The Game

Tonight for Dinner and a Movie we watched “the Game” with Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. It was made in 1997. I can’t believe that I missed it. This is the first time that I have seen it, and it was very good. Last week I was told about it so I ordered it on Netflix. Anyway it was about this rich dude who had everything yet had nothing. His younger brother gives him a birthday present. It’s this elaborate game that he knows nothing about, but it is about to change his life. He asked someone who has played the game. The only thing that the man will tell him is John 9:25 -whereas I was blind, now I see. And so starts the game.

In the game there was the perception of reality, but you couldn’t tell where the reality ended and the game began. It finally got to the point that all reality was crowded out by the game. Isn’t that the way life is sometimes. We get so caught up in making a living, providing for the family, working for the church, that we don’t really understand what life is all about. Our works keep us chasing dream after dream and the dreams aren’t really our dreams. No someone else has picked them for us. We do this for year after year after year until the years have disappeared and we are left with empty promises of life.

The game in the movie got so intense that you really didn’t know reality. In fact, it choked out the old ”reality” and replaced it with it’s own. We need to play the game in life. We really need something sometimes that will open our eyes that we may see. In fact, the “old reality” that we live most of the time probably isn’t reality at all. In this game that Papa wants us to play, He wants to replace our reality with His. He wants us to stop chasing other peoples dreams, and ask Him what dreams He has for us. In the new reality of the Kingdom our eyes are open and we can see. We can see that love is more important than things. We can see that relationships are more important than meetings and schedules.

Many times, especially in Latin America I get frustrated because we are always running late. The reason that we are late most of the time is that our guide is talking with friends or others. He knows the importance of relationships. Most Latin’s do. They are way ahead of us culturally in this. In the movie, Michael Douglas learned, through the game, the importance of his relationship with his brother. His father had committed suicide when he was 48 and Michael was turning 48 on this birthday. The trauma and loss had walled him up to any love and acceptance. The game was like a long involved real life sozo. It opened up the wounds and lies and brought him out of the deep walls into the true reality of who he was and who loved him.

It was a good movie, a thriller with a great ending. But it was more than a movie. It was just a reminder in the natural that there is reality and REALITY. We need to be willing to look past what the world calls reality and press into all that Heaven has for us in the true reality. You see, heaven isn’t way up in the sweet by and by. No, heaven is right here, next to us. But we have to choose to step into it’s reality, and sometimes it seems like a game we are playing, But in this game lies the true reality; the reality of the Kingdom. That’s the reality I want, and the reality I am seeking. What about you? Will you join me in the game? It might be dangerous, but it will be fun!