“Dad, Everyone in America knows about box ball.” The kids were very confident of their belief statement. Until that moment, I do not ever remember even hearing the term “box ball” much less knowing how to play or what the rules might be. I anticipated that it would be a variation on the four-square game of my childhood.
“What are the rules? How do you win?”
“There are no real rules, you just play the game.”
So we played. Family fun on a sunny Sunday spring afternoon; a modified game of 4 square with all the normal yelling and screaming of people enjoying doing something together. I am not sure I ever really understood who stayed in the winners square and who had to move. The rules changed by the moment, more a function of the person in the king or queen square starting over than anything else! Accusations of foul play dominated the conversation, always ending in laughter as each made a protest of innocence and moved to the starting position.
Everyone knows about God and spirituality. People seem very confident in their belief statements about God and where he fits in their life.
“What are the rules? How do you win?”
“There are no real rules, everything is relative; you just play the game.”
Are life, God, and living just a game of box ball? Do we always feel like what happens to us is unjust, unfair, and unchangeable?
My God is not like that. My God is incredibly flexible and yet totally committed to wining. God won. God’s victory became a certainty by what happened to Jesus at Calvary. God knew we could never win, and “…this is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them.” (Romans 4.16)
We can all win with God!
