Play Your Hand For Others

You picked a fine time to leave me Lucile, four hungry children and a crop in the field.  I’ve had some bad times, lived through some sad times, this time the hurtin’ won’t heal.  You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille.

You got to know when to hold’ em, know when to fold’ em, know when to walk away and know when to run.  You never count your money while you’re sittin’ at the table…there’ll be time enough for countin’…when the dealin’s done! 

Or in this case…there’ll be time enough for countin’ when the singin’s done.  I wonder what Kenny Rodgers life has been like.  I don’t wonder enough or care enough to try and find out but I do wonder about people who sing songs like this or others.  They sing about life…maybe not their life but life in general and so we sing along and remember the words years after the fact because that’s just the way life is.

Life isn’t fair so make the most of it!  Stuff happens or you know that other word.  Life is like a poker came and you get dealt a hand and you play it the best you can.  Most of us didn’t get 4 Aces and King high.  We may not have even got a pair and so we just play the hand we were dealt.  What are we to make of all this?  We could just say that’s just the way it is so deal with what you’ve been dealt.  We do that in life, more or less.  But that’s not all we do.

The witness of the Bible is that we are in this together.  We have personal stories and a community story.  The bible tells the stories of individuals but it does so for the community.  I think the idea is we can show each other our hands and in doing so help rather than hurt one another.  None of us can make up for what another doesn’t have but we can help here and there.  We can make things better by sharing our lives.  I can play my hand in such way that you benefit from it.  I can also make sure that if you play your hand in harmful or hurtful ways, I don’t retaliate. You get to decide how you will play the cards you have been dealt but so do I.  I might decide to exclude you from my game but that can be a healthy and even loving thing to do.  The best thing to do when and if possible is to win you over instead of brushing you aside or destroying you.

Think about the Biblical charters that you know and how they played the hand they were dealt to the best of their ability.  They also played their hand for others so that the community experience helped those who had a bad hand or even the worst possible hand.

Let’s face it…the fact that life isn’t fair can make us do so destructive things.  We can get angry or fearful and act out.  But it can also provide the opportunity to help one another.  We can say…we are all in this together.  Let’s live and learn and laugh and love together.  Let’s weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.  Let’s overcome evil with good not be overcome with or by evil.

So…what’s in your hand?  How will you play it and why?  How will you use what you’ve got to make things fairer for others?  Those are better questions than why isn’t life fair.  Play your cards… and we will see!  Play your cards… so all can see!