Shell Game

 


Have you ever seen a shell game, either on tv, in a movie, or in person? 

In a shell game, the person “running” the game places a ball under one of three cups then deftly moves the cups around a table before finally stopping them and asking the person “playing” the game to attempt to guess the location of the ball.

If you look up “shell game” on the internet, the Miriam Webster dictionary definition will tell you it is a swindling trick that involves sleight of hand and distraction.  I think it is a game Satan loves to play…

Recently, I learned that a business launched by one of my friends has rapidly become EXTREMELY successful.  All of a sudden, she is jet setting all over the world, being featured in magazines, hob-knobbing with celebrities, and raking in the dough.  And if I am to be honest with myself, I admit – I’m a little jealous!

But why?!?  I have my health.  I have love.  I have good friends.  I have a roof over my head and food on my table…so what is it that I am jealous of? 

Well, upon reflection, it’s not so much about things I NEED, but rather it’s about things I WANT.  And it’s those wants and longings that Satan is hoping to use to distract me (and you).

In just a few weeks I’ll be headed to Nicaragua to spend the summer working alongside whole communities of people who do not currently have access to clean running water.  Household after household whose family restroom is an outhouse often curtained with blankets, carboard or tarps.  Many of the area children are not educated past elementary school because they must help at home instead.  And women cook over open fires under thatched roof huts that hold in the smoke and increase the rate of lung disease.   

What a silly thing for me to be jealous of my friend, when I have so much!

And then there is something else.  Often, these people with such meager belongings have a faith that is so much stronger, and so much deeper than my own.  They are incredibly grateful to God for every blessing that comes their way, and there is a richness in that that goes way past the “worldly” value of the material things I often covet.

The Bible says “A peaceful mind gives life to the body, but jealousy rots the bones.” (Proverbs 14:30), and as I contemplate that, I think I need to remember not to miss out on all the good I already have, by allowing Satan to shift my focus onto something else that he thinks I might want.

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