In every church I have ministered in, I have met people who believed that a regular connection with Jesus was beyond them. Jesus’ power and voice was reserved for times of retreat, mission work, or ecstatic worship, and only those of heightened spiritual status could expect such closeness. Yet for people rooted squarely in regular life, dealing with everything that such normalcy brings, the sense of divine indwelling quickly fades. Whether they see themselves as spiritually incapable, or that the busyness of life simply crams out the divine, the result is the same; they are left longing for a connection with Jesus that they believe will never occur.

Have you ever felt that way? Have you condemned yourself for not being as close to Jesus as you would like? Have you ever assumed that everyone around you has a closer walk with Jesus than yourself? If so, maybe it’s time to play some spiritual games.

In 1937, a man named Frank Laubach described what he called “The Game of Minutes.” The game expressed Laubach’s desire to be mindfully focused on God’s presence “at least one second of each minute.” You read that correctly; one second every minute. Given that there are 960 minutes between the hours of 6am and 10pm, the Game of Minutes naturally calls us to turn our attention to Jesus 960 times.

This might seem like a practice both nonsensical and impossible. How could anyone achieve this? For Laubach, however, the Game of Minutes was a way to continuously walk with Jesus. He writes, “my part is to live this hour in continuous inner conversation with God and in perfect responsiveness to His will, to make this hour gloriously rich.” Like acknowledging the presence of one’s spouse, who joins us each day of our lives, the Game of Minutes asks us to recognize the one who is with us always.

See, the Game of Minutes guards against the mistaken belief that a connection with Jesus occurs only in sanctified spaces. This is because the game is played amid everyday existence. The Game of Minutes draws our attention to Christ’s presence here, in this moment. You cannot play the game in any other way.

Importantly, perfect execution is never the focus. The Game of Minutes is not actually about the minutes that pass or the seconds we observe. Laubach is clear that the game is merely a way to “fix our eyes upon Jesus and not on the clock”. It is the effort, the longing, the soulful desire for Christ’s presence in our minds that is both liberating and fruitful. The benefit of playing the Game of Minutes emerges out of the whole-hearted attempt to draw closer to Christ, and not from counting 960 observances. Like any spiritual discipline or exercise, the game quickly goes off the rails when we make it too prescribed or mechanistic. Laubach himself states that perfect execution is unachievable. Throughout his letters, Laubach frequently speaks of his own failings. Yet overall, the more he played this game, the more connected to Jesus he felt.

And so can we.

There are many ways to play Laubach’s game. As we go through our day we might keep a scripture verse before us, repeating it whenever it comes to mind. Alternatively, we might view periodic moments of silence as an invitation to listen to the whispers of the Spirit. A further option might be to use our one-second glance to speak whatever prayer lies in our heart in the moment. The game is only limited by our holy creativity.

Of course, not everyone will be interested in the Game of Minutes. If that’s you, why not try a Game of People? What might it be like to offer a quick prayer for every person you interact with? Or perhaps you might consider playing a Game of Places, where you prayerfully open yourself to the Holy Spirit whenever you physically enter a room. Might that change the spiritual temperature of your office, your car, or your house?

Whatever spiritual game we play, it doesn’t have to be complicated, or rule bound.  We are invited to pursue the game that speaks to us, allowing it to unite us to Jesus in a deeper way. Because in the end, the game itself is not what matters.  What matters is our desire to be with Jesus, and how we might embrace him as robustly as we can.