Bullets for the Battle

Play the Hand You Were Dealt!

I hope I won’t offend anyone by going back to my card playing days for an illustration of the Christian life! One of the greatest insights one will ever develop about life is to play the hand you’re dealt!

Maturity in its bottom line definition means accepting the reality of your situation and making the best of it. All of us react against the athlete who gets mad and quits playing his best, because the opposition intimidates him or the officials make a bad call. A mature athlete just keeps on playing as best he can.

Two lessons emerge then by joining the definition of maturity with the illustration of card playing. First, the hand you’re dealt is the place in life God has given you. Second, maturity makes the best of the hand dealt. Only the immature make thing worse by quitting.

A man would be ruled out of the game if every time he was dealt poor cards he would throw them on the floor and demand a new deal! The game would become meaningless if granted such an option. The contest would turn into pick and choose rather than risk and adventure!

The “hand” God gave me was to be born in America as a white boy in the 1930’s. No sense getting upset or refusing to live because I wasn’t born as an oriental in the Hawaiian Islands in the 1890’s. You can’t change places, parents, wealth, skin or dates! Maturity means accepting the “givens’ or our life and making the best of it.

If you are unhappy in marriage, frustrated in your job, suffering in loneliness or defeated by a poor self image, you don’t have to remain a loser. You can decide to commit yourself to maturity and play your “hand” to the best of your ability.

He who keeps playing will learn to play better and will eventually get some new cards! It’s always been that way and always will be! Only shortsighted, selfish and “sorries” quit!

It’s been years since my porker playing days, but I’ll never forget the rules. He who keeps making the best of what he’s dealt will improve his play and learn to make the most of new situations! You can even enjoy the process.

In Philippians 4:11 the Apostle Paul says, “I have learned to be self-sufficient in every situation.” Thanks brother Paul, for giving us an example of “playing life with maturity!”