys have definitely been some of my closest brothers in arms. I’ve felt like Tai before. Again, not wanting to kill myself, but the feeling of wanting to give up because I didn’t see any other way in Heaven, Hell or Earth of any hope at all. That is what I related to. As men we need our fellow warriors. Tai did not see any way out. I thank God for the men in my life who have helped my get to where I am today, because there were times I sure as heck didn’t see any way out. These men surrounded me before I got to where the character in the game had gotten. They have shown me the true heart of God. “The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is his name.” Exodus 15:3