MJ

Recently I played Mah Jong at a friends place for a group gathering. No gambling of course, just for fun! As we were playing, I realized that I had forgotten to pick up a tile at some point, and I was one short (sew seung gong), which meant that there was no way I could win. I just had to continue playing and wait for someone else to win.

When I realized that I couldn't win, I quickly changed strategies. No longer was I playing with both offense and defense in mind, I quickly decided that if I couldn't win, than I would try to mess everyone else up by keeping their tiles or playing ridiculous defense. If I couldn't win, I might as well make it harder for everyone else!

It was an interesting thought as I kept playing.. I felt sort of bad because my strategies would obviously be different had I just played normally. I don't remember the outcome of the game but I do remember a couple things I extracted from the situation.

1. Not being able to win sucks. But hey, you gotta get over yourself and keep going. The game has to go on!

2. Being selfish is a lose-lose situation. It doesn't benefit you and it doesn't benefit all your peers. No one wins.

3. It doesn't make you feel very good to be selfish.

I wonder how often I go into self-centered mode. How often I only care about my own gain and not about others. It doesn't benefit you or others, nor does it feel good to be self-focused.

One sermon in the past sticks out to me, when I think about this topic. The analogy revolved around a throne representing the control over your life. It only sits one person. It is either you in the throne or God in the throne. And it is your choice who sits on this throne. Every day and every choice you make, you make a decision about who is sitting on the throne. When you drive, who sits on the throne? When you talk to your parents, who sits on the throne? When you spend your money, who sits on the throne? You get the point.

Who will it be in your throne? What will you choose?

*rebecca

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As a kid growing up and playing tons of hockey, I was always told the following

'It's not about whether your win or lose - it's how you play the game.'

There are many times when our coach entered us in tournaments well above our level so we could learn both to lose with class and appreciate the wins so much more if we ever got one. Entering any such game where we knew we were outmatched, our FOCUS was completely shifted. So often, if we know we're the better team going in, we get cocky. We play selfishly, trying to pad our stats and, often times, we play down to their level and lose because we're sloppy.

On the other hand, when entering a game where we know the other team is better, we don't take anything for granted, we're willing to try anything and, ultimately, we play like we have nothing to lose. We often end up playing the best hockey our team can play and we're not disappointed when we lose because we all learned so much.

To take this into my life, I find many of us stick to situations we know we can control and desire to remain kings of our world. We often take pride in the fact that we're better than others at what we do but in reality, this cockiness is just a weak attempt at hiding our insecurities. What are we so afraid of? Why can't we live like we have nothing to lose?  Why can't we understand that in order to 'win', it takes many losses and failures.

I've lead many horrible Sunday worship sessions because I wasn't right with God, I've had many failed relationships, I've loved and been hurt and I can't even count the number of mistakes I make during any given day but I earnestly believe that God uses those things to mold my character.

He often tells me (in various ways) 'it hurts so badly because I [the Lord] am molding you and breaking down all the walls of pride in you'. I want to be able to say, in every situation, that regardless of the result, I 'played' my heart out and now I'm better for it.

*sam