Recently, I have recently been watching clips of NES speedrunning when I want to kill a few minutes. Speedrunning is the attempt to beat a video game, or level of a video game, in the shortest time possible. Forget warps and shortcuts, speedrunning is about dissecting a game frame by frame in search of glitches. From what I can tell, the speedrun record for Super Mario Bros. is 4:56.462, which beats the speed run linked above by 283 milliseconds. The top 44 speedrun records for Super Mario Bros are all held by Americans.
Speedrunning is the sort of thing I imagined myself one day doing when I was eleven years old. A boy can only play Punch-out! so many times with considering how he compares with other players. After watching speed runs, I recognize that I am frighteningly outclassed.
I cannot fathom the number of hours that lurk beneath such a speedrun. I find myself wondering how such preparation can be a redemptive use of time. I then find myself wondering if me writing about speedrunning is a redemptive use of time. I now find myself wondering if you reading my ramblings on speedrunning is a redemptive use of time. Right now you are reading about someone else watching someone else's speedrun. At this moment you are further removed from anything substantive than this guy who calls himself Oatsngoats. Let that sink in. There is no quiddity in any of this.
Speedrunning highlights a matter I have long struggled to resolve to my satisfaction - how much time and resources can a Christian give to a hobby within the parameters of Ephesians 5:15-16, "Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity (redeeming the time -KJV), because the days are evil."
Scripture, especially Psalms and Ecclesiastes, is clear that this earth is meant for our enjoyment. There is much to enjoy. I can see enjoying a waterfall hike as redeeming the time. I find it harder to see how endlessly searching for glitches in Metroid can qualify as redeeming the time. I can see how a glitch-search could qualify as relaxing and helpfully distracting and there is a place for that, but how much of that can you do and still redeem the time?
Any thoughts would be helpful. I'm not only thinking about speedrunning, of course. I'm interested in any thoughts about the proper place of hobbies and whether or not certain hobbies are more justifiable than others.