It’s that time again. The start of football season means the beginning of something else – Fantasy Football.

I never really got it. You watch the game on TV, have the opportunity to go to a game and go all out to support your favorite teams. Why do you need to add anything else to it? The craze of Fantasy Football might escape this writer, but according to wikipeida.com, there are 27 million people who play about nine-hours per week. I am sure that doesn’t include all the time they spend studying players’ stats, predictions, injuries, teammates and how they respond with them as well as pre-season performance.

But I’m reminded as I shake my head in disbelief, that there are other forms of virtual fun – one in particular that I’m quite fond of.

It’s a pretty safe assumption that everyone who reads this blog is familiar with video games. And it’s a natural progress of technology that video games would be offered “online.” Even the games you can buy in the stores can be played with other people online.

With the addition of online social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, even more virtual fun is offered. I’ll never forget the first time I noticed a friend of mine asking for weapons of mass destruction and ammunition openly on his Facebook comment feed. Much to my relief, I discovered he was playing Mafia Wars on Facebook. Friends of mine, including my husband, talked about how their “crops were ready” and “leveling up” means they get to buy more seeds, buildings, houses, animals and even ponds and rivers. After a long hold out, I jumped onto Farm Town on Facebook and yes, I’m hooked. I have my limits though. I will not play Farm Town on MySpace or Farmville on either. One virtual game is enough for me.

And it’s not all bad, mind you. I’ve talked with people from Indonesia, the Philippines, Canada, Alaska and of course other parts of the USA via Farm Town. I’ve talked to teenagers who are too young to be online, students in various stages of education, parents and grandparents. We discuss everything from the weather to religion to politics. I have added to my prayer list a mother of three in California whom I’ve never met, but she shared how her son was badly disfigured during a surgical accident. A lady from my community, whom I rarely see, hires me to work on her virtual farm and while I’m harvesting her pineapples, we talk about her struggles getting her Master’s Degree. I consider these opportunities to lift others up as an honor – one I would not have received had I not began to play.

The downsides are obvious. I could be doing much more worthwhile things with my time. I actually began playing Farm Town to keep myself from working non-stop. I do, however, have to be careful or my virtual gaming will take over my time with my children, my husband and God.

I might not get virtual football (basketball, baseball, soccer – yes, there’s fantasy leagues for all of those too) but virtual fun I do get and enjoy. And as with many things in this world today that I enjoy (TV, chocolate, coffee, sodas) moderation is the key.

I was very young – maybe seven. I’ve read studies that say we don’t remember anything before about five years old and that between five and seven, we don’t remember specific things that happened to us. I remember many things about my early childhood – very specific things.

For a long time I doubted whether it was a real salvation experience. I didn’t understand what I was doing, didn’t understand what was required of me and had never heard of God or Jesus. But the seed was definitely planted.

I was staying with our next door neighbor. She was a single lady whom my parents relied on when they needed her but otherwise bad-mouthed her behind her back. Undoubtedly, she’d been told I was a “bad child.” From the time I was five years old, I’d been labeled a bad child so by the time I turned seven, I was used to it.

I was sitting on a bed. The walls were green and the bedspread was white – the kind that had those little white balls in a pattern on top. The curtains were those white sheers that let in lots of light and smelled funny.

My neighbor told me there was a man that could give me a new heart. I covered my chest with both hands in case he was nearby. She went on to explain that if I asked this man to give me a new heart, he would and then I would be a good little girl. She said that my new heart would help me do what my mother and step-father said to do and that I would be sweet and good. I very much wanted this new heart, but I was afraid it would hurt. She told me that the heart was not in my body but more in my mind. She talked about that little voice I could hear in my head and how that was part of the heart.

She said even that little voice would be different – everything would be different and I’d be a good little girl and that my parents would love me again because I was good. She explained that the man who would give me a new heart was God’s Son and His name was Jesus. She said God, the Father, made everything on earth kind of like how I make stuff when I play with Play-Doh.

She asked me if I wanted this new heart from this Man. She asked me if I wanted to be good again. I said I did and she told me to close my eyes. She asked the man to give me a new heart and make me good again. She thanked Him for my new heart and for me being good again. Then she told me I could open my eyes.

I didn’t feel any different. The little voice didn’t sound different. My chest didn’t hurt. But she assured me that I had a new heart and that I was going to be good again. Then, we went to the kitchen where she made me a bologna and mustard sandwich.

As I said earlier, I doubted this experience as a true salvation experience for a long time. I was so young, the wording was not “normal” for a salvation prayer and I didn’t fully understand what was going on.

I know there’s a little more to it. We need to understand who God is, who Jesus is and how their roles are key to our salvation. We need to understand the sacrifice. I’m not belittling that at all.

But – think about this – when we ask Jesus to forgive our sins and to make us whole again through Him, aren’t we at the very core asking Him to give us a new heart and make us good again? And if we ask Him to make us good again, aren’t we by default admitting we’re bad/sinful? And after we ask Him, don't we have complete and total faith that He has forgiven us, regardless of how we feel?

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." Ezekiel 36:26-27