Surrogate Families

Not sure where this post will end up but I'll try and write the different jumblings in my head. When I walked into the Dialysis Center for the first time, one of the nurses said to me "We're all family here" My initial inward response was, I DON'T WANT to be part of this family!!. But the Lord began dealing with me about the concept I use to be a hard core addicted online gamer with Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC). For those that don't know, it is a role playing game where you create a character, work up to obtaining level 50 and other assorted skills that supposedly give you edge over other players in combat. There are many ways to work your levels up. My favorite was always what was called PvE (Player vs. Environment). There was was called PvP (Player vs. Player) and that is where people would duel one another who were not part of your "guild" or "realm". Playing day in and day out with the same people in conquering the different quests, or dungeons or bosses ended up unififying a motley group of people from around the world. In DAoC they also have keeps and towers that can be sieged and taken over by the conqueroring realm or guild. After getting to "know" people or the characters they played, you developed a feeling of family because of all the tasks that were accomplished with everyone's help, or the quests that were completed because everyone helped and most of all the taking of a keep or tower with the team work that it took to defeat the enemy. It was a sense of family. It was forged out of the principal of fighting to overcome things that were not doable by yourself. I realized that the nurses and staff at the Dialysis Center were there to do the same thing. They are part of my team to overcome this quest of Dialysis and to help me in the fight of taking the keep (getting a kidney). I think that is why the Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia are such a big hit with me. It's a group of people who individually couldn't even imagin what was accomplished by the efforts of a united team. Realization of how this game was an addiction didn't hit until this past July when I decided I didn't want my children's memories of their childhood being their Mom on the computer fighting dragons, mobs and running siege equipment for keep take overs. What also has struck me lately is that is what church should be about. A sense of family, joining together to fight against something greater than the individuals involved (evil/sin) but accomplishable by the effort of everyone. It's been 7 months that I've stopped being a part of an online "family" and I will say at times the draw is there to just log on and play for a bit but I don't. I now realize my new family are real faces with real names who I see every week at the Dialysis Center and are helping win a battle that really matters.