"Do Hard Things" and Halo 3



I’ve finished “Do Hard Things” by Alex and Brett Harris. It’s a great challenge to all teens and adults alike. God has been doing a work in my heart with my addiction to Halo. I’ve been freed from it now, but there still is an urge inside of that would like to pursue a career in Halo 3. But how silly is this? A life playing video games? Sure, I like it playing video games and watching the pros go at it. But I am not called to this. Here’s a brief history:

I’ve always has a natural skill playing video games, especially the shooter genres. I could beat some Halo CE pros, and then God fried my Xbox. So, I stopped playing. A friend game me his Xbox and he would fix my broken one, God made the Xbox not read any games. You think I would get the memo. However, I received an Xbox 360 as a gift. I quickly got connected online and I started playing Halo 2 heavily. I teamed up with a friend playing 4-5 hours a day. I knew spawn points, when items would spawn. I knew strategies for different situations, and different glitches that would help you play better.

This previous school year, I quickly had a reputation of a good Halo player-so did another guy. He had his partner, I had mine. So, we planned a match. A lot of the school knew we had a match set up and I was told me that I would lose big time. We showed up, and as being an underdog, we won by a lot. It was a shock to everyone, but our pride boosted up.

I was pursuing a professional career in Halo 3 now. I quickly became in the top 10% of halo players at the time. Getting together a Pro Team. But now my school grades were suffering. Halo 3, Basketball, School, and a lot of other priorities that should have been above Halo 3. So, I didn’t play Halo 3 at all during the week. However, I was now playing about 6 hours every Saturday and about 4 hours every Sunday.

Now, you may be wondering what Halo has to do with “Do Hard Things”. There is a small portion in the book that talks about Noah, and he had a nHalo addiction. I just broke the Halo addiction, and reading this is the book was still convicting me. And Noah seemed to be me, Justin M. Davito.

My friendships weren’t as close as they used to be. Why? Because every time I would have someone over we would be playing Halo 3. I would try to deceive myself saying, “This is how guys fellowship…Sure, we don’t talk much unless it’s about the game but we grow closer together.”-That’s a bunch of crap! We are growing in friendship to the MasterChief and that’s about it.

Now, Noah sold his Xbox 360. I was debating doing the same. After praying about it-I decided that I am going to keep it. If I start playing Halo for numerous hours again-I’ll move it out of my room and possibly cancel my online membership. Halo 3 is still fun and I enjoy playing it with friends. It appears as God has picked me up and said, Justin, you are pursuing to be a Theologian. You used to read about Me. Now, you are dedicated to Halo 3. You get upset when you lose or do something dumb on a dumb game. What about all those good books you used to read. Don’t just read 1 a month. Read more! Halo is not for you. Am I all satisfying for you or is it the MasterChief(Main Character in Halo)? Come back to me.

It was weird, after I hosted a LAN party of Halo CE, 2, and 3 I had no urge to play ever again. Some friends and I play pick up games here and there. But no more 4 hours a day.

It’s still a struggle when people talk about how good they are at Halo, because I would like to challenge them. But I am going to have to agree with my old Halo partner who doesn’t play anymore either, Bennett Sweat, “I believe there is a way to play Halo to the glory of God…I just want to make sure I am doing it.”

As both of us are called to the ministry, we don’t want to waste our lives playing video games. They are fun, don’t get me wrong. But they are not the ultimate destination.


-Justin M. Davito


P.S. I would recommend Alex and Brett Harris’ book to all teenager, “Do Hard Things” will challenge you to do HARD things for the glory of God. Don’t waste any of your teenage years, do things for God!