âI know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.â
Revelation 3:15-16 (ESV)
Playing Texas Holdâem Poker is a great pastime you can enjoy with your friends and family. You do not have to gamble to play it. In the card game, you mainly assess how good your cards are compared to your opponent’s cards. If your hand is bad, you fold, but if it is good, you play it, depending on how good your hand is compared to your opponentsâ. The result of a poker game depends on four things: knowledge of the game, skill, experience, and luck.
There is a point during the game when you think your hand is the best among all players and are willing to go âall in,â â meaning you are willing to risk and bet all your chips. It is the moment when you lose it all or double your chip value â or your opponents lose it all. Even if you believe you have the best hand, there is no guarantee you will win except when you hold the highest hand you can ever get in poker. Your opponent may have a better hand compared to you. But if things go to plan, you will win that hand – or the game.
We can compare our lives to a poker game. Each âhandâ we get can be compared to something we can involve ourselves with â a principle, an idea, an ideology, or a belief. Some examples of âhandsâ we can encounter are helping the poor and needy, becoming rich, seeking happiness and comfort, developing a cure for a disease, etc. There are some âhandsâ we fold, some hands we are willing to bet a portion of our chips, some hands we feel we are ahead but are not sure if we will win, and some hands we are willing to go âall in.â
The gift of a âwinning handâ
All Christians are dealt with a winning hand. Christianity is true. Jesus said He is the only way to the Father [John 14:6]. All those who follow Jesus have the hope for eternal life without pain, suffering and sorrow. Christianity is the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price. There can be no better âhandâ that anyone can get â finding Jesus in your life is like having a royal straight flush in poker. It is the best hand you can ever have. It is worth going all in. It is a sure win.
Unfortunately, many people who identify themselves as Christians are not convinced they have the best hand they can ever have. They are not âall inâ in their faith âthey are willing to invest only so much in following Jesus, but they are still looking for a better hand. This shows how they live their priorities, values, speech, and actions. Some people regard following Jesus as good or even essential, but not the highest goal a person can ever have. Christianity does not work that way. It only works if one is âall in.â Lukewarmness in Christianity has never and will never work.
âChristianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.â
C. S. Lewis
Some people are unwilling to go all in on anything but lose at the end of the poker game. Some go all in with a mediocre hand. Unfortunately, investing all that you have in a good or average hand will end up with that person losing. There is no sure-win hand in poker except for a royal straight flush. There is no winning âhandâ in life apart from following Jesus and giving all your life to love, follow and serve Him.
What about you â what ideals, beliefs, or principles are you âall inâ? Are they worth your whole life? Do they have eternal consequences? Do you believe that as you follow Jesus, you have the winning hand, which is worth going all in?
âBut whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faithâ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.â
Philippians 3:7-11 (ESV)
Christians are victors now and forever. We have the sure winning hand. We should live and behave like winners, not losers. Even if life throws a curve ball sometimes, we should never act as losers or defeated ones. At the end of our story, we are all winners in Jesus Christ.
âNo, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.â
Romans 8:37-39 (ESV)
The good thing about life is that many can be winners, unlike poker, which has only one winner. All who choose to accept Jesus in their lives are winners. We should go âall inâ and show others â our families and friends â how to win in this life and hold the winning hand.
Top image credit: Diver jumping off a cliff into the sea, photo © by engin akyurt on Unsplash. Free to use under the Unsplash License.
Tom Caballes is a National Coordinator of the Lamb of God, a community of the Sword of the Spirit with seven branches located throughout New Zealand. Tom and his wife Mhel and their two daughters [with his son-in-law and grand-daughter] live in Wellington, New Zealand.