Anyone ever play minesweeper? It's my favorite time-killing game (although I've just started getting into sudoku, and it might be taking minesweeper's place as #1). And in my time playing I've noticed many parallels between minesweeper strategy and our spiritual walks.
For those who don't know what the game is, I'll give a brief overview. There are several hundred squares, some of which are mines. If you click on a mine, you lose the game. The object is to figure out which spaces have mines and to mark them as mines. On each square on which there is not a mine, there is a number telling you how many mines that square is touching, whether on a side or on a corner. You use the numbers to figure out where the mines are.
When you first start out, you really don't know a whole lot. All you normally have is one to several blank squares to go off of. So then you go with what you know and begin to click on squares based on what the numbers tell you.
And as you go on you will come to some areas where it is impossible to know where the mine is. But when you go to another area where you DO have the ability to figure out where the mines are, you more often than not are able to circle around back to the place that you couldn't figure out, but with more insight. So when you're stuck in a place that you just can't figure out, by going with what you know you normally eventually swing back around to what you didn't know before, but now with the knowledge to figure it out.
And sometimes you come to a place, such as an isolate corner, where it is just impossible to know where the mine is. There is no circling around to get a better clue. You're stuck. You could guess, but you might hit the mine.
So the strategy which will never let you down in minesweeper is that if you only and always stick with what you know for sure, you won't hit a mine. Even the places where you can't figure anything out, by sticking with what you definitely do know for sure, light is shed on those places that would otherwise leave you in the dark.
In our walks with Christ, we often come to places (whether it's an answer to a life question or some place in scripture) where we easily have the answer. But there are other places where we just can't figure out what to do. But when we give those tough places to God and just stick with what we do know that God has revealed to us, often times our lives circle around and we get new light shed on those areas which were leaving us in the dark. If we were to try to venture out into those areas without knowing God's will, catastrophic things may have happened.
Also, spending all of our time focusing on things for which we may never know the answer will never get us ahead. If we stay in some obscure corner trying to figure something out that really may not matter for our spiritual growth, although we may not "blow up", we won't gain any ground.
So by keeping our focus on what we know that God has revealed, everything else will fall into place.
This especially goes for scripture. If all a new christian knows is that God loves him and that Jesus dies for his sins, then focusing on that is where God will work in that person life and is a starting point for growth. If we can't figure out just how predestination and election work, then spending all our time focusing on that probably won't get us anywhere. But, God willing, perhaps He'll reveal something to us in His own time, while we make it our point to be where we KNOW He wants us to be.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks