The Consuming World of Hunger Games

It started with a simple Facebook post from a friend a week ago. She mentioned that she started reading the book Hunger Games. I scrolled down through the dozen or more comments her friends made. All of them raving about how much they enjoyed the book. I had some free time. It was approaching the Christmas holidays and Jakob was going to spend several days visiting cousins and Grandpa and Grandma. “I’ll have the time to read this book,” my mind calculated. Plus I have this new fancy Kindle to read books on. “It would be nice to try out the Kindle for reading an entire book,” my mind reasoned. So I purchased the book and downloaded it onto my Kindle.

At first the mere concept and plot of the book kept me intrigued, “Surely they are not going to put a bunch of teenagers into an area and let them kill each other!?” And then they did. But by then it was too late, I was hooked in the world of Hunger Games.

I don’t read much fiction now. But I used to read a lot of fiction and novels when I was younger. I remember finding a good book and going through it in just a couple of days. Why must I read books this way? When I find a good book it consumes my thoughts. I find every free waking moment sitting down and reading the next chapter of the book. Responsibilities get overlooked and tasks go undone. And when I am not reading the book I seem to find ways to bring up the book in most conversations I have with others. It is not like watching a television shows or movie. After I turn off the television and walk away I have a hard time recalling the plot and characters of the show I just watched. But with a good fiction book the effect is almost opposite. Instead I have a hard time recalling the tasks and responsibilities that await me for the day. I get lost in a fog, my thoughts and mind drifting between the real world and the fictional world of the book. The important tasks of the day get drowned out by the urgency to finish reading the book and find out “what happens next?”

Perhaps that is why I don’t read much fiction anymore. I don’t like the feeling I am left with after the story ends. I don’t like how consumed my mind gets. I don’t like feeling lost in the story and unable to function and complete my responsibilities. I don’t like the loss of self-control and discipline. I need to learn how to read fiction in a more controlled disciplined manner.

But God is gracious. This morning I finished book two of the Hunger Games trilogy. The fog was all around me. I knew I needed to put the book down and NOT start book 3. There are several important things to get done today that affect many different people so the urgency of the reading book 3 needs to wait. I forced myself to shower and go downstairs and eat breakfast. My husband’s voice from this morning echoed in my mind as I was pouring my bowl of cereal. “What are you reading? Are you doing your devotionals?” he asked when he found me at the break of dawn the same way he left me the night before, sitting on the couch reading the book. He was teasing because he knew full well that I was hungrily reading book 2. So God’s command and protection of a wife submitting to her husband gave me the will to pick up the Bible and do my devotionals. I quickly prayed for strength to accomplish the important things today. Then I texted my husband and asked for prayer and accountability for the same, as I picked up reading where I left off before I entered the Hunger Games world – Matthew 24.

The sovereignty and orchestrating control of God hit me and I knew He is gracious and faithful to bring my mind back around to truth and lift me from the consuming fog. Matthew 24 is when Jesus talks to His disciples and tells them of the signs of the close of the age. He speaks about wars, nations against nations, famines, earthquakes, lawlessness and the deception of false prophets leading people astray. Several of these things mirrored the fictional story I just read in Hunger Games, so the words of Matthew 24 particularly caught my attention. But these are prophecy of real future events. These are a sign of the end times. A sign points to something. And these signs point to the return of Christ! Ahhh the fog is starting to lift! That is right Christ has promised to return. I must not get lost in the circumstances and temporal things of this earth, but keep my mind focused on the eternal things. The lawlessness and devastations of this world and should remind me of people’s need for Christ. It should cause me to reflect on the need for the gospel. It should cause me to be other’s minded and not self-consumed.

Don’t get me wrong, I am eager to start reading book 3. I have enjoyed the Hunger Games it is enjoyable and thought provoking and I thoroughly recommend the book to others. I plan on reading book 3, just in a more controlled and disciplined measure reflecting on the world’s need for the gospel. But I sat down to write this blog post to help clear my mind of the fog and get it set and refocused on what is true. And I also wrote this blog post as a testimony that God is faithful to rescue us from ourselves.