The Game of Life

It's been awhile since I've sat down to type in this venue and a lot has happened, it normally does.

There has been so much going on that I was up at 3am a few nights ago thinking about all of it. I was thinking about a lot of the people I care about and praying (the 3am prayer wake up call happens more often than I can honestly say I like :)

To wind down and help turn off my brain a few hours later I pulled out my phone to play the Game of Life. I had downloaded it for one of my younger friends recently. I started it as normal, blue car and the character Rachel. I always choose to go to college (it's worth the debt), I pulled the lawyer card and was pretty excited to make $90,000 every time I passed a pay day. I invested in the number nine, got engaged (yes! a life tile!), got married, had a baby girl and kept spinning the wheel. At the crossroads, I chose the normal Path of Life over the Family Path and the Normal Path of Life over going to Night School and the normal Path of Life over the Risky Path. That was a little different, I normally like the abnormal choices. 

I finished the game with the highest score yet. 

And I became painfully aware of the point of the whole game. The goal of the Game of Life is be worth the most at the end. The player with the largest figure next to their name is the winner. 

I sat there for a moment. We actually have a game about life where the highest goal is to amass wealth. I realized that's why I had not chosen the Family Path or the Risky Path or Night School. I wasn't playing with young learners, I wasn't trying to be an example, I was only motivated to beat the computer (I did by the way). 

It was a silly example but it brought into a fresh light the fact that the vision and goal clearly determined my choices even at 5am! 

I feel like it's been a season of God clarifying my vision and setting some new goals. I know I am making choices right now based on that fact. 

The thing is life is incredibly more complex than a game, beautifully so. And my God is so much bigger than all of that complexity. He has been so faithful in my life and so good. He is who He says He is and I trust Him. I don't have to make my choices alone based on an empty goal and I am so incredibly grateful for that fact. 

I don't always know what's best and I can rarely tell you what is actually coming next, I might as well be spinning a wheel and moving a few spaces! I am very human but He loves me and guides me and covers my foolishness with His grace. 

I hope you know Him like that. If not, I hope you choose to take a step closer to Him right now. Surrender some control, invite Him into your choices, ask Him what the goal is... He loves you.

Ephesians 1:15-17

¹⁵ For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, ¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.