Tip of My Iceberg

I’ve never understood the “patience of a saint” comment made to people who endure difficult circumstances. Patience is required of all of us most days, and some are better at it than others.

Watching my thirteen-year-old granddaughter play with her younger cousins, however, had me reassessing my thinking.

We were having a birthday brunch for my daughter, and while the adults sat around, talking and sharing, Isley took it upon herself to play “Murder” with her little cousins. A card game that was easy to teach the little ones, everyone who isn’t the murderer has to save themselves with their wit and wiles. Isley was the murderer, and the screams and laughter that filled the house were an indication of her success.

I would never have thought a game called “Murder” would be fun, but the camaraderie Isley established was beautiful to see. An oxymoron if there ever was one–the contradiction of fun and fearsome.

Life is a giant oxymoron for we live in the tension of good and evil all around us. We long for life to be what we want, what we hope it could be. But too often, the good we want to do escapes us because of our own pride and longings. We make mistakes consistently, messing our lives up with poor choices, a lack of self-control, and selfishness. Our intentions are great; follow through on doing it the right way is the challenge.

The apostle Paul fully understood the difficulty, the oxymoron of life itself. He knew that we have a natural bent toward doing wrong–the Bible calls it sin. That word can be hard for many–biblically it means missing the mark. It’s an archery term, when the arrow doesn’t hit the bullseye. We miss the mark of God’s perfection. To be acceptable to God’s standard, for entrance into heaven, we need to be perfect.

Which is perfectly impossible.

“I have discovered this principle of life–that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh what a miserable person I am! Who will from me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 7:21-25a

The oxymoron of hope and hopelessness exists in life, but there is an answer, and it’s in Jesus.

Life is definitely no game. If it was, it would feel rigged against us, like a game of chance. The odds never in our favor.

It’s why Jesus came, to level the playing field and give us the chance for heaven, hope for eternal life.

If I’m going to be part of this game, I want to know I’m going to win.

Don’t you?