What's life like?

Have you ever thought about life as a board game?

Think about it. In a board game, you’re always trying to advance your playing piece, regardless of whether you’re playing Life, Candy Land, or Monopoly. You’re on your way somewhere. Sometimes you draw a card and have twins or get stuck in Molasses Swamp or land on Baltic Avenue and other times, Boardwalk. Sometimes you draw a “Get Out of Jail Free” card and other times you land on “Go Straight to Jail. Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect $200.”

Sometimes you roll or spin your best effort and you advance 6 spaces and celebrate. Other times, you give it your best effort, and advance 6 spaces, only to discover that you’ve got to go back twenty.

Life is like a board game. Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. But you keep playing, don’t you? I guess that’s because you’re going somewhere and will get there someday. 

Since life is like a board game, as you’re going somewhere, go with God as your traveling companion. And listen to life so you can make a life, not just a living.

Who decides how fast you go?

I was recently standing around talking with a group of people. One of them talked about driving during a recent trip. His speedometer stopped working while he drove down an interstate so he had no idea of how fast or slow he was going.

“What did you do?” someone asked.

“I just kept driving,” he said. 

And another person said, “How did you know how fast you were going?”

“Well,” he said, “the truth is that I didn’t. What I did was to just go with the flow of the traffic. However fast they went, that’s how fast I went.”

I stood there thinking to myself, “You let other people decide how fast you’d go.” 

And you know, that’s what a lot of us do with life. You may let other people—at work or home or the Jones family next door—set your pace, determine your actions, choose your sense of right and wrong. Try letting God set your pace as you listen to life and make a life, not just a living.

Is God real to you?

Did you hear about the skydiver whose parachute failed to open? That’s right, Levi Cave went sky-diving for the very first time. His chute malfunctioned and he fell 3,500 feet, hit the ground, and lived.

He was asked about what went through his mind while he was free-falling. He said he prayed. Here’s what he prayed while hurtling through the air toward the ground at about 50 mph: “Okay, God, I trust in you. I believe in you. And I’d love to see my family again.” Cave said he then felt “this big hug, this big warm embrace” which he understood to be God’s arms around him, letting him know everything would be fine; that he would get to see his family again. Cave said he knew then that everything would be fine. And it was. 

How real is God to you? Do you expect God to give you a big hug, a warm embrace when you’re in trouble? Are you ready to ask God to help you, to bless you, when you’re in a tight spot?

Wherever you find yourself today, know God is real as you listen to life.