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Playing Games
Hello everyone. I wanted to start out this column by inviting you all out this weekend to Victory Outreach Houston’s annual “Harvest Fest” and this year’s new drama, “Before It’s Too Late,” Saturday and Sunday from 5pm-9pm. Victory Outreach Houston is located at 18 1/2 Veenstra. For more information call 713-742-9000. There’s going to be candy and games and food and live music (I’m playing by the way). So if you’re in the Houston area, stop by and say hey.
Speaking of games, I always love it when McDonalds has their Monopoly game. I go all out. I get the Monopoly board and collect all the stamps. I even super-size it to get the extra stamps. I never win anything big though, just an occasional small drink or small fries, but I still play. Maybe I just eat too much McDonalds.
I like playing games. I enjoy doing a crossword puzzle when it’s slow at work, although I’m not that smart. I never get more than half of it done. I like playing “Hearts” or “Solitaire” or “Minesweeper” on the computer, an occasional game of “UNO” with my sister, and I kick butt at “Connect Four.” When I was a youngin’, my favorite board game was “RISK”. Man, I loved that game, trying to conquer the world, playing for hours upon hours.
I’ve always been a competitive person, so I guess games and sports were a way of expressing that competitiveness. My brothers and I always seem to make everything into a game. Whether it was racing to see who got to the house first (I’m the fastest) or who could eat the most (gabe usually takes that one) or who could throw the hardest or farthest (dre of course), or who’s the best rapper (josh), everything was always a competition. With my sister it was always who’s the smartest and she always won that battle.
I was sitting in church the other day and the person next to me (I won’t mention any names) had a pen that was actually a maze with a little ball that you had to get from one end to the other. The person was playing with it in church, and it was distracting me, so I had to take it away. The pen was actually tempting me to try and master the maze myself, but I stayed strong and listened to the whole message. Truthfully it was probably more out of pride than me being a good person, but I had taken the pen away so I had to be a good example.
I can remember when I was younger, going to church, sitting in the pews, not really paying attention to the preacher, just there probably because my parents made me go. To pass the time I’d make up my own games. My mom gave me a highlighter to mark scriptures in my Bible, so every time the preacher would use a new scripture, I’d mark it up. In my mind, I actually thought that the more scriptures you had highlighted, the better Christian you were, and maybe once my whole Bible was highlighted, I’d get a free pass into Heaven or something. So my first Bible was just a random assortment of highlighted colors.
In Sunday School we would learn how to memorize the books of the Bible, so in church I would always race with everyone else to see who could find the scripture the fastest. I still catch myself doing that sometimes and I have to laugh at my childish self.
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (I Corinthians 13:11)
Growing up in church, you learn when to clap or raise your hands, when to say Amen or Hallelujah, when to stand and when to sit. You learn all the words to all the songs and how to put on that “church smile” and always answer “Blessed” when someone asks you how you’re doing. We learn the church talk and the church walk and the do’s and the don’ts that we’re all supposed to know. Sometimes church becomes just a game that we play.
Even through my college years, I had learned how to play the part. We were required to go to chapel twice a week, on Wednesdays and on Fridays. Truthfully, I would end up sleeping through some of the services. We had some speakers that were more boring than watching golf on TV, and being a college student, any extra sleep you can get helps you get by.
I got this idea in my head one day that I needed to stay awake in chapel, not because I wanted to be more “holy”, but because my RA would mark me off for half an absence when he caught me sleeping and you only got 3 absences a year before you got a fine. I was taking an Interviewing class at the time, and I realized how bad of a note taker I was. Being a Journalism major, I figured, hey I need to get better at taking notes, so I bought myself a notebook and tried to write down every word the speaker at chapel would say. I’d be killing two stones with one bird (just seeing if your paying attention). No more $50 fines and I’d be a better Journalist in the long run.
It’s funny how God can use our own foolish games to draw us closer to Him. He was doing a work in my life at the time. Those notes I started taking in chapel helped me remember what the speaker was saying, and in essence what God was trying to speak to me at the time. As I paid more attention to the message, God was able to start to mold me and shape me as a person. I still go back through some of my old notebooks from time to time, just to remind myself about where God has brought me from.
I think as we get older, we grow to appreciate things more. Church isn’t a place to just go from Sunday to Sunday. It’s not just “doing time” for God. It’s not just a place to mingle with friends or see who’s there or to talk about what people are wearing. It’s a place to grow, but it’s up to us to come with an expectant heart and let God speak to us.
I believe that we can take something out of every message preached to us. God’s word never comes back void. A lot of the times we miss out because we’re distracted or we have other things on our minds. We think, “Oh, the Pastor’s preaching on ‘this’ and I already know about ‘this’ so I don’t really have to hear it again.” Many times though, it’s not necessarily what the preacher’s speaking on, it’s about our hearts being open to hear what God is trying to speak to us.
No matter where you are at in your Christian walk, we all still have areas that we need to grow in. My Pastor always says, “God loves you right where you’re at, but he loves you too much to keep you there.” SO STOP PLAYING GAMES YOU BUNCH OF HEATHENS (jk). Love you all, and by the way, I got Park Place, so if anyone has Boardwalk, I’ll split the million with ya.
w/muchluv,
geno
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