Super Mario: Why Leveling Up Often Feels Like Moving Downward

Levels

Have you ever played Super Mario?

If you have, then you know that the game is played in levels.

Beginning with level 1, the easiest level, then escalating to more arduous levels, the game is designed to challenge the player and, over time, strengthen the skill of said gamer.

What you will notice is that higher levels often require more action, requiring the player to repeat until they finally succeed.

What was once fun and ease in the lowest levels of the game, soon becomes stress, frustration, and a need for persistence. Moving up in your game, while once the goal, no longer feels like achievement, but more a strenuous hassle with little reward.

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Why Leveling Up Requires Us to Move Down

I’ve always held this belief that “moving up” in your life often, actually, means moving down.

As I transition from a pre-medical to a medical student, I have begun to understand that the challenging and rigorous levels of life are the least glamorous. They are the levels that feel gritty and muddy and, yet, these are the levels I prayed for.

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Proverbs 22:4: By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life.

I believe moving up in life means moving downward, humbling oneself greatly, doing the undesirable, stripping away what is unnecessary, taking lowly action for His greater purposes.

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God’s Advance and the Challenge of His Blessings Fulfilled

Be careful what you pray for, because God is good and He will give it to you (should it be His will). I, myself, have prayed for many blessings from the Lord. Little did I know, those blessings require an extreme amount of work, diligence, faith, prayer, and discipline.

Be careful what you pray for as the Lord hears.