Our Hangout

What survivor has taught me.

Last night we saw the last episode of Survivor Panama. Vania is a survivor junkie, and even if I didn't watch it with her, I'd constantly hear all about it. So, for better or for worst, every once in a while I catch survivor with Vun. Last night we saw the finale.

I guess I've always seen the show as a game. Like a board game that goes on for a very long time. I like board games, Risk in particular, and I like to win at Risk. And I win more than 2/3rds of the time. I have found that in order to win at Risk on a regular basis, you have to do several things. You have to have lots of luck on your side, you have to make the right alliances, and you have to break those alliances at the right times, so you can conquer them and eventually, hopefully, conquer the world. Can you do this without cheating and stealing and lying, yes, will people feel betrayed yes, will they feel like they were taken advantage of, yes, will they care, no, okay give them 1/2 an hour, but most people realize, this is a game! I have yet to hear someone say, "Ed, how could you be a Christian and knock your wife out of the game." Easy, the purpose is to conquer the world. In order to conquer the world, I have to conquer her countries.

As we watched last night, Vania asked me, how would you play if you were chosen? The answer was simple, I would play to win! If I just wanted the experience I'd take a vacation. I would be Ed (father, husband, Christ-follower) playing a game in which the object is to outlast everyone else. I wouldn't (I'd try my best not to) compromise my character or follower-ship, although not everyone would be likely to agree on that one. But I would definitely play to win, and of course for the fun of it too :)

Here's what is interesting. The world expects people who establish themselves as being people following a different standard (whether that be following Jesus, or just leading a scout troop) to live by a different standard, even though they themselves recognize that they fall desperately short of those same standards. And as last night's finale showed, the world is frustrated when we don't live up to the standards we claim are ours. Frankly, I think that's what cost Lill the victory yesterday. The moment she said, if I had to do it again, I wouldn't wear this uniform, I went "ouch". Rather than saying, I screwed up, I should have lived by the higher standard, she said, if it profits you, put aside your standards (not in so many words).

Not down on Lill, really, she could have done better if she had backed up what she came in saying she stood for, never too late to apologize.

There's a lesson there for us as Christians as we live this game, run this race, we call life. People are not just watching us, they're judging us and our actions with a different measuring stick than they use on themselves. Is it fair? No! Is it right? I don't know. But Jesus did say, "count the cost!"

Posted by ed