poker has gotten huge over the last couple of years. i love watching the world series of poker on espn because you get to see what they can't all see: everyone's cards. i love it when someone gets a monster hand and pulls down an awesome pot, having pulled others in too much.
but what is most impressive about poker is the bluff. the best is when you can see that someone at the table clearly has the worst hand, but bluffs his way through, getting others to put their money in, then further bluffing and getting them to fold. i love this because people say that your life all depends on the cards you got dealt. and i say that's bull. sometimes you can do more with crappy cards than with the best cards...why? because it's all about how you play them.
a good friend of mine sent me these questions in the wake of ted haggard's fall:
What is the atmosphere like? What's going on in the church? I . . . would be interested in your feel/take on things there. I'm . . . looking . . . for your take on how people (you included) are dealing with this.
the best way i can put it is that we have been given some pretty crappy cards and now we get to see what we can do with them. and the honest truth is i am amazed at how the pastors, leaders and church members are playing them. one of the things we have been taught here is that:
Situations don’t either make you or break you; they simply expose you for who you are.
and this church and its leaders are being exposed as great leaders. the atmosphere is of course somber in light of what has happened, but on sunday morning, pastor ross announced that we were going to have a family meeting and 6,000 people immediately stood up and gave that truth an ovation. this is exposing this church for what it is, and what i see so far is that it really is a healthy family that is choosing to pull together rather than break apart.
what's going on in the church is their will be meeting this coming monday and all the members will vote for 6 (3 men and 3 woment) to be on a search committee along with the three utmost senior staff members. they will choose a canidate and if he is approved by at least 3 of the 4 overseers, he will preach in all the services for three consecutive weeks, then there will be another monday night meeting for a vote. the person will need a 2/3 majority vote to be called. otherwise, the search committee will choose someone else and the process continues. i think there are a lot of people that think it will be people from within, but you never know.
one of the biggest ways people seem to be dealing with it is personal examination and tightening connections with those they trust. the fact remains: we are all sinners, fallen short of the glory of God. we forget that. we all have secrets that need to be let out with someone we trust. this is a lesson ted used to preach, that there is no such thing as a secret, and i believe he knew it would come out eventually, it could have been now, or it could have been in heaven, but like pastor ross said on sunday, he believes we are all better off for knowing now.
it is amazing to see how hopeful people seem to be. it's amazing just how much of a family this place really is. it's amazing how well they are playing these cards...because from the outside it looks like the worst hand you could be dealt, but they probably couldn't be dealing with it better
the dealer deals, how would you play it?
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