Miitopia: To “Mii” or Not to “Mii”? (John 7:1-5)

Sooooo, I gave Miitopia a try. Oh, you want to know how it went? Hmmmm… how to describe it… let me see… how about if I just call it an “acquired taste”? Is that too vague (and perhaps sounds more like I am talking about tasting escargot for the first time)? Well, to be honest with you, I don’t believe I am the target audience for this particular endeavor. Keep in mind I have some pretty broad gaming tastes, as my current gaming library rocks everything from Super Mario 3D World to Halo with a healthy sprinkling of Goat Simulator mixed in just for flavor. But this particular pairing simply isn’t meant to be. Miitopia, I’m sorry. I really wanted this to work out between us. No, no, no… it’s not you, it’s me. Or, more appropriately, it’s “Mii”.

Perhaps I should explain… if you missed the “Mii” craze during the launch of the Nintendo Wii console, here is a quick primer. Way back in 2006 Nintendo launched the massively popular Wii console and their version of digital avatars, cleverly named “Mii’s”. These charming, simple, lovable caricatures were made up of very simple and limited personalization choices with the intention of incorporating the player’s personal “Mii” into as many games as possible. And for a while, it worked. Titles like Wii Sports allowed every player to actually look like a rough version of the participants in the game, with every friend or family member taking the time to craft their virtual character and creating some uniquely entertaining moments. But their success was short-lived.

As time rolled on, fewer games integrated these creations into the actual game-play for a variety of reasons. I mean, let’s be honest… who wants their face to pop up when Samus takes off her helmet? Or when Link finally reaches Zelda just to find out Princess Zelda is in fact me (or more appropriately, Mii)? When the Nintendo WiiU console was released, the practical usage of these “Mii” avatars had decreased dramatically, and now with the Nintendo Switch console they are almost extinct and exist more as an afterthought. But now the release of Miitopia has not only brought them back with a vengeance, it has doubled down on the concept by insuring EVERY character in the game is someone that the player has personally created, named, or designed. And after a little while of playing it, I had a minor epiphany. I didn’t really want to stare at my face for the next 20-30 hours of game-play… I have to deal with “me” enough. And it was hard to take the hero’s journey of this story too seriously when the star of this game looks a lot like plain ol’ ordinary me/Mii.

You are probably acquainted with the saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt”. And this impacts us as believers far more than we would care to admit. While we know that all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s will for our lives (Romans 3:23), it is an entirely different thing when the people around us KNOW our actual sins. And because of this, sadly many times those who are LEAST supportive of us as believers and ministers of Christ are the friends and family who we care about the most. It can be difficult for some of them to see us as anything more than the mischievous child, the troubled teen, or the self-destructive young adult because they are so intimately acquainted with our humanity. And the result is that despite our best efforts to rise above our sins and failures, those who we are most passionate about reaching may not support our ministry or even believe in our purpose. And while this can be a great source of personal pain or disappointment, the reality is we are in some pretty excellent company.

Even the extraordinary can seem ordinary if we are surrounded with it long enough. And we don’t have to look any further than the life of Christ Himself and how His family and hometown accepted His mission. Let’s take a look at how His very own family viewed His ministry…

John 7:1-5 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” For even His brothers did not believe in Him.

That seems almost impossible to believe. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was not even believed by His own younger brothers. After a life spent with them in relative anonymity, the only Person to live a perfect life here on earth apparently STILL wasn’t good enough to His own family. They knew Him as a family member eating rolls at the dinner table… the guy who smelled a little rough in the morning before he took a shower… the person they had grown up with. How could He be on a special mission from God? He was just… you know… a dude. But if you thought their reception was frosty… just wait until you see what His extended family and hometown thought of Him…

Luke 4:16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

Luke 4:21-22 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

Luke 4:28-29 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.

Well… that escalated quickly. Not exactly the hometown reception one would hope for. They gave Him a platform to speak, heard what He had to say… and then decided to murder Him to death. Tough crowd. I guess they won’t be inviting Him back for a book signing next month. And as hard as it can be to accept when it is occurring, we will often face similar challenges (hopefully with less murderous intent) with those who we would have assumed would have had watched our back (instead of stabbed us in it) in our ministries for Christ.

Similar to my challenges with accepting myself as the “lead character” in Miitopia, many times our closest friends and family will struggle to see us as the “new creation in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17) that we have become because they are too familiar with the old sinful works that we were delivered from. Or perhaps we are simply too normal, too human, too FAMILIAR to be seen in the light of the mission we have been called to fulfill. But don’t let that discourage or disappoint you… if the family, friends, or familiar faces from your life fail to believe in your ministry or the changes you have experienced, you are not alone.

Christ found His most loyal supporters in some very surprising places… tax collectors (Luke 19:1-10), prostitutes (Matthew 21:31-32), an occupying enemy Roman soldier (Matthew 8:5-13), and even those from a different religion (John 4:1-26). And in my experience, we will also find our best partners in similarly unexpected sources. The face that we see staring back at us from this story we are telling may make us uncomfortable, because it is OURS. And the more I stare at my “Mii”, the more I am reminded of how flawed, unheroic, and exceptionally ordinary and unremarkable I am. But that is the beauty of this calling we have been given. It is not about US and anything WE are that makes us special. It is about HIM using a “Mii” as broken, foolish, and simple as this one to do His will. If your chosen circle cannot see past the “Mii” that you used to be… that is okay. There is a planet full of people who are eager to hear your story and be encouraged by your adventure, and they are just waiting for you to embrace your destiny as the unique, special, and specifically designed “Mii” you are. To His own brothers Jesus was nothing special… but to the rest of us He is the only way to eternal life (John 14:6). And if we will let Him, He will use us to be the perfectly imperfect, extraordinarily ordinary “Mii’s” to guide others to Him as well.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.