Yesterday was New Year’s Eve. The last day of 2010. Good riddance. And yet, I learned a lot during the year. I even was reminded of some important life lessons during a game of Monopoly last night.
Our family is not big on going out to celebrate the welcoming of a new year. My husband and I are basically New Year’s Scrooges. Occasionally we’ll go to a party but generally prefer to stay home, play some games with the kids and/or watch movies. So yesterday evening we broke open the Boy Scout Edition of Monopoly that my son received for Christmas and later watched the new DVD release of Despicable Me.
Now what can I learn during a game of Boy Scout Monopoly? Well aside from having a lot of fun with my family, I learned that even the best plan is subject to the whims of others and the roll of the dice. I had planned to buy everything I could as I moved along because I knew I was up against others with similar plans, who would be placing tents and cabins on the various merit badge spaces and charging me enormous rent if I happened to need to camp at their site. Unfortunately, my dice rolling left me lacking for opportunities to become a merit badge or National Boy Scout Camp property baron. I did not own a monopoly of anything by the time the others had scoffed up all the rest of the property, although I did acquire a bunch of cash in the meantime.
So I learned that through no fault of my own, my original plan was bust and I had to come up with a new plan. Now this is not something new to me, I do it all the time, but I did feel rather insightful as we were playing and thought, “Hmmm, how interesting. My life has not been following the path I had planned either and I am again faced with deciphering what to do next.” Having written yesterday’s blog earlier in the day, I thought about how I have agreed to let God prepare the road, tighten Jesus on as my safety belt, and let the Holy Spirit program the GPS.
I was debating how to find a path toward success in this Boy Scout Monopoly when my daughter, home on college break, chirps up, “You know that church I’m going to near school? The pastor there was preaching and talked about Monopoly in his sermon.” She then went to their web site and called up a sound track of his recent sermon. And I thought, “Wow!”
I thought “Wow!” because she was eagerly seeking out a place of worship while away at school (even though it is a non-denominational contemporary style of worship and not Lutheran, hey, she’s worshiping!). I thought “Wow!” because she remembered the sermon and was eager to share it with us. I thought “Wow!” because this pastor had found a way to imprint a very important message on her. The message in his sermon was that the objective of Monopoly, to basically have it all at the expense of others, is in direct opposition to the message of Christ. While in Monopoly, money may buy all the tents and cabins, he points out later in his sermon that the Beatles got it right when they sang, “Money can’t buy you love.” Christ already paid the price for love. Love is free.
I didn’t win the game, but I wasn’t the first one out either. We had fun and that was what counted most. I also learned that in spite of what seems like difficult odds there is hope. While we might not finish up with all the “stuff,” we certainly can have hope for the future when our kids can connect the contradiction between the rules of the game and the rules of a life of well lived, full of true meaning and love.
Our family is not big on going out to celebrate the welcoming of a new year. My husband and I are basically New Year’s Scrooges. Occasionally we’ll go to a party but generally prefer to stay home, play some games with the kids and/or watch movies. So yesterday evening we broke open the Boy Scout Edition of Monopoly that my son received for Christmas and later watched the new DVD release of Despicable Me.
Now what can I learn during a game of Boy Scout Monopoly? Well aside from having a lot of fun with my family, I learned that even the best plan is subject to the whims of others and the roll of the dice. I had planned to buy everything I could as I moved along because I knew I was up against others with similar plans, who would be placing tents and cabins on the various merit badge spaces and charging me enormous rent if I happened to need to camp at their site. Unfortunately, my dice rolling left me lacking for opportunities to become a merit badge or National Boy Scout Camp property baron. I did not own a monopoly of anything by the time the others had scoffed up all the rest of the property, although I did acquire a bunch of cash in the meantime.
So I learned that through no fault of my own, my original plan was bust and I had to come up with a new plan. Now this is not something new to me, I do it all the time, but I did feel rather insightful as we were playing and thought, “Hmmm, how interesting. My life has not been following the path I had planned either and I am again faced with deciphering what to do next.” Having written yesterday’s blog earlier in the day, I thought about how I have agreed to let God prepare the road, tighten Jesus on as my safety belt, and let the Holy Spirit program the GPS.
I was debating how to find a path toward success in this Boy Scout Monopoly when my daughter, home on college break, chirps up, “You know that church I’m going to near school? The pastor there was preaching and talked about Monopoly in his sermon.” She then went to their web site and called up a sound track of his recent sermon. And I thought, “Wow!”
I thought “Wow!” because she was eagerly seeking out a place of worship while away at school (even though it is a non-denominational contemporary style of worship and not Lutheran, hey, she’s worshiping!). I thought “Wow!” because she remembered the sermon and was eager to share it with us. I thought “Wow!” because this pastor had found a way to imprint a very important message on her. The message in his sermon was that the objective of Monopoly, to basically have it all at the expense of others, is in direct opposition to the message of Christ. While in Monopoly, money may buy all the tents and cabins, he points out later in his sermon that the Beatles got it right when they sang, “Money can’t buy you love.” Christ already paid the price for love. Love is free.
I didn’t win the game, but I wasn’t the first one out either. We had fun and that was what counted most. I also learned that in spite of what seems like difficult odds there is hope. While we might not finish up with all the “stuff,” we certainly can have hope for the future when our kids can connect the contradiction between the rules of the game and the rules of a life of well lived, full of true meaning and love.
When we can still say “Wow!,” there is hope.
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