As I wrote about a few weeks ago, we’re doing a Hunger Games series for our youth group. This involves different teams and games based on The Hunger Games. We’re also doing a teaching series looking at different hungers and how, as Jesus said, we can only find satisfaction in pursuing righteousness.
Unfortunately this can be a struggle for nerds because we have a lot of different hungers. Below are some nerdy hungers that will never fully satisfy us.
Complete Sets
Most nerds I know have some expression of the collector gene. Nerds love collecting different items for their nerdclinations. When I was younger my collector gene led me to buy hundreds of packs of cards to complete my sets of Star Trek, Star Wars and Marvel trading cards. Today nerds do the same thing and spend their time and money trying to collect everything that they can.
DVD sets.
Card collections.
Action figures.
Fast food toys and collectible cups.
We love collecting everything that we can for any given nerdclination. When Lord of the Rings came out on DVD I bought the theatrical versions in August, knowing full well that I would also buy the extended editions in December. The problem with collecting is that our collections can never be fully complete. There will always be a new version or another box set to collect. And, even if we don’t run out of money, we’ll run out of space to store everything.
Sequels
They have made six Batman movies and the seventh is on its way this July. Even though Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale will most likely hang up the cape and cowl after The Dark Knight Rises, I’ll still want to see Batman on the silver screen again. Nerds love sequels, which is proven by the top grossing movies of all time. Seven of the top 10 grossing movies worldwide are sequels. We just can’t help ourselves. Even if actors, directors and visions change, we’re always ready for another sequel. I’m already excited for Star Trek 2, Captain America 2, Iron Man 3 and the eventual reboot of the Batman franchise. Movie studios will continue releasing sequels for the rest of our lives and we’ll never be satiated, even when Zack and Cody grow up and play the Wonder Twins.
Board Games
In my second post, I wrote about how Christians love board games because they’re good, clean wholesome fun. Since I was initiated into the board and card gaming world I have played more games than I knew existed. My gaming life was limited to Monopoly and Catchphrase. Now I regularly play Settlers of Catan, Risk, Dominion, Ticket to Ride and many other card and board games. The problem for nerds looking to find satisfaction in their board and card games, though, is that there will always be another game. On Saturday I played a new game called Chrononauts and I just heard about a new Risk game, Risk: Legacy. And even if I was satiated with games, I would never be satiated with winning. That competitive streak isn’t very Christian but Jesus loves a winner.
There are plenty of hungers nerds have that can never be fully satisfied. We should be totally happy to continue collecting, watching sequels and playing new games, as long we know those things will never fully satisfy us. If they’re correctly placed behind pursuing righteousness, though, they can still be a lot of fun.
What other nerdy hungers do you experience?
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