The Random Deal

I confess. I am guilty. I love to play solitaire. I started back when I was a kid with a deck of cards. That was back when computers occupied whole rooms. Learning to shuffle was a skill I had to learn and my dad was a great teacher. I sampled different versions of the game and eventually settled on three or four favorites. The problem was that it takes time to lay out the cards before the game can begin. Enter the computer age and personal computers and that problem was solved. The computer shuffled and dealt. (As many of you know, solitaire on the personal computer was actually meant as a teaching tool to teach people how to use a mouse.) The problem in the early days was the shuffling was not as random as it should have been. Over time, the mathematical formulas used to shuffle became much more sophisticated and the results appear to be truly random.

So, what does that have to do with life? Look around you, look at the people to whom you are related, your friends, acquaintances, and strangers. Talk about random! It looks like it was a matter of just chance that said one sibling was blond and the other was a flaming redhead. Just about any physical characteristic can have a variance even between siblings, even “identical” twins. It really looks like God just sets everything up to chance and allows whatever is going to happen, happen. Is there any real planning being done on His part or is He just letting the randomness of chance determine who and what we are, how we look, and our talents and weaknesses?

God always looks out for our best interests…always. It certainly may not seem so at times when He tosses challenges and difficulties our way. He is the ultimate planner; very little happens that He hasn’t planned and prepared us for. Yes, we can mess up His plans. He has given us that right, the right to ignore what He wants us to accomplish. He has not dealt us a random hand. He has given us the necessary gifts and talents to accomplish what He wants us to accomplish. Some of us are musicians and others are mathematicians. Some are great military leaders and others are members of the clergy. Some enforce the law and others violate it. Wait a minute! That latter group is not using the gifts and talents that God gave them. Still, that is a measure of the randomness of God. It is how we use what He has given us that is the random factor. He dealt us the cards, but it is up to us how we play them. That is the one random factor in God’s plans.

We are not alike. We are as different as the grains of sand on a beach. We may resemble family members, but what we are and how we use our gifts is under our control. God dealt us the hand He wanted us to have. In a sense, He stacked the deck. Every hand is a winning hand; every one of us can win the ultimate pot, life with God in Heaven for all eternity. What are you doing with your cards? How are you going to play them and in what order? If you play your cards right, you get to win the ultimate prize. What are you waiting for? Pick up your cards and play your hand to win. It is guaranteed as long as you follow the rules.