The game of life

We aren’t meant to go through life alone. Throughout our lives, we develop networks of people who we depend on and who depend on us. As babies, we are 100% dependent on our parents or caregivers. We are incapable of doing anything for ourselves, except absorbing the information that floods our senses in this new and wonderful thing called “life.” Before long, we are walking and beginning to talk, developing our personality, and learning through our experiences as we grow into the unique person God created us to be.

From a young age, we tend to seek acceptance and approval from our family, teachers, and friends. We discover the joy that being accepted and appreciated brings, and the sense of belonging we can find within our family, tribe, or community. As we age, maturity and life experiences may cause us to adopt a more subtle approach to our childhood quest for acceptance and belonging. Nonetheless, the universal need for supportive and accepting frameworks continues throughout our lives. Everyday life surrounds us with those who we depend on, who likewise depend on us.

Life is a team sport, and we all have influence on other people. Our family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and other believers are all members of communities to which we belong. We go through life as a team, and if we are to play the part God has given us in the game of life, it goes without saying that learning to be a good team player is an important part of the journey.

It is impossible for human beings to flourish without these interdependencies—we were created by God for community. As Christians, our quest for acceptance and belonging finds its true home when we discover that we are God’s children through faith in Jesus Christ, and God is our heavenly Father (1 John 3:2). The Bible tells us that “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5 NLT). “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people” (1 Peter 2:10).

The modern focus on individualism and doing life on our own is not part of God’s original design for human beings. In creating humankind in His image, He created us with the need to be part of a community with interdependencies. For most of our lives, we are surrounded by myriad influences that can affect us and our decisions, and likewise the people we interact with every day are affected by us to some extent.

As we age, our sphere of influence tends to expand, as more members are added to our life team, whether a spouse, children, friends, or associates. Our decisions often carry more weight and have more potential for impact. Others depend on us to have good judgment and are affected by our decisions. The team sport of life becomes more complex, and often continues to grow in complexity as we journey through life.

The interesting thing is that while life is a team sport, there is one arena where the game is played one-on-one, and that arena is our personal relationship with God. When it comes to our faith and relationship with God, we cannot hand the ball off to someone else and ask them to carry it for us, or “make the shot” or “score the goal” for us.

When the game clock runs out and the final whistle blows, the Bible tells us that we will each stand as an individual and give an account of our lives, our choices, and our actions to the God of heaven (Romans 14:10–12). In that moment, there will just be God and each of us individually. When we stand before the Lord at the end of our lives, we won’t stand before Him as a team, or as part of a family or a church or Christian fellowship—we will each stand alone.

For this reason, no matter what the trends of our contemporary culture, as Christians we are called to make choices and act in ways that will honor and please God. Regardless of the choices and actions of others, the important thing is that we live in accordance with our faith and morals, loving God and others, and doing our part to bring people to a knowledge of God and a relationship with Him.

Our calling as Christians is to reflect God’s love in our everyday lives to our families and loved ones, and in our workplace and community (Matthew 5:14–16). As part of our witness, the Bible teaches us to be good role models for people within our wider networks so that our influence will be a blessing in their lives (Romans 12:12–18; Philippians 2:15).

Sometimes it’s difficult to do what we know is right, and to be true to our convictions when it is unpopular or could have a negative outcome for us in some way. While this might be challenging at times, the wonderful news is that when we each made the choice to become a child of God, we qualified for the winning team, with Jesus as our coach (Colossians 1:12 NIV)! Even when we fumble or drop the ball, we can always depend on Him to cause everything we face in this game of life to work together for our good—including the good and the bad, our wins and our losses, and even our failures and mistakes (Romans 8:28)!

The Lord sees and takes note of all the good decisions we make, and how each one affects our life, as well as the lives of those within our circle of influence, and how we seek to enrich others’ lives. God also sees our love for Him, our personal faith in Him, our desire to please and obey Him, and our conviction to tell others about Him and to show selfless love and care for others.

The winning game strategy is to strive to make choices in life that will stand the test of time—and the key to making right choices starts with your one-on-one relationship with God. It’s just you and Him on that field or court, and the decisions you make to be faithful to Him and His Word will be rewarded when you are welcomed to your eternal home in heaven. Then you will have God’s approval—and that’s the ultimate approval to strive for (Matthew 25:21).

We must keep the finish line in our mind’s eye as we run the race of life, “keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (Hebrews 12:2 NLT).

If you have not yet received Jesus as your coach in the game of life, you can do so by praying this simple prayer:

Dear Jesus, I believe that You died for me. Thank You! I ask You to come into my heart, forgive my sins, and give me eternal life. Please fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I need You to lead, guide, and train me in this game of life so that I can make the right choices and enter the next life as a champion. Please help me to run this race with my eyes focused on You, my great victorious coach. Amen.