May 19, 2010
Heroes vs. Villains
The TV show Survivor just finished its 20th season with a competition between players from previous seasons. While the show’s producers describe it as one of their best seasons ever, most of the contestants said they really weren’t having a lot of fun. Since the players all knew the intricacies of the game their level of gamesmanship was always serious, calculating and manipulative. There was never any time to enjoy the moment and the experience. I can easily fall into a similar mind set when it comes to the Gospel. If I’m not careful, winning souls becomes such a serious matter that I miss the moment and the experience.
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Gail;
-----The clutter in our storage spaces attests to the fact that the joy of new toys indeed wears off. These re-contestants of Survivor are experiencing this truism of human nature. They have been there and done that. Moreover, there is no joy in the nature of the game they are replaying. There is no joy in defeating another by calculated manipulation. Granted, there is pleasure in the suspense of whether or not one can successfully defeat another person and in the hope for the prize won by doing so. But the first layer of “old” has arrived with the second playing of the game, and by it the fun of the suspense has become somewhat obscured.
-----When winning souls becomes an objective, the Gospel becomes another game subject to the same principle. We each have our own ways of playing the game which make the moments and experiences of it as old hat to us as those of Survivor have become to its re-players. The won soul becomes as disconnected from us as another marble picked up and placed to roll down the same familiar channel. The moments and experiences of it become more and more subjected to the same habits and methods while each marble retreats into the obscurity of a mere count. Then the joy of it becomes the same picture we have viewed many times over.
-----But when the won soul is the objective, each one becomes an individual game having its own rules requiring new methods and discounting old habits. Now the game must be learned anew every time it is played, making the moments and experiences different courses upon which each game is played. The soul, being the objective, must become known. That can happen only through carefully attending moments and experiences presented as much by the lost soul itself as by the game player. Therefore, the won soul never becomes another marble rolled down the same channel and merely counted. It becomes an objective for participation, however short the time for participation might be. And the actual participation between the won soul and the soul winner creates more moments and experiences unique in the two and adding to the prize for them both. It is then obvious that the fun of the game is not in the joy of winning another soul, but in the joy of the other soul won. So the joy of it will never be twice painted in the same moments and experiences, and these will never become old toys.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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