Lemonade

I have an iPhone.  And yes, I am bragging.  I love my iPhone, I think of it as my external brain.  I never leave home or for that matter leave a room without it.  It's my to-go baby computer.

I was addicted to the game Solitaire for several years.  And yes, I am bragging again--I was one of the original iPhone users.  I had my original iPhone until the iPhone 4 came out, in fact, I still have it.  Sometimes I think about selling it, but then I get a little nostalgic and put it back in the drawer--maybe someday.

So, games.  I am now totally addicted to playing Gin Rummy on my phone.  However, today I discovered something--hence the need to write about it.  I keep winning.  I not kidding, I win 99% of the time.  OK, I'll admit it's the free app which I'm sure is easy sneezy but still.  And after several months of playing this game, I am finding that it isn't challenging enough for me.  And yet--I keep playing--but I am wondering where is the fun?  

That's the thought I am pondering at this time.  Where is the fun in life without a challenge?  We hate it when we are going through them, those tough times in life--we call them trials and tribulations.  We blame everyone and their brother--but never ourselves, and we whine and cry and wonder how do we get ourselves out of the mess we are in?  And yet, if life had no challenges and we always won--what fun would there be in that?  That's what I am asking myself today.

I've grown up hearing the saying--if life gives you lemons make lemonade.  I've always thought of it as trite and thought that the people using the saying were a little foolish at best.  I thought that they themselves hadn't yet gone through many trials or they wouldn't be using that silly saying.  And yet, here I am now wondering if they aren't on to something.

Maybe we need those trials, those challenging times to strengthen us.  Maybe we need to know that if life were as simple as winning every hand at Gin Rummy we'd soon be bored out of our minds.  We certainly wouldn't be learning anything, let alone helping others, let alone pleasing God.  Maybe if life were that simple--it would be all about us!  And not about Him at all.

So, this is what I am pondering today--I am looking at and reevaluating the simple and the complex issues in my life and I am putting them into categories.  Bored--challenging.  Dying--growing.  Selfish--pleasing.
Do I have to win every game?  Or would I rather have some challenges along the way?


Which category do I want my life to fall into?  I'm pretty sure I know.