Analogy: In the Cards

The other day I was playing a card game called 313 with some of our dear retired church ladies. I was  the appointed shuffler since we played with two decks and that task was difficult for them. I would shuffle each hand, and would deal when it was my turn.

At one point in the second game I realized I had shuffled and passed off the cards to the next dealer, accidentally skipping my turn to deal. As that and future hands played out, I got to thinking about how my mishap impacted not only that first hand but each to follow. In that first case, I realized that everyone ended up initially what would have been his/her neighbors cards. Then as players made decisions about drawing and discarding the ripples of my mistake carried on into the result of the hand. It changed multiple decisions and outcomes. That got me thinking about God's sovereign will and our free choices that flow from it.

Anyone who takes a biblical position on these matters will readily agree that there is mystery in the interplay between God's sovereign decrees and our free will. Any orthodox position will say what the Bible says, that God is sovereign, knowing everything and frustrated by no one in carrying out his will, and that man is responsible for his free choices. Many are uncomfortable with the tension between God's choosing and our own, and want desperately to feel there is no precise point where the overlap between these realities is perfectly expressed. Most talk systemically about where they are on the TULIP scale between the extremes of Calvinism and Arminianism. Usually the conversations (often arguments) come to a head with one's view of sovereignty.

I'm not going to wade into all that discussion per se. There is much good information available to help one think both intelligently and biblically about the issues. My goal here is to expose the beautiful reality of the dance, as it showed itself to me in this game of cards. I also enjoy exploring how far an analogy can be applied before it falls short of the reality to which it points. So, here are my observations.

God is the Dealer. Of course he is more than that. He invented the game, and he made the rules. He made the cards. He made the materials from which the cards were made and from which the plant was built, and the planet, and so on. But for the sake of analogy God is the Dealer. Whatever possibilities there are in all the hands that can be dealt, they come from his hand. He orders the deck with his shuffling, and then he deals out the cards to each of us. So, the range of possibilities in play are set already by his dealing.

Then we Players consider the hands we've been dealt. We think of how we'd like things to play out, and we make our choices. We choose which cards to hold and which to discard. We react to the choices of other players, some of which benefit us and some of which thwart us. The range of choices available are limited in these ways, by what was dealt and by the choices of others. Still, given that range of options, we make truly free choices as we play our part in determining the outcomes. Sometimes we win the trick. Other times we get caught with points counting against us. Whatever the case, this game is not rigged, so we cannot blame the Dealer if things don't go our way.

Now, one's view of sovereignty nuances the application of the analogy. Since chance or luck does not fit a biblical paradigm, we would see God's deliberate will determining the exact cards that are dealt to all. God is not shuffling cards to let chance decide what is dealt but rather orders the options and distributes exactly the hands that accomplish his perfectly wise and benevolent will. Someone with a high view of sovereignty would say that God not only decrees what cards he will deal to each player but also decrees exactly how that player will (the most extreme view would say must) respond to those options. A biblical view does not necessarily demand that strong a view. Many would allow that only the range of choices is predetermined and that all the choices that follow are free choices by each player. These free choices would also include the reactions to the free choices of others.

God created the players. How much of each player's nature did he determine? That this one would be super-aggressively trusting his gut with his choices while that one would be conservative, holding cards based on the best odds? That this one could bluff her way to a jackpot while another would be riddled with "tells?" Theologians have wrestled with these questions for centuries, but in all biblical options there is mystery. We are trying to understand how the transcendent God operates in the world, and much is beyond us. (A large range of the views implied above fit under the theological category called compatibilism, though there are other views of sovereignty.)

What is clear from Scripture is, once again, that no one by his or her free choices can ultimately thwart God's plan, and that we cannot blame God for the final outcomes. We have played our own role in reaching those outcomes. That brings me to one other observation from the card game analogy.

For this, I must shift from 313, a game where winning depends on getting caught with the fewest points over 10 hands, to the kinds of card games where bets are placed, like Texas Hold 'Em. In that game, one's success can ebb and flow over the course of many hands depending on how much one bets. When a player is emboldened by a great hand (or tired of playing, and ready to be done with it all), they go all in. This means they are betting everything they have left that they have a winning hand, or at least that they can bluff any remaining players into believing they have a winning hand. If they scare everyone else into folding (giving up what they already put in that hand's kitty), or if they do in fact have the winning hand, they can win the whole pot. But if neither is true, they lose everything - game over.

This is the other beauty from this analogy. With God, winning or losing is determined by one and only one wild card - Jesus. We either go all in with Jesus or without him, but at the end of this age everyone is all in. We only have this life to decide whether to hold Christ or to discard him, and we never know which hand is our last. Without Christ all is lost, but with Christ all is won. And from the perspective of human responsibility, the Bible is clear. The Christ wild card is available to everyone, and each one will choose to go all in with Jesus or to discard him. Win or lose. Live or die.

So, I celebrate how God awakened me to his amazing work and my incredible privilege to go all in with Jesus. I'm not so lucky in card games. I'm very grateful that God has called me to himself through the hand I've been dealt, and has given me the opportunity to choose eternal life through his Son. All praise to him for the beautiful analogy, and the spiritual reality to which it points!

Celebrate Analogy

A concept has been churning in my thoughts for a while now, and a book I'm reading by Andrew Peterson has stirred me up enough that I think it's time to begin a series on it. (The book, BTW, is Adorning the Dark, and I highly recommend it.)

The concept is that this life is full of analogy. It's not hard to argue that case, nor to support the argument, and so I will in brief. Further, I will argue that the real (and intended) effect of this phenomenon is to point to God, and more particularly, to Christ, as he is the way God makes himself fully known to us.

Think about every epiphany you ever had, not just the huge, life-changing ones when you said, "Aha!" but even those little moments when it was more like, "Oh, I see now." It's like when someone finally explained fractions or algebra in a way that made it click for you. (If that never happened, I'm sorry, but you'll muddle through okay, unless you are in architectural engineering or something. In that case, I'm sorry for your boss.) Or, it's like that moment when the punch line of a joke finally hit you and sent you rolling on the floor. (Or, sadly, left you wondering why the jokester thought THAT was funny at all.) It's like this whole paragraph you have been reading. Our experiences are filled with simile and metaphor, and also antithesis. We learn by realizing what something is like and by what it is not like.

This is why communication is full of analogy, especially poetry and song. What do we say? "Art imitates life." An imitation is analogy. Through analogy art helps us ruminate on and understand life, even DISCOVER life. Thus, some who muse - and help others muse - are called muse-icians. This principle is why Jesus taught so often in parables: "The kingdom of heaven is like [such and such]..."

Before the Incarnation, God taught with analogy through the law and prophets. The law itself was to show what God was like in his holiness so his people would themselves becoming a living analogy to the rest of the peoples of the world. In speaking of the gods of enemy nations, Moses declared, "their 'rock' is not like our Rock.'" God worked over and over through Israel to show the world that he was not like other so-called gods but was the one true God. In teaching his people how to worship, God referenced the practices of the pagans around Israel and said, "Don't worship the LORD your God this way." In other words, true worship is not like that but rather like this.

In the NT, read Peter and see his metaphors: "... you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices." Paul too calls the church a building; and a Body with many members and Christ as the Head; a temple where God's presence is; a household; an inheritance. He talks about Christian life using everyday life pictures like olympic racing, boxing, military service and even prostitution (as antithesis), and on it goes. Analogy.

We are God's art that imitates his life, especially we humans who are made in his likeness. We understand God, and all spiritual reality through the ways we compare or contrast to him. Of course, in our fallen world we humans build a much fuller collection of antithesis than of simile. That's one reason the Incarnation of the Son is so important. Jesus is the full expression of what we can know about God. Knowing Jesus is an eternal well of discovery. That discovery happens in the world he created, and for that reason this world is full of theological analogies, creative works that show us what God is like, that point to Christ.

Just like you begin to get a feel for what an artist is like from her paintings, sculptures, songs or even her clothes, we learn what God is like from his creations - from each other and our life experiences. So, Jesus taught us about his kingdom through kernels of wheat, through poor widows, through stories about sheep and managers.

Of course, we know Christ explicitly through the Scriptures. But the more we are immersed in the Scriptures the more we see Christ and his work imbedded in the world around us, even in those who do not possess his life or his spirit. That's the beauty of his sovereign power and design. God is revealing himself through everything, even through those who are unwitting or, what's more, unwilling analogies. That ancient Pharaoh who refused God's demands and chased down his people? God is NOT like that, but even that Pharaoh served his purposes. The little girl in kindergarten who felt bad for the new kid and brought him something cool from the toy box that lit up his eyes? THAT's what God is like.

My point in all this is to encourage all of us to notice the theological analogies in our mundane lives. And as we notice, then, "Whatever is true, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable - if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy - dwell on these things." Then praise God for what he allowed us to see. Now we are worshiping him. If we share what we saw with others, they may be drawn into worship too. So, when you see spiritual realities, share them.

This brings me to another reality about analogy, something I'll call resonance. There is a subjective element here. I realized that subjective side of analogy when I took the ACT many ages ago... in the last millennium. I discovered that analogy was a gift for me in most cases, but a curse when it comes to testing for it. One section of the college entrance exam was all about analogy. As I recall, there were a number of problems that featured a word followed by four more words that might associate to some degree with that word. My job was to identify which of the four words had the strongest relationship to the key word. I was frustrated. In most cases, I could see relationships everywhere, and was hard-pressed to pick one over the others. It turned out I did not resonate as much I would have hoped with the one who created the test. He or she (or they) saw different connections than I did.

Once again we see God's sovereign creativity. Some people see things much like you do, enough so that when you point out a God analogy they too may have an "aha" moment. It might even be stronger than your own, and - this is really cool - it will likely amplify your own when you begin to reflect together on it. Others see things very differently, and will not resonate with your discovery. That's okay. There are others with whom they will be more directly encouraged.

Resonance is why you have favorite teachers or sermons, or favorite singers or songs, authors or books. One person on any given Sunday is perplexed by the preacher on stage, mostly lost, while another is sitting in the same room shouting "YES!" inside (or maybe even audibly) because of the "brilliant" way the preacher just spoke the truth. Brilliance may be involved (hopefully), but I think the greater reality at work is resonance. (This, by the way, is a major liability of having the same guy in the pulpit 52 weeks a year, for you will almost certainly become a congregation largely filled with those who resonate with that teacher. Unless they resonate with the worship leader, the other prominent "resonator" on stage. Most people will gravitate toward a church family in which they resonate strongly with the people in one or both of these roles. Better (in my opinion) than a congregation almost exclusively oriented around one or two people is a church where there is diversity on stage as much as is practical so as to serve a diverse congregation.)

But, back to the subject...

My hard-wiring to see analogy was a curse in that ACT setting, but it has been a great blessing in most every other aspect of life. The longer I live, and the longer I grow in knowing Christ and his Word, the more I see him and his truth everywhere! And I want this for you too.

You have honored God anytime you praise him for your discoveries from him. Analogy is powerful regardless of resonance. So, when God shows himself in everyday life share it with anyone who will listen. It will resonate with someone. Sharing your discovery might even be God's tool to bring the "aha" of new life, eternal life, to someone. It will certainly fire up and encourage and challenge your brothers and sisters in the church.

God designed all of us for analogy - to see it, to learn from it, to live it out. So, when you have a "Wow! So, it's like this!" moment, celebrate it and share it.

In the spirit of that challenge, I will continue from time to time sharing the analogies that have jumped out to me, and I encourage you to do the same. Analogy will likely be a part of all my observations, but when the post is mostly about one particular analogy I will label it with that title. The first one will follow soon, In the Cards. I hope it resonates with many.