The strategy of Sorry

My daughter and I have been playing Sorry, the board game. You begin with your pieces in a holding area until you draw a card that let's you start on the board. You win when all your pieces get home. The cards determine your move, whether forwards or backwards, kicking an opponent back to Start or getting switched yourself to somewhere you didn't want to be.

I was imagining life like a giant, more complicated Sorry board. We start in all different corners of the board, with desires that aren't always good for us. As we play, things happen to us that hurt and set us back, disappoint and frustrate us. Our goal is to get home, but on my huge, imaginary board, the way isn't always clear. The game is a mess, and you can't stop playing.

When I played board games with my grandmother, we always looked for opportunity to thwart each other. Rarely did we choose a move that was less cut-throat than it could be. My middle daughter and I don't play that way. We all the time pass up opportunities to knock the other back to Start. Such a move usually only happens if it's the only choice--and without trying, it still happens a lot. We harm each other's progress.

Even though we don't intentionally harm each other, we never try to help.

Life is like this when we submit ourselves to chance. We develop strategies that we try to live by, but we are hindered and wounding and just trying to reach our goal, and things happen beyond our control. If we do try to help others, it always seems to be a set-back to our own progress.

You have to submit to something in life. I choose Christ. His way is service and sacrifice, and sometimes on the board, it really seems to hurt. And yet, I really believe that some day there's going to be a big flash, and the whole board is going to change. The things I've been working towards, I will have attained. Choosing to follow Him will be revealed as true reward, and the goal that everyone has been scrambling for will shift.

People hurt me, and life is just sometimes painful all on its own. But I know that chance isn't in charge of the cards dealt to me. I know Jesus is walking with me, even if He is invisible to others and sometimes even me. And I know I will reach my goal if I don't give up. After all, no one gets to stop playing. I might as well play by the best rules I have found.

The sunset photo is courtesy of Bonnie Camp, who photographs her life in the panhandle of Oklahoma.