Playing the game is only fair when we play by the rules. The rules we have learned are not necessarily how the game is played.

It’s How You Play the Game

Rev. Cheril Goodrich ©

The Old Saying

            There is an old saying: “It’s not if you win or loose, its how you play the game.”  We have all heard this expression, and we assume that we know what it means.  For myself, I believed that what was valuable in this expression came from my idea of how much heart I put into the game.  The problem that comes from this is that I do not understand the value of the information that is in the heart.  On closer examination, I found that my interpretation of this expression was rather flawed.  Not because the statement has no value, but instead because I interpreted the statement to mean what I wanted it to mean.  If I am looking for a spiritual interpretation to what this statement means, then I must be willing to let go of my own flawed interpretation to find one that has value or is a real interpretation.

            We are not a victim of the world; rather the world is here for our enjoyment.  This statement can bring into mind the belief that I can do whatever I want, including destroying whatever I want if it brings about my enjoyment.  But this is not the case.  Enjoyment carries the word joy.  Joy is a spiritual Law and if joy is being used for the purpose of destruction, then the Law of Joy is being violated by my physical interpretation of how I can experience joy.  In other words, my sadistic idea of joy is flawed and my interpretation must be corrected so I can use the Law of Joy correctly.  This is done at an individual level so our personal ideas of right and wrong are not violated and we are not subjected to fear without good reason.  As an example of this, if I believe that it is ok to have an alcoholic beverage once an awhile, as long as I am not using the drink to violate my being, then it is perfectly acceptable.  If I am drinking to hide a problem that has not been resolved, then the drink has become a solution to a problem I am not dealing with and therefore my physical nature, or my desire to drink, is violating my spiritual being.  Using drink for violation purposes has a lot of fear involved.  Also, there is a feeling of trying to hide the problem, especially from those that do not approve.  Therefore correction must occur.  The reason I go into all of this is to explain how I began to understand the old saying, it’s how you play the game.  Also, I do not want judgment to be a part of what I am explaining.  Someone else’s judgment will not necessarily hurt me, but it will hurt the one who is judging.

Mothers Day

            On Mother’s Day, my son Jamie invited me to go to a local bar and have something to eat and play Keeno.  I am not much of a gambler and have really never done well with gambling.  If I do anything, it is usually playing the nickel slots machine.  That way I figure I can have fun and still not allow guilt to enter.  While gambling, it seems like I have always been focused on the outcome.  That is what we have been taught to focus on.  This realization was brought into my conscious awareness as I was playing Keeno.

It takes me a while to “get” something.  It usually begins with my questioning about the way I am handling a situation.  As I sat playing Keeno, I decided to try to approach it from a new way.  Instead of thinking of numbers that were significant, like birthdays of my grand children and children and other significant dates and waiting for them to come up on the screen, I decided to focus on receiving the right numbers.  I withdrew my attachment to the outcome, or what I wanted the numbers on the screen to be, and began to listen for the numbers in my mind.  When I started doing this, I began to get 3 out of 4 numbers right, and that was a winner.  Then it popped into my head…it is not if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.  The truth is not in the outcome of anything, it is in the journey.  The outcome is merely a result of playing the game by listening with the inner ear and then following the right path instead of guessing what the path is.  The inner ear is the connection to our spiritual nature that sees and knows all.

Playing the game all of the time

            In the physical experience we are taught that the reward is in the outcome.  In the spiritual realm the reward is in the journey.  Remember when you were a child waiting for Christmas to arrive.  Most of the fun came from the events that led up to Christmas.  As we got older, we began to focus on the outcome.  Who would get what and how they would like it. Looking at the outcome focused our attention away from our being by forcing us to look ahead and see if we would be able to give a comparable gift that someone else was giving to us.  This evaluation takes us out of the present and into a future that hasn’t happened.  It also is how we judge another believing we know how they will feel about our gift.  When we look at the outcome, if our gift did not carry the same monetary value that someone else’s did, then we would feel guilty and instead of the joy of giving we learned to experience guilt associated with gift giving because if our gift is not good enough neither are we.  We began to walk away from the Christmas experience feeling less than adequate, and even when our gifts were comparable, we began to think….all of this work for just a couple of minutes of unwrapping.  The joy of the journey that is found in our being was gone and exchanged for the outcome.  The outcome was then reduced to a couple of moments in time.  The truth is that God is the outcome because He is our completion, but we have to let go of our own expectations.  Otherwise He leaves the outcome to our decision when we decide in advance.

The Outcome

            Our physical experiences change the joy of the journey and teach us that value only lies in what happens after the journey.  The outcome will happen.  Our choice is not how the outcome will happen; instead it is how we will decide to make the journey.  If we can only find joy in the physical result, then the end result of our physical life is death.  No wonder we live in a nation of depressed people.  The great expectation of the end result is only a great end when we learn how to let it be. When we hold the value of life to only be in the end physical result, then we miss the joy of doing and giving to others and also ourselves.  We are the game, and we are the only game in town.  Our being brings the game, the outcome belongs to God.  Otherwise we would be playing the game alone, and without Him what fun would that be?  Let the outcome be a surprise, for if we choose our own surprise, we eliminate God from the end result.  I am sure that His outcome is much better than anything we could plan for ourselves. 

Our Part

            We have all been assigned a mission.  When we become confused as to what our part of the mission is, we are trying to do something that we have no idea how to do.  When we are confused and cannot find resolution, we become depressed and unhappy, which can lead to pain and disease.  Before pain and disease set in, we have feelings of inadequacy which stems directly from guilt.  This means that we have tried to step beyond what we know how to do and correction must occur so the conflict within ends.  The guilt is actually occurring because at a very deep level we are trying to replace God and do His part.  The truth is that we are the Being in God’s Plan, He is the Doer.  We find resolution by realizing that we are trying to do something we do not know how to do.  Which one of us really knows how to do that which only God knows how to do?

            Play the game by becoming part of the game by learning how to be spiritually involved in it.  Being is a spiritual quality, not a physical one.  Ours is not to see or do, but merely to be.  The end result of the game is not for our direction.  If we learn how to be the game and not the outcome, then we will have the end result that will be favorable for everyone concerned.  A win win is the only way that God plays.