As I sat down this morning to spend some time journaling, I began to think about the differences between living in Romania and Minnesota. The list is long, but something new stood out to me today. Because of the church I attend and the school where I work, I'm surrounded by people (generally) my age and younger. There certainly isn't anything wrong with this, but it's so very different from my time in Romania. I regularly found myself the youngest person in the room with the least amount of experience. It's not unusual now to be one of the older people in a group.
Friends are getting engaged. More than a handful of friends are pregnant. Houses are bought and sold. Jobs are exchanged.
Isn't that how the game of life proceeds. You begin by choosing an occupation and salary. Rounding the corner you are stopped to get married. Proceed next to the point of buying a house. The number of kids is hugely variable...it all depends on your spins. Along the way, the goal is to accrue the most money and life tiles, avoiding expenses and capitalizing on opportunities to gain more.
Many live their lives in a similar way, buying into the world's plan for our lives. The expectation is marriage and kids and house and retirement. Singles are questioned about marriage. Newlyweds are asked about when they'll start having kids. We're always looking ahead at what's next.
I wonder then about what the game of life would look like if God designed it. I figure the board would be ever changing. I doubt you'd be able to look ahead and know the outcome of each fork in the road before selecting one to travel. As each person came to taking their turn, the board might morph to reflect the unique plan God has for that individual. Perhaps the majority of the board would begin blank, only filling in as one moved along the path. The goal wouldn't be to end with the most money, retiring in ease. Maybe the focus would be on making the most impact, on taking risks and trusting.
I wonder what it would look like if we changed the way we look at life. What would God want our perspective to be? How can we help each other to choose to play God's plan for life instead of the world's game of life?
2 comments:
AMEN, Laura. The grace in all of this is when life doesn't go according to 'the plan' expected of your culture and you learn to live outside 'the plan' as if that is the best plan for you the game of life becomes less about winning and more about paying attention along the way. Then, with a heart turned towards the moves along the board you see the others along the way who are struggling with their game. Together you can learn to play with gratitude towards the One who walks with you throughout the journey. You get to laugh with others whose life doesn't look "normal", cry with others whose life can be too outside of "normal" and begin to realize together that normal isn't so great after all. It can even be dull and lifeless. Then, when you aren't even looking for it, your game of life becomes enormously FUN. And aren't games supposed to be fun?
I agree Debra. It's not so much about getting to the end, but about what happens along the way. Thanks for sharing these insights:)
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