More than a game

Your eternal word, O Lord, stands firm in heaven. Your faithfulness extends to every generation, as enduring as the earth you created. Your regulations remain true to this day, for everything serves your plans. (Psalm 119:89-91 NLT)

If you have ever played that little game of birds and objects to be toppled known as Angry Birds, then you know just how frustrating it can be at times. There are various levels within the game that have challenged me more than a little - the exact "formula" for calculating just the right point an object must be struck in order to get it to topple is sometimes just a little more elusive than I would like to admit. Yet this game makes me think - so I enjoy it. The more I am challenged by a difficult level, the more I focus on finding the solution! In life, there are "difficult levels" to complete - hard solutions that seem to evade us for sometimes longer than we might want to admit.

At each level of this game, the player is given a set amount of "resources" by which the level must be "cleared". Sometimes I get 3 birds, all of varying "talent", while at others I might get 7 of other "talents". Each bird has a different "function" within the scheme of the game. The yellow one can go very straight and has a "power" feature that speeds it up, but it is most useful against wooden objects in its path. The tiny blue one doesn't look like much, but it divides into three small birds, each with a unique skill of breaking icy objects. The really fat red one is good for toppling piles with lots and lots of "clutter" in them, while the white one drops an egg and then sails away. The last one is the black bird - a bomber bird, capable of doing damage even after it hits its mark.

While all of these are valuable, sometimes the most valuable object I need isn't one of these "given resources", but the ones I must use some of my earned coins to purchase. There are birds that shake the entire foundation and cause things to topple, others that are like an "extra" bird capable of doing greater damage to whatever it hits. Why is all this important to you? You may not play this game, but you do play the game of "real life" everyday. You are given various resources, capable of certain tasks, but sometimes you come up short in the resource category. At those moments, you often look at what you have in reserve (those coins) so that you can somehow pull out those extra resources and tackle the problem at hand.

While all of this is good, the truth of the matter is that God has unlimited resources. The challenges that seem to elude our mastery are often the ones he is counting on us to simply ask him for the solution to, then stand back in wonder as he "topples" the barrier in front of us! Yes, he gives us the resources we have at our disposal and even the "eye" or "skill" to see how they will help us tackle the problem ahead. He shows us how to use what we have been given, but there are times we must trust him for the "little extra" the problem demands in order to fully be dealt with! 

Everything in the hands of God serves his plan. The key is understanding his plan. When I finally see the solution to the level I have been challenged with, it is like I have a light go on inside my head. The way to clear what has hindered my progress becomes apparent - not because I figured it out, but because I relied upon what God sees and knows to be the "weak points" by which that obstacle can be toppled. Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Steel in your convictions

Is that a wolf I hear?

Sentimental gush