Tetris...gotta love it!

I just scored 20,973 on the ninth level of Tetris completing a total number of 85 lines! It was so much fun!!! I'll tell you what, I'm not an athlete, but I married one. I do realize that Tetris does not require athletic skill, but it has sparked a competition in my home!

My husband LOVES sports and is a fan of good, solid competition. I mean that someone wins and someone loses...there is only ONE trophy, ring, or Stanley Cup. He loves it. I make him crazy, actually my entire family makes him crazy. We share chips when we play poker, we do not read the rules, and my brother ALWAYS wins money when he plays the lottery. Mike just shakes his head at the lot of us. He has the high score set in BOTH of our hand held Yahtzee's. (That would be one for each bathroom, if you want to know why we have two...it's so funny to hear a 5 year old yell from the bathroom...YAHTZEE!) He is a PE teacher, so he has found a way to make a living doing what he loves.

Our new favorite game is Tetris. I do not wish for my laptop to be "repoed," so I won't say that sometimes we're passing the computer back and forth before we go to bed...but let's just say we enjoy playing it! The other night he was watching over my shoulder and screaming, "Flip it, horizontal, right there, left, left...LEFT!" I was so nervous playing with him watching over my shoulder. Plus, he uses smart words like, horizontal and vertical...why not use UP and DOWN or ACROSS??? It's so much fun to watch him play. He's so smart, I really married out of my league. He even makes up different ways to play Tetris, like piling the blocks up in a particular way to wait on a long red one to fall...it's fun. Even the other day, Anson came running into the kitchen totally amazed that his very own dad had just gotten 56 rows. His words were, and I quote, "56 rows, can you imagine?" We stand in awe of him, I'm sort of crying right now. How am I going to make this spiritual? I may not, but here is what I'm thinking...

When we take things out of God's hands it is like playing Tetris with our lives. You start out on level one with the blocks coming down slow and you are able to manage them. Then, around the 4th level they begin falling a bit faster and you make one mistake and they are piling up and you flip it the wrong way, someone yells, "HORIZONTAL!" You freeze, and BAM you know what you see next, "GAME OVER!" You know how when you start juggling things yourself? Time with family, job, volunteer work, shopping, cooking, exercising, your blocks start piling up and you just keep stacking them. You are a confident gamer, you are doing well. Then the block that you are waiting on doesn't fall (perhaps it's a check to cover a bill, or a friend can't show up, or there are 2 games on different fields) things just aren't fitting together anymore. God is trying to tell you, "VERTICAL" and you go, "Does that mean up or down? Speak clearly...I'm so nervous" No red one falls, the stack is getting higher and now...GAME OVER! When this happens to me, when I hit my max, I start going through piles like, "Why isn't this put away? Who left this here? We have to leave in 5 minutes! We will Worship and YOU WILL LIKE IT!!!" It's a matter of control and it should never have been my game to play in the first place.

If we are meeting with Jesus on a regular basis, we will have no other option but to allow Him to be in complete control of our lives. After you have met with God, I mean really met with Him through prayer and the study of His word...why wouldn't you surrender all to Him? This passage came to mind, you're going to love this,
"The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side. His lightening lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness and all the peoples see His glory." Psalm 97:1-6. I am not kidding, that makes my heart beat faster. To read a description of my God like that, and believe that I can run things a bit better than Him...WHY??? It happens, and that's because we lose touch, we stop remaining in Him, we start running on yesterday's quiet time, or today's little devotion. Nothing will keep us in check like His word. To read through and be reminded of the AMAZING things He has done. I'll list just a few, parting the Red Sea so that hundreds of thousands of people can pass through on dry ground, parting the Jordan River for the Israelites to then enter the Promise Land, He brought dead people back to life, brought sight to the blind, told the lame to walk, not to mention peaking outside and viewing His creation! That's like a little teenie list. Not to mention the list that we can come up with of what He has done in OUR life. He can and does orchestrate all things for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28) Maybe you are waiting on the perfect "block" so that your game will continue. Are you waiting on a spouse, a child, a healing? Is He being slow? That doesn't make Him any less good or any less capable. He is much better at organizing our lives, Psalm 139 teaches us that all our days were ordained before one of them came to be. Now, if that doesn't take a load off, I don't know what will!

I have been resting a little bit easier as I ponder the things that will and will not last. I am confident that if I will prioritize my time with God, putting my life (my Tetris game if you will) in His hands, I can just sort of watch. In the same way that I stand in awe of my amazing husband, I can stand in awe of my amazing God. As my blocks stack up, as my heart races as I trust, I'm just going to wait to see what He has for Me. I know that it is good. It may not look good all the time to me (see my Cup of Crap for that)but He is good. I will praise Him because of WHO He is, not WHAT He is or is not doing. You see, it's about recognizing Him as the King of Kings. It's curling up next to Him to watch Him do all things as only He can do them...well. It's exhilarating, isn't it? To turn your life over to the only One who can actually manage it. Whew, am I ever thankful for His ability.

So, the next time you start flipping out over a block that isn't falling, you know, your plan isn't working out...how about you go horizontal...that would be flat, not upright or vertical, like your knees (or face) to the floor, and stop trying and start trusting. Please remind me to do the same.

P.S...unspiritual side note...if this spurs you on to a game of tetris...let me know your high score!!!