Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Show Up And Get In The Game

So I got a Blackberry the other day. One of the first things I did was download the Tetris app (perhaps the best $4.99 I ever spent). Love the game. A couple of days later I saw this on Reddit:


It made me laugh, because I can really relate to this. Now, if you've never played the game - it's not hard. Just build a row with the different shaped pieces with varied colors that are falling to the bottom of the screen and once the row is built - it disappears. If you don't have the right piece or if you use the piece that is falling incorrectly, you don't finish a row. And if you don't finish a row, the pieces stack up in awkward ways and it gets harder to finish a row as the pieces seemingly fall down quicker. Then before you know it - the game is over because the right piece or pieces didn't show up (usually the long, straight ones), or they weren't used in the right way. The greatest fun is to build several rows at a time and wait for just the right piece at just the right time to complete the rows and when that happens, you get extra points as the rows disappear. The more rows you build and make disappear at any given time the better. 

It made me think about the church - the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:16 (ESV) says, "...from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." If we are true Christians then we are members of the body of Christ. We each have different shapes, sizes, and colors so to speak - all necessary for the health of the body of Christ. We have an obligation to help the body grow and build up in love - row upon row as it were. Ephesians 2:21 (ESV) says "...in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. " Just as the one physical body has many members that are necessary for it to function properly, so it is with the church. Each member is kind of like a Tetris piece. It has a place. A perfect fit - gifted to contribute for the Glory of God. If it doesn't show up, or is not used properly, it can cause all kind of problems. Now I don't know how the rows disappearing in the game quite fit into this analogy. Perhaps it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say we should all strive to find our place within the body. To have that building of unity for growth in holiness - one piece at a time. Then in the fullness of time, we will disappear - either by the revelation of Christ or by death. Either way we will stand before the Lord and give an account for how, in a manner of speaking, we played the game. So my advice? Figure out what piece you are and the place you are to be. Then show up and get in the game.

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