“You’ve got to play the hand you’re dealt.”
– Merle, The Walking Dead
Is Merle’s quote true? Perhaps, to some degree, in some ways, at some time. But not today. Not any more. Not in the ways that matter most today. No, Merle, not in the slightest.
Am I responding to a fictitious character’s quote from a zombie TV show and drawing real-life parallels while we wade through Poker analogies to disprove him? Yes.
Let’s talk about how we can get a new hand professionally, relationally and spiritually.
Professionally
We all have far more opportunities than our ancestors (and really, even our parents) ever dreamed of. We can have a day job that pays the bills while we hustle on the side for a dream job.
We have more resources than we know what do to with. Some of the brightest minds on the planet are one tweet away. It’s wild, really. We can start up an Etsy shop selling our homemade crafts. We can start a writing career for free with access to the Internet.
We can publish books on our own, sell our art directly to buyers, all while we connect with, encourage, equip and engage with others like never before.
We have resources to learn practically anything for almost nothing. We have an over-abundance of opportunities.
But we have to acknowledge that our professional re-deal is going to take hard work. It’s not simply showing up and expecting to have everyone hand over the game. You’ve got to come to play, to hone your skills and to put the time and effort in to become a pro.
If you don’t like Poker, you can switch to whatever game you want, but you’ve got to play by the rules and hustle along the way.
Relationally
Everyone has screwed up relationships. We have bad breakups and family tension. We’ve got that ex-best friend we haven’t talked to in years because we won’t (or they won’t) return calls.
We can start fresh. We can let go of the bitterness and the right to be angry. Then we can forgive. Or ask for forgiveness. We can do it face-to-face because we can travel practically anywhere in the world in under 24 hours. We can reconnect through a video call, phone call, email, snail mail, text, or a tweet (and obviously, some of these methods are better than others).
We don’t have to play the cards we were dealt relationally. We don’t have to pretend the cards are better than they are.
We can, through forgiveness and humility, ask for a relational re-deal. But first, we must drop our assumptions of what someone else has to do to fix things and do the right thing by forgiving on our own, initiating with that person (or those people) where relationships broke down and humbly apologize, even if what they did seems worse than what we did.
That doesn’t mean the relationship will be repaired, but it means that you can move on, and relationships in the future don’t have to be marred by the mistakes of your past.
Spiritually
We’ve fallen short. We’ve broken laws and hearts. We’ve done things we pray no one else will find out about. We might have even thought we started with a pretty good hand, but we folded before the game began and still tried to shove extra chips in our pockets while no one was looking.
We all need a spiritual re-deal. But if we try to play another hand again on our own, the same thing will happen.
Fortunately, a professional has offered to step in and play for us.
We don’t need to be separated from God any more. We don’t have to struggle while we bluff and hope we beat the house. We can’t.
Jesus played the perfect hand for us. He was dealt the equivalent of a 7 – 2, off-suit in Texas Hold ’em.
Born to a poor family. A king tried to kill him right after birth. He never had any role in government. No one to pull strings for him to get him a platform or an audience to listen.
But he played his hand perfectly.
He went up against the odds, and when things looked bad at the Turn (the crucifixion) he blew minds on the River (the resurrection) and emerged from the grave alive.
Everyone folded when Jesus defeated sin and death. And one day, everyone will fold again when he returns.
He’s willing to trade us his winnings and more than cover our losses. But we have to acknowledge we don’t have a chance on our own and that faith in him is our only way to win.