Nova Scotia - Week 7: Lessons from Spider Solitaire

A couple of days ago was Ash Wednesday, the first day of lent. Last year for lent I gave up playing Spider Solitaire – the best computer game ever – especially for those who lack the ability to play games that require coordination. Now for most people, giving up solitaire doesn’t seem like much, but for someone as proficient as myself, it was a big deal, (I know, I need to get out more). But since I am the subject, I have learned a lot from Spider Solitaire.

Spider Solitaire is a lot those hand held games that were around when I was a kid. The game in which you had to slide the pieces to their original position to create a picture. In order to move one piece you have to rearrange all the pieces that are in the way. Like that game the goal of Spider Solitaire is to arrange the cards from king to ace.

Now for the lessons: 1^st , there is always more than one way to achieve the results. Often it so easy to get stuck on one idea – one way of doing something, that we get blinded to other ways.  2^nd , Think about what you are doing, sometimes the most obvious move is not the best move in the long run, but if unsure, do the most obvious move first and work toward the more difficult moves next.  When we focus on what we know often the rest falls into place. 3^rd , If you run stuck, take a break and come back to it later. When you step away from a problem and come back to it, it is amazing how, with a fresh perspective, you see solutions you never seen before.

Now I play Spider Solitaire to finish the game. The joy is finding a way to complete the task no matter how many moves it takes. The great thing about Spider Solitaire is that it has “Control- Z” which is the “undo” button.  So if I run stuck I can go back as far as I want and try again. In most situations in life we don’t have “undo” button, we can’t just undo our choices or paths, erase the consequences and start over. Except where it counts the most – with God. In many sense Jesus is our “control-Z”, he has undone all the ways we mess-up (as we learned tonight at small-groups) and then become the telos – the end purpose of our lives.

Now who would have thought you could get so much out of a simple computer game, so for lent this year instead of giving up Spider Solitaire, I think will play more! - HJK