If you stop trampling the Sabbath,
stop doing whatever you want on my holy day,
and consider the Sabbath a delight,
sacred to the Lord, honored,
and honor it instead of doing things your way,
seeking what you want and doing business as usual,
then you will take delight in the Lord.
I will let you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will sustain you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob.
The mouth of the Lord has spoken. – Isaiah 58:13-14 (CEB)
I am on vacation this week at our timeshare in West Virginia. One of the things we always include as part of vacation is some time playing board games. One of the nearby towns has a games shop that is among my favorites to visit. Despite being in a tiny town, they have an impressive inventory of board games. The one time I was looking for something that they did not have they made sure to get it in stock before the end of the week. There are many things we love about having time to play board games. It is time together, and even though it is competitive while we are playing, when the game is over we know that we can walk away and let it go. We enjoy and then move on to other things. Games are a great vehicle for interaction that also have a clear end to distinguish them from our lives more br
I have had several conversations with members in recent weeks, wondering what is going on in the culture of our nation. One thing that I suggested is that many people have lost sense of the distinction between games and life. There has been a gamification of everything. Rather than our common lives together being governed by ideals such as justice or fairness or democratic processes, many people see it as a competition. They see the world as a sports competition. There are two teams. Once you recognize which team you are on, all that matters is defeating the other team. It is not a matter of ideas or ideals but about winning a game. The problem is that life is not a game, and so there is no clear stopping point where you can leave the game behind. Rather than building up connection, continual competition only divides.
This is not just a political issue; it is a spiritual one. One of the key biblical themes is to work against the human tendency to compete non-stop. One of the functions of the Sabbath, for instance, is to take a break from the continual competition of money-making in order to focus on strengthening relationships with one another as well as God. We need that break in order to learn to care about one another rather than seeing other people as impediments to winning (which too often means getting everything for ourselves and leaving nothing for others). Biblical ethics are based on care for the other, whoever it may be, and that care begins with breaking the cycle of competition.
It is not coincidental, I think, that the decrease in religious participation has gone hand-in-hand with the rise in viewing life as a never-ending game. When our focus is on competing and winning at all times at all costs, we leave no room for awareness of God or others. The value of board games and sports is not just that they have clear rules but that they have a clear ending so that we can use our competitive drive but then turn it off and turn towards each other.