It’s a stressful time of the year, but for some, they are ready for the excitement of noise, family, and the frenzy of shopping. From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, you should not forget Small Business Saturday. All shopping gimmicks to make you remember, and hopes that you’ll spend money. It’s just marketing. Gamesmanship. This is the season where many businesses determine their bottom line as they enter the new year. Was it a banner year, or do we stew in the “red” hoping we can survive? This is just the ongoing game of dollars and cents, survival mode.
Wait! When did Christmas-themed shopping show up in your neck of the woods? Last September. This is not a short Holiday season! It’s stretched around the block of months with no rhyme or reason.
In reality, it’s just the game of life continuing forward.
Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the good ol’ US of A. Families and Friends gathered. Food was in abundance. Football dominated many an hour. Table games, computer games, words, deeds, and actions. It’s just the games marching on.
Around the world, life kept moving forward. A new variant out of Africa pushed recent travel bans into place. Storms continued marching across the globe. Hunger numbers are out about those starving in Ethiopia. Births and deaths and the total population inched even higher.
Here’s My Thought
Life marches on. Time does not stop. Breathe in, out. Inhale. Exhale. You keep surviving until you don’t. We are prompted and pushed at every corner to act and respond in specific ways. From vaccinations to celebrating family, some do, others don’t. That’s life. Winners and losers, I’m sure. Life has a way of welcoming some and rejecting others.
What’s our job in this Game of Life?
We often struggle to determine how to respond to every challenge that seemingly comes out of the blue. Perhaps we know what to do, but it never hurts to hear it again. Even from someone we do not know!
The Apostle Paul, hearing of a new congregation of believers, encouraged them in a letter:
May you be made strong with all the strength which comes from his glorious power,
so that you may be able to endure everything with patience.
And with joy give thanks to the Father,
who has made you fit to have your share of what God
has reserved for his people in the kingdom of light.
(Colossians 1:11 GNB)
Be strong. Not by your power, but by His power. This will help you to endure everything! With Patience! Be joyful and Thank the Father! There is some good in store.
Life is not a game, but there are winners and losers. You need to determine to be a Winner!
Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
(1 Corinthians 15:58 NKJV)
When you learn how to live, you keep on living that way until this “game” is over. Remain Strong!