By Pastor Mario D. Ford
The expression of “playing your hand” means doing your best with what you’ve got; —it’s an analogy drawn from playing cards.
I will confess, when I can find somebody who knows how to play, my favorite card game to play is spades.
If you have ever played, you know there is a lot of trash talking, you try to talk so much trash until you upset your opponent and get their mind off the game.
However, there is more to spades than trash talking; — you have to observe and think.
Observe the board to know who played what and think so if you were dealt a bad hand, somebody threw something out carelessly, you could pick up a book and maybe even set your opponent.
You determine the number of books by the number of face cards in your hand.
If your hand is bad, you bid low; if your hand is good, you bid high.
However, over the years I’ve learned it’s not so much about the hand you are given but how you play the hand you are given.
I’ve seen people lose with a good hand and others win with a bad hand!
Admittedly life has a way of giving us bad hands.
You take one step forward and two steps backward, if it ain’t one thing, it’s another, if it ain’t this, it’s that.
There is no guarantee you’re going to get dealt a good hand, but you still got to play it the best you can.
Mark 3 reveals the plight of a certain man, who could be any man, which literally had a bad hand.
His hand was withered, withered being: that which use to hold life was now lifeless, that which was strong was now weak, that which use to be a blessing was now a burden.
This man was handicapped and unable to do anything about his situation, nevertheless he stayed in the game.
Mark 3;1 records when Jesus “entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.”
This man was wounded but he was there, weak but there, frail but there, life had given him a bad hand but he was there; he had a made up mind that regardless of how bad life was, he was goanna stay with it!
Saints, don’t stop coming to church cause times get rough, don’t stop trusting God cause situations get bad; I sometimes hear folk say they stop coming to Church cause they were going through, but when I am going through that’s when I need Him most!
Stay in the game and play the hand you’re dealt; the game is far from over.