Playing the Game

How is your video gaming going during this stay-at-home time?               

I’ve become pretty proficient on my phone. In fact, my win percentage for Free Cell is over 65% and Castle is over 70%. Not that I’m bragging. I should be working on my next book instead of playing games.

But I’ve learned a lot while spending time on my phone. If you think about it, video games relate a lot to life, especially in our upside-down, isolated world today:

  1. You can only play one card at a time. Sometimes we try to jump to the ending before we’re ready. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.’ Galatians 5:25
  2. The Ace isn’t always the most important card. Sometimes we make ourselves out to be more than we really are. “Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food.” Proverbs 12: 9
  3. Sometimes there’s only one card to play. No matter how many choices we see, all the others lead the wrong way. “I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!” Job 1:15, 16, & 15
  4. Maybe backing up a step can help. There’s no shame in correcting a wrong. “Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace; may the poor and needy praise your name.” Psalm 74:21
  5. The obvious choice isn’t always the best. We may need to test the waters before we commit. “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13
  6. When all seems lost, there may be a way out. Even Jonah can attest to that. “And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.” Jonah 2:10
  7. Sometimes there are no moves available. That’s when we need to stay home and be still. “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10
  8. Things just might work out without your help. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 (Note this verse says “God works” not “we work.”)
  9. Not all games are winnable. Happily ever after only happens in fairy tales. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” Matthew 6:25
  10. Cards can move when they’re freed. Just like we’ll be moving when our states and cities reopen. “For in him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28

We’ll move on from this pandemic and all that it brought with it. It may take longer to return to “normal” than we’d like, and we just might see a “new normal.” I did that when I became a widow, and it wasn’t all bad. Not what I would have chosen, but it was chosen for me.

Just be patient and take it one card – er – one day at a time!