What Is God? The Blackjack ANALOGY

Part 2 of 3

This is my 2^nd of 3 posts where I am using analogies to explain “what is God?” to me. If you haven’t read my first post, which uses Super Mario Bros. as an analogy for understanding God, I encourage you to do so as I will be building off of it somewhat in this post, and considerably in my final one.

In this post, I would like to build on the “power” that I, much like my arcade friend Mario, have discovered and put it to use to hear God’s will for my life.

To do so, I am going to use the casino card game, Blackjack, as my analogy.

For those who don’t know, I’ve spent the last 3 decades in the casino industry. During that time, I have probably observed more hands of Blackjack than most casino employees alive, and certainly more than any player living.

Blackjack is one of the few games in a casino that is a game of skill. That is a player who plays a perfect strategy, what we refer to as Basic Strategy, can narrow the casino’s advantage to nearly zero. And a skilled player who can “count cards” can flip the advantage from the casino to themselves.

But what is often misunderstood about card counting is how profitable it is. Movies like The Hangover and Rain Man, in addition to the fictionalized account in 21 about the real MIT team, tend to sensationalize the amounts that can be won.

In reality, a card counter works off a tight margin. A card counter who spreads his bets from $100 to $1,600 can expect to make $134 an hour. Not a bad living, but not exactly commensurate with putting at risk a bankroll 200 times that size, and the risk of detection by casino personel like myself.

In a perfect world, though, with no meddling casino supervisors to wreck your outing, card counting is an optimal way to earn a living if you have the discipline to play properly and the mental stamina to stay in the game for long periods of time.

This perfect scenario is where we shall construct my Blackjack analogy for understanding God by listening to His will for you.

Blackjack is an analogy for the game of life.

When we are birthed into this life, we are plunged headfirst into the game. Hopefully, we have parents who will provide some guidance to get us somewhat unscathed to adulthood. Unfortunately, many of us had some bumps in the road during childhood, but nonetheless, we will still arrive at our majority, whether we are ready or not.

And when we do sit down at the Blackjack game of life, each of us will employ a strategy.

Let’s go thru the types of players and the strategies they use.

Those players with little prior guidance, or those who disregard any received, tend to make random decisions that have no strategic value, but no strategy is a strategy in and of itself. Inevitably, the edge of the game whittles that player down. If they are fortunate, they survive to learn from their errors and change their strategy. If not, they become the losers of this game; scraping by to get back to the table, but inevitably forfeiting their bankroll again.

In the aggregate, life, just like Blackjack, will crush anyone without a strategy.

The second type of player has a strategy, but it is a defective strategy, typically birthed from trauma in their past. There are two subtypes of this player: the self-destructive and the self-aggrandizing. Without intervention, the self-destructive player is on the fast-track to ruin. The self-aggrandizing, however, tends to have big swings, with fantastic wins and large losses, but may indeed be a “winning” player at the table.

But what they both share is a contempt for life and those around them. Both players tend to quickly clear out any other players from the tables they sit at, and neither seems to be very happy playing. For one, it’s a suicide mission, and for the other, it’s the soulless task of acquiring casino chips.

In the aggregate, life, just like Blackjack, is stripped of its joy by those with a defective strategy.

The third type of player represents the majority of people. This player understands that to play the game of life like Blackjack that you need a strategy, a Basic Strategy for life.

Unfortunately, though, this player can’t follow that Basic Strategy in whole. They have what poker players call a “leak” in their game. In Blackjack, that might be never hitting a 12 against a 3 or not doubling an 11 against a 10. In life, their leak might be their health, their poor finances, or how they parent. They will probably get their money’s worth of enjoyment from the game, but far short of what they could have.

In the aggregate, in life, just like in Blackjack, this player leaves unrealized winnings at the table.

Which brings us to our final player. This player not only plays Basic Strategy well but brings with him or her a ringer to the table; their own card counting Blackjack Advisor.

They bring Christ.*

As we all have Christ in us, this option is open to everyone who plays the game of life, but as I described in my first post, Jesus is never going to impose on you, you have to lean into Him.

I consider myself fortunate that I had an experience with Jesus when I reached out to Him. And even more fortunate that He shared with me who He was and then asked me, “Tim, don’t you want to hear My words?”

That question has always stuck with me.

I now know that Jesus has always been in me. I’m also certain that while a similar Jesus experience is open to everyone who calls on Him, I don’t think it is necessary to feel His presence. We can all feel the “power up” of being in Christ when we follow His Way without a supernatural experience. I know I did as a child before I got lost in my trauma.

But what that question means is that none of us have to blindly stumble into a power up. We have a collection of books and letters from His original followers that can guide us to His Way.

The Bible, with a specific emphasis on the 4 Gospels and then the rest of the New Testament, is our Basic Strategy.

I don’t mean, though, that it is a simple instruction manual for a moral life. Sure, you can find those instructions, but that’s putting the cart before the horse. The primary instruction is how to draw closer to Him so He can guide your life. Once you see that, those moral instructions transform into a witness of what living in Christ is.

So, to take liberty with my Blackjack analogy, our Basic Strategy will certainly instruct you when to hit or stand, double or split, but what it really does is put you in contact with the Advisor who can flip the advantage in the game to you.

This is difficult for me to quantify, but I am not the man I was before I met Jesus. I am no longer operating solely under my own guidance. With His encouragement, I have become a better man. Kinder, more caring. Simpler.

I know that comes from Him indwelling in me, and me welcoming His guidance. Its a feeling within that prompts me to do the next right thing. And its as effective as if He was whispering the answers to life in my ear.

The trick, though, is actually listening. But when I do…

He’s flips the advantage to me.

That would be a great line to end on, but as we live in a world that keeps score, I think it wise to revisit the fortunes of the card counter who lives off of tight margins before I sign off.

As I mentioned, the public (and some casino managers) think that card counting always results in a win. That’s hardly the case. Over the years, I’ve watched many card counters get broken by a bad run of cards. When you flip the advantage, you only flip it to a 53/47 edge and those 47 losses can do a lot of damage to those 53 wins.

And that’s the case with life.

I know many people interpret the Book of Job as God testing Job, but I think of it also as God’s chosen children questioning why bad things happen to good people.

It’s a question we are still asking today. And much like the writer of Job, we want to think that our misfortunes are God’s will, part of some bigger plan that we can’t see or understand.

We must be wired pre-Genesis 3, pre-apple, because we seem to have some primal programming running that was designed for Eden. That programming just can’t compute that we live in a fallen world. It freezes and shuts down when tragedy and disaster befall us.

And the only way we reboot is that way lay that suffering at God’s door.

But I can’t reboot that way. I have come to know Jesus and I know the Trinity is not responsible for our mishap and misfortune. That isn’t the nature of a loving God, and I know my God is only love.

So I assure you that you will have good runs and bad runs, you will lose when you should win, and win when you should lose. But never judge your life by the chips you have, but by the life that you have lived in pursuit of them.

And know that God’s will is to know you, be in relationship with you, to power you, to guide you, and to travel the ups and downs with you every step of the way.

In Christ is your advantage.

God bless you and remember…

Jesus loves you.

* I’m not arrogant enough to think that professed Christians have the only ringer. I believe that Christ is in everyone, and adherents of other faiths, even some of my atheist friends, might be following Him without even knowing it. And I know some professed Christians that aren’t very Christlike. So, I’m not picking a fight; I’m just writing for those who are looking to follow the “Jesus way” in the only way I know how to describe it.