The Unicorn Writer

In addition to being lifelong gamers, the founders of Finding God in Video Games enjoy various activities. These include going to theme parks and actively seeking out different cuisines as well as watching a LOT of Food Network shows. Let’s welcome Steven and Arielle now!

Welcome, Finding God in Video Games!

Q) Welcome! Thank you Steven and Arielle so much for being here today. We first connected online through Instagram, and I’m so happy to learn more about your community. Can you share with readers about your platform Finding God in Video Games? What is your mission and why did you get started?

A) Our mission is really simple… we are a husband-and-wife team who love the Lord, are lifelong gamers, and are also fans/participants of nerd culture in all of its’ various forms and facets.  As followers of Christ, we sort of organically fell into sharing our faith with our fellow nerds in casual conversation and found ourselves using analogies from video games as well as other “nerdy” pursuits to bring the reality of God into a common language we both shared. 

After a short time, we started putting these conversations into a written “blog” form with the thought that maybe there was a way to reach more of our fellow nerds/gamers with Biblical encouragement and practical Christian living from the lens of the games, movies, comics, and other forms of nerdy entertainment we enjoy, and “Finding God in Video Games” was born.

Over the last seven years we have expanded to writing and sharing daily devotionals and full length articles as well as video versions of our devotionals, articles, and even our gameplay videos in the hopes that we can reach and encourage others with the timeless messages of the Bible from the point of view of a “gamer”, using these analogies and metaphors as modern-day parables to share the Lord and our experiences following Him with a generation who shares both our common interests as well as need for a Savior.

This is the Way

Q) Last year, you released a daily devotional for gamers called This is the Way. Will you tell us about this book and what inspired you to create it?

As we started sharing our written words in a video format, we found that our shorter videos were better received and decided to try the same approach with our writing, and our daily devotionals were born. While the moniker “This is the Way” is a very popular catchphrase from the Star Wars series “The Mandalorian,” it also happens to be from one of our favorite verse in Isaiah 30:21 which reads, “ Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.”

And our thought process is that we write and share these daily devotions from our own personal walk with Christ as He lovingly guides us, sharing our personal gaming anecdotes or lessons we have learned from our gaming experiences with specific Scriptures from the Bible to create a daily encouraging message from our real-world experiences.

More on The Devotional

This book is a collection of a full year’s worth of our daily devotionals that we freely share on all of our online/social platforms and our hope was to put them into one volume for those who would either like to either share them with the gamer in their life or create a daily habit of reading a few Scriptures each day and enjoy a gaming story/analogy to go with it.

Finding God in Video Games: The Community

Q) What is the most rewarding part of what you do?

A) Connecting with others through both our common passions as well as struggles through this mission we call “Finding God in Video Games”… it is no secret that in our increasingly inter-connected world, people in general feel more disconnected than ever.  And even though those who share our nerdy passions of video games, comic book movies, giant robots and the like are enjoying more mainstream appreciation than we have ever seen, there are often stigmas associated with being a fan of gaming, anime, comics, superheroes, and the like within Christian circles that can make many feel that they have to leave their fandoms at the door to be accepted within the church.

Target Audience

Q) Who do you recommend connecting with you on your socials, including YouTube and Instagram? What type of person/reader will resonate most with your content?

A) We cover a lot more than just video games. Our content is designed for both the seekers of Christ as well as those who are actively following Him as we share from both our pre-Christian perspectives as well as our current pursuit of Him. If it is in the “nerd circle” of interest, we take inspiration from it and share what the Lord has placed on our hearts to share, so whether you are a fan of Star Wars, Marvel, DC, video games, or just nerd life in general we have something for you. A slightly off-beat sense of humor isn’t required for enjoying our content, but it helps 😊

Finding God in Video Games: Faith

Q) What is your primary goal as Christian creatives?

A) To reach those who would never enter a church with the message of Christ in a language they would understand and find engaging as well as continue to encourage our fellow Christian nerds with our own honest reflections from our personal Bible study and pursuits of nerdy fandoms.

Q) Is it easy or daunting to see God in video games and other media? Please explain.

A) It comes incredibly naturally for us. We find the truth of God revealed in the world He has created, and even when humans are not intentionally trying to evoke their Creator in the works of the hands, they cannot help but express their longing for a relationship with God that they were designed for in what they create.

Even in secular works, the themes of grasping for Him and reaching for His truth are unintentionally conveyed as a natural outcome of baring one’s soul, and honestly so many of the stories from both Hollywood and gaming developers are simply riffs on Biblical stories and truths that they have tried to manipulate into their own narrative.

We see these offerings much the same way Paul did in Acts 17 where the people had so many idols that they even made one to an “unknown god”… and just as Paul used that very curiosity to reveal the one true God, we have the same thought process with what we write, record, and share.

Scripture of the Day

Q) Do you have a favorite Bible verse or a particular verse that is resonating with you in your current place in life?

A) Right now it would be the very well-known love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13 and specifically verses 1-7,

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

While there are a lot of messages out there proclaiming Christian truth, it is often missing the love that these verses instruct us to lead with.  There is a lot of “noise” out there in the forms of sounding brass and clanging cymbals that contain knowledge without compassion, honesty without empathy… and both must be present for these messages to serve their intended purpose.  If it doesn’t change lives and bring people into a deeper relationship with the Lord, why do it at all?

Looking Ahead

Q) Can you tell us about your goals for your channel/platform for the next year? What about beyond?

A) We hope to continue to create daily devotionals and release these in separate printed volumes as well as put out a full anthology of our written articles into a printed format so these will hopefully live on long after we are gone.  Additionally, we intend to continue to create our video and written content in the same cadence we have been following for the last few years and hopefully gain new followers while continuing to be a fresh encouragement for those who are currently following us.  If the Lord is willing, maybe someday we will be able to share messages in a live, in-person forum… between being parents of little ones as well as having a real-world full-time job that makes it difficult just to do what we are doing now, that idea seems a bit far-off right now. But we are hopeful 😊  

More About Steven and Arielle

Q) If you had a theme song for your life, what would it be and why?

Q) If you were to host a Mario Kart tournament and could invite any three people from any place or time, living or dead, who would you invite and why?

A) That is a unique one. The most fascinating individuals we would seek out for both entertainment as well as educational reasons would be to play a Mario Kart game with Jesus, Peter, and Paul. I know they are all from a similar era of time, but hear me out. Peter and Paul would be fascinating just to hear the trash talk during the races, and anyone that doesn’t see the sense of humor that Jesus would bring to the table simply isn’t reading the same Gospels that I am. It would be loud, it would be funny, and Peter would definitely throw a controller at some point.

More on Movies and Games

Q) How do you select what video games to play or shows to watch? Do you have a favorite of either games or TV shows?

A) We are very mindful of the content we allow into our minds as well as into our home, so we have pretty strict guidelines on our personal ingestion of entertainment and are governed by Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

Shows and Movies

Gaming

When it comes to games, we loved the original Halo series of games, pretty much ANYTHING from Nintendo, and tend to seek out unique/strange games to play on our channel that don’t get a lot of mainstream attention. If the game features chickens as a playable character, it is a pretty good bet we own it or have played it. There are more poultry-based video games than you would ever believe.

Q) If you could have everyone watch ONE movie in its entirety, what movie would you pick for us all and why?

A) Until a few years ago it would be “The Empire Strikes Back,” which is my all-time favorite movie. But “Avengers: Endgame” is just such a perfectly written and acted piece of cinema, it deserves to be viewed by everyone (and based on its box office, maybe it has). It is epic but still personal, it weaves multiple story arcs for each of the characters without losing any of them, and it contains several of the most emotionally moving moments in any movie we have ever watched. We have never openly cheered in a movie theater before or since.

Advice from Finding God in Video Games

Q) If you could give your younger self any advice, what would it be?

A) Listen twice as much as you speak. You know less than half of what you think you do.

Q) What advice can you share with other creatives?

A) Ask for feedback from others that you trust often…from people that will tell you the truth, no matter how much it hurts. We still have a long way to go, but most of our growth from a written as well as video format has been from the direct but helpful advice from others on what wasn’t working. Taking criticism on a personal labor of love is never easy, because it can feel like an attack on your mission or your vision. But every time we have applied the thoughtful critiques from a trusted advisor, we have become better for it.

Conclusion

Q) As we near the end of our time together, I just want to thank you again for sharing about your platform and mission! Is there anything else you would like to share with readers?

A) We truly appreciate the opportunity to share our mission and vision with your readers and are so thankful for this!  If you or someone you know is a nerd, gamer, or both, we have a place for you at “Finding God in Video Games!”

Connect with Finding God in Video Games

Be sure to connect with Steven and Arielle across their various socials including their Website, Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and Amazon. You can also connect with them and listen to their discussions through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

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