Lessons from Yahtzee
Good Morning,
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Ps. 139 13-14
My wife and I regularly play Yahtzee, a game involving 5 dice and different combinations thereof. There is an interesting dynamic surrounding the dice. When you roll a six you get excited. All those dots on the dice make it look important. In fact, even if you don’t need anymore sixes it is hard not to try and find a way to use them. You can actually make poor choices by focusing too much on sixes.
At the other end of the spectrum is the one. A lonely dot surrounded by empty white space. There is little thrill in rolling a one and it is often used as a “throw away” dice. If you don’t use it, you might still reach your goal by rolling even one extra two.
In Yahtzee you get a big bonus if your dice total to 63. A bonus that often makes the difference between winning and losing. It would be impossible to tell you how many times I have come up short on the bonus by – you guessed it – one. Then I lament, “If I only had an additional one”. A one frequently plays a significant role in the outcome of the game. A dice with only one dot lacks the sizzle of a five or six, but its value is often huge.
As we look at the issue of our identity, one of the biggest problems people face, is that they look at themselves as a dice with one or two dots and judge themselves to be less significant than a dice with five or six dots. “If I only had more dots, I would be somebody.” But when you look at Scripture, many of the people who played pivotal roles in God’s plan were people most would have considered one’s. Jonah, Gideon, Noah, and every single disciple Jesus chose to be one of the twelve.
We are going to discover that the number of dots you have doesn’t define your worth or identity. The only one who gets to do that is the Designer that saw all you could be when He made you like He did. When we assign our value based on what the world says is important things go south fast. It isn’t what you have done, where you work, how you look, where you live, how your kids have turned out or what your family history looks like that defines you. It is ONLY what the Creator of the universe, and the creator of you says that defines your true identity.
The question we will address in the coming weeks is, will you begin to live into the truth that you are perfectly knit together, and wonderful? He created you and said to Himself, “Ahh, perfect”. That is exactly how God sees you, and sorry, you don’t get to tell Him he sees things wrong. Your only choice is, will you accept that fact. Give some time to the items below to ponder this week. Identity is a big, big deal and worth some serious reflection.
Questions and statements to ponder:
1. What things besides what God says about you are you letting define you?
2. How would embracing what God says release you from being a people pleaser? From judging yourself based on your past, your success or your failures?
Live on purpose, Ron Klopfenstein, CPLC
