There are lots of ways we can learn to lift up ourselves and others during difficult times. Recently I was obsessed with buying Harry Potter lego games. Yes, Harry Potter. I never read a book and never saw a movie. They’re so long, I just fall asleep. So I plunked down $30 on this software thinking maybe I had lost my mind.

It took a while to learn the controls. I am not a child of the 21st Century after all. Like a Neanderthal, I groped my way though the beginning of the game. In the event you have spent the last decade in a cave, Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British novelist J.K. Rowling, which have been turned into box office hit movies. Harry and two other students learn a variety of magical skills at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry.

So back to my middle-aged attempt at a video game. After fumbling through the entrance, I, as Harry, finally make it to Hogwarts School. It’s a little strange because every once in a while you see a character walk by bathed in a sickly pink color. Almost one out of every five people have this sickly glow. But no matter how much you try to figure out why, you can't. So I ignore this random feature and continue with the game.

I learn my first skill called reductio, (the skills are all in Latin.) which helps me send a beam of light to a pile of lego bricks—making coins spill out. Lovely! I've got cash. Who doesn't like cash? Then I learn another skill that is the very reason why I’m even sharing this story in the first place.

A professor teaches me (Harry) and my friend a skill called levioso which helps us elevate and lift objects in the air to build things. So Harry and friends run around lifting bricks, tables, lamps and so on. Check. I have mastered this skill. The announcer then states that we should simply wander around the mansion and see what needs to be lifted.

So we enter in to the mansion. I (Harry) reductio something to get some more cash. Cha-Ching. I see some lamps and a plant that need to be raised. Levioso and there we have it. The mansion starts to look ship-shape. Then I notice those occasional souls walking around with the pinkish-hue. Maybe they could use a little lift. After all, they do look a little depressed and blue. (Perhaps pink is the new blue.) So I lift them up with levioso and bang! They snap back into consciousness, start to smile, and run around energetically. And if that wasn't thrilling enough, when I looked up in the upper left corner of my screen, the act of lifting someone else up helped me grow a heart.

For the rest of the game, I learned to balance both the art of lifting people and keeping the books in order. Doing too much levioso or reducio made Harry slow down.

All of a sudden I realized why I was fixated on Harry Potter. Could it be that we are instruments of God, the universe (or whatever else you believe) and our role on earth is to love and lift up each other? This may feel like magic. Oh I don't think so. All of us have been down and then an Angel has lifted us.

Who hasn't heard that heavenly song “You Raise Me Up” sung by Josh Groban:

When I am down and oh my soul so weary.

When troubles come and my heart burdened me.

Then I am still and wait here in the silence.

Until you sit a while with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains.

You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders.

You raise me up to be more than I can be.

May peace and love lift you up.