It is understood that some people feel they have been dealt a bad hand. The woes of life are pressing on every side and frankly, it doesn’t ever seem to stop. Sometimes these pressures tend to mold us and shape us so that even when good and easy times come, we can’t enjoy them because they are still filtered through the all the turmoil and hard hearted-ness that have built up inside us. How can we change this? How can we move from accepting the hand that we have been dealt and exchanging it for a new one? Well, if we can take our spiritual hats off for a while and remember our poker playing days, we can remember that we can do one of three things; fold or give up, keep the cards we have been given and continue to live in misery, or exchange those cards for new ones. I like the latter.
If we all can admit that apart from God, we are all totally sinful and the cards we have been given will not profit us, we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We can’t fold because we’ll automatically loose. We can’t continue on with the same old cards because we will also loose. Our only solution is to exchange the ones we have for new ones. In other words, we have to give up our lives for the life of Christ. It is only then; we will be able to live life beyond the bitterness that many of us live today. No, the situations in our lives will not necessarily change, but when they are filtered through the goodness and righteousness of Christ, the end-result is sweet. Fresh clean water filtered through dirty rocks will produce dirty water. However, fresh clean water filtered through Christ will produce only fresh clean water. Better yet, dirty and contaminated water filtered through Christ will produce fresh clean water. In other words, the woes of life filtered through us as we are, will only produce sadness, discouragement, turmoil and drama. However, the woes of life filtered through Jesus Christ will yield peace, growth, development and contentment. I like that hand!
Rev Leroy Hargrove
