Life, it's nothing like the game

It's raining. The dark clouds have been glooming over Norman

just a tad too long. The thick droplets freckle the windows.

Thunder claps the sky. I enjoy listening to the gentle pitter-patter, especially

when I have a good book to read.

But an entire week of it ... I start getting antsy.

My mood is entirely too dependent on the weather.

Because of the unpleasant wet slush outside, Evan and I have been forced indoors.

This means lots of sock baseball, puzzles, and board game marathons.

We played Life this morning, my first time in years.

I was quickly reminded that I'm not a fan, not at all.

Have you ever noticed the "Write a bestseller. Receive $80,000" space?

I hadn't either, until today when my yellow, plastic car landed on it.

A smile surfaced upon my face.

If only it were that easy, I thought.

Maybe that's what I don't like most about this game. It's too neat, too straight forward.

Go to college. Stop. Get married. Stop. Get children. Stop. Buy a house.

All the exciting hallmarks of life are nicely highlighted for you by the bright colorful spaces.

No one is a loser. Everyone wins. We all graduate, get married, and live successful

happy lives with a nice paycheck awaiting us every couple of spaces.

Just spin the wheel and see what luck is in store for you.

Life, my friends, is not like this. [Duh] No, but really.

I think this game is actually killing the very premise of life.

Life [and I'm sure I don't have to tell you this] is messy, it's unpredictable, it's hard.

Like Forrest's mamma says, "Life is like a box of chocolates.

You never know what you're going to get."

The unpredictability of life is what makes it sweet.

We don't know if we're going to succeed. We don't know if it's going to work out

with so-n-so. We don't know where we'll end up, or who will be there with us.

We just don't know what the journey of our lives will entail.

But we can hope. We can pray. We can work hard.

And we can rest in the fact that we have a sovereign God, who knows all the

"spaces" we are going to land on in life.

[Fingers crossed to the orange bestseller box]