Game

Predicting or anticipating how people are going to respond requires one to have some kind of understanding of the “game”.  The game is complex, at least on the surface.  It consists of the “needs” each has combined with an unwritten set of rules for how we should interact.  Most of us, my self included, do not understand our “needs”.  Rather than talk of the “we” I will critique “me”.  I think I know my values, priorities, and fundamental requirements, but reality suggests nothing is quite so simple.  I say one thing, and this blissfully do another.  I talk about values and proceed to live a life full of hypocrisy.  I even push the envelope on self examination, willing to explore my real priorities, yet nothing really changes day to day.
 
The game is a combination of whatever you and I are individually tied to how the mix interacts when we are together.  The full game involves everyone!  The result is a mix of emotions, contradictions, real and imagined values, and chemistry.  Yet in the midst of it all it is easy to blame others, ignore our own responsibility, and forget the “game”.
 
Pilate thought he understood Jesus’ game.  In reality he had no idea what was going on.  He assumed his rules, priorities, and values applied to Jesus.  Jesus’ response exposed a very different framework.
 
“‘My kingdom,’ said Jesus, ‘doesn't consist of what you see around you.  If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn't be handed over to the Jews.  But I'm not that kind of king, not the world's kind of king.’” (John 18.36)
 
You and I are invited to be partners in Divinity’s game.  We always have the option to play our own.  The choice occurs again and again – to start the day, to be in the present of each moment, and as we rest to start it all over again.  The question is simply this; do we see the choice?  Have we explored the choice?  Have we made the choice?
 
May compassion, love, and mercy always be the choice.