good at games

I am good at games. That’s the simplest way to put it. But in all actuality I think one of my spiritual gifts is being good at games. I am so good at games, that it has become a habit of mine to invent my own games. (i.e. apartment ball, pond score, foos-hockey, and unconscious duck, . . . to name a few). I am such a hard-core gamer that I even have what I like to call “competitive pants”

So naturally when I walked into the casa-de-tandy the other evening, I was pumped to see a stack of board games taller than a midget. I was excited . . . I was so excited I wanted to shout “Gaaaame on!”

The first game chosen was Scategories. The concept of Scategories I was familiar with but I had no previous experience. So I used my god given game abilities and after six rounds I only needed to use my scores from the first three to win. It was a solid victory . . . and naturally boosted my confidence in my “spiritual gift”.

So round two was another game I had never played . . . Mad Gab. Feeling the endorphins kicking in, I was confident that another victory lay at my finger tips. We switched things up and put the guys versus the ladies. A change in format would not stop my win streak. The men and I would come through victorious against the ladies.

Like many games . . . sometimes it takes a while to get accustomed to the nuances and strategy of the competition. So I wasn’t worried when we got off to a slow start.

We were getting 2 for every 3 the girls were getting. And while I will admit, it seemed like the girls were naturals, while the guys struggled to score some points, I still wasn’t worried
until IT happened . . . and from that moment forward I knew we were doomed.

SHY

NIECE SHEIK

ANNE’S HAL

AD

It was boggling my mind ! Why was someone’s niece messing with a sheik who had a bi-genderal name and was placing a personal ad ? (never mind that last statement)

If you have never played Mad Gab, the idea is to from some real phrase from these jumbled up words. It’s not an unscrambling of the letters, but it is more of a listening for the message behind the words.

I was so frustrated . . . I just kept repeating over and over again Shy Nice Sheik Anne’s Hal Ad . . . Shy Nice Sheik Anne’s Hal Ad . . . shyneicesheikanne’shalad !

Everyone was laughing and my team wasn’t getting anywhere close to the answer !

No matter how hard I tried the hidden phrase just wouldn’t pop out at me . . . all I could see was the sheik and he was laughing at me too !

So while I had gone into this bout with confidence, at the moment I was lost in the rhymes and riddles of the creative minds at Mattel Inc.
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I was reading the other day and my mad gab experience came rushing back to me . . .

I was reading Paul’s second letter to the believers at Corinth . . . this is what gave me my flash back . . .

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix out eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2.cor.4.16…18.niv

This passage is loaded with great stuff . . . but the thing that I have been thinking about is “seen vs. unseen”

I think it is really cool that Paul is trying to encourage this group of believers. We all need encouragement sometimes right. Let’s be honest. Just because you follow Jesus, that doesn’t mean life is going to be easy or perfect. (I personally believe that following Jesus, makes life much harder). But maybe that’s a problem in the church. They sell Christianity as a solution to all of life’s problems. But honestly, becoming a Christian doesn’t “solve” problems, it probably creates some problems.

In reality we all know what it is like to have a “terrible-horrible-no good-very bad day” . Many of us know personally what it is like to go through a devastating tragedy. And still many of us know what it is like to live with emotional, spiritual, psychological and or physical pain.
Bottom line . . . life is not easy. And it doesn’t even matter what you believe. Life is hard.
So when Paul is trying to encourage these people . . . really he is connecting with something that all people experience. Paul points out that on the outside everything is wasting away. But what is interesting is that at this point he is already working on this “seen vs. unseen” idea. Because he combats the visible frailty of life with the invisible renewing that God does in the hearts of his people.

Paul communicates to these people, that essentially no matter what you are going through in life, these troubles should be considered “light” and “momentary” when looked at through the eyes of the creator. Because when we look through God’s eyes we see that this life (what we can see) will be gone. But the Kingdom work that God is doing in the hearts of people everywhere . . . that will last forever. And heart work is unseen work.

So do you see this picture ? How the unseen is more valuable than the seen .

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So back to mad gab . . . the unseen is more valuable than the seen.

Can it get any more clear . . . I was staring at those words and repeating the over and over again . . . but I couldn’t see (or hear) the unseen meaning behind everything.

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so this passage and playing mad gab got me thinking . . .

I like to have things figured out. I don’t know about you, but I like to “have my finger on the pulse” of how things work, and what is going on. It doesn’t matter what the topic is. I would like to know everything about it.

I don’t like to be uninformed or left out of the loop.

Even when it comes to something simple like board games, I like to know everything I can about them. I like to know the rules, but even more than that I like to know the strategy.

You know like the unsaid rules to the game. I like to know the strategy that gives me the best chance of winning the game.

The same can be said of life. I like to know the strategies that are going to give me the best results in life. I like to know how life works, and then make the necessary adjustments to make sure I have the best life possible.

That makes sense right ? Everyone wants to have a good life. Everyone wants to avoid pain, and to find happiness. No one asks for tragedies and hardships. Everyone is looking for a life strategy that will help them avoid hardships, and encounter as many positives as they possibly can.
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So one question . . . if everyone is working toward finding happiness and avoiding pain . . .then why isn’t there some full proof strategy that will make that happen. I mean come one, we humans have been around a while, and we are pretty smart. Why isn’t there a formula for avoiding all of the crap in life ?

Why are there things like murder, rape, incest, pornography, alcoholism, disease, famine, natural disasters, divorce, suicide, genocide, and eating disorders?

Why does God allow all of these things to happen ? Why do these things happen to me and the people I know ? What possible good could come from all of these horrible things ?

Why did my friend’s father abandon her ?

Why did my wife leave me ?

Why did he keep going when she said no ?

Why did he die so young?

Why does she cut every night ?

Why does he hit her when he’s drunk ?

There are all of these awful things that we see every day. We are all affected by them in one way or another. They are things that we deal with every day. And honestly we can get lost in them. We can see these things happen over and over, like some vicious cycle. And yet we still don’t understand why.

Why God ?

“we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen”

That was Paul’s response to the hurt, pain and suffering the believers were experiencing.
You see it’s easy to get lost in the junk . . . it’s easy to get your eyes stuck on how bad things are and in the meanwhile miss what God is trying to do. You can miss what is going on behind the scenes . . . in the unseen realms.

So Paul wants us to focus on God’s view, not on the things we see.

Which although he doesn’t say this directly Paul is asserting a central pillar or key to following God. This key is the undercurrent for this entire passage.

Faith.

We are to have faith, first that there is more to life than what we see. Secondly, we are to have faith that what God is doing in our hearts (the story he is writing) is what is most valuable, and that while we may not understand it, it still is more important than what we are dealing with on the outside.
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So I encourage you today, that no matter how much you think you have figured out on the strategy of life, that you take faith in a few things.

-Have faith that God is passionately pursuing your heart. You may not hear it, feel it, or see it at this moment. But You are in a process of being renewed by God.

-Have faith that whatever hardships or tough situations you deal with today, God will not waste them. He wants to use them to develop you and your character to build his kingdom.

-Have faith that while you may not understand everything, God is in control and you can take comfort in the fact that He is God and you are not.

Live life today looking for the unseen, listen with your heart and just maybe God will reveal to you the mysteries of what he is trying to do in your life.

(oh and by the way . . . the answer was . . . Chinese chicken salad)