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Gambling is a hot issue in here in Alabama. Electronic bingo parlors line the highways of north Alabama where I live with castle-like structures and buildings with inflatable gorillas. Golf carts are lined up to take the elderly or handicapped to the door. Free food and live music are advertised to entice the novice to check out the parlor. Flashing neon signs promise players quick cash, cars, and various unnamed “grand prizes”. Congressmen in our state legislature are debating the pros and cons of electronic gambling. Country music personalities, many who do not live in Alabama, have a commercial encouraging Alabamians to seek out Congressmen who will let the people put to a vote yes or no on the gambling issue.
I know very little about gambling. My husband and I on a trip to the beaches of Alabama stopped in at the Creek Indian Casino. We stopped because they advertised a buffet at better prices than the other buffet restaurants along the interstate. Once inside the dark, building filled with electronic games, we found that the buffet was only cheaper at lunch and not at the dinner hour. What I did see is that most of the people in the building were “staked” out at particular machine with cups of coffee or beer. Cigarette smoke clouded the inside like a low hanging fog, and the people using the machines seemed catatonically captivated by the game they were “playing”. How sad. How can anyone think that spending hours in the dark, putting money into machines in hope of getting “in the money” is an acceptable leisure time activity? For many it is not just leisure time, but a way to pass the time. How many stories have we read of those who win the lottery or a big jackpot of cash winnings, only to squander away the winnings on possessions, or an extravagant lifestyle? Many are more down and “outer” than before the big win. Owing big tax bills, foreclosing on homes, repossession of foreign cars, bought with jackpot winnings, the winner is many times worse off than before he hit it big.
So what has this got to do with in and out? I am not a poker player either nor do I play one on television, but the terminology of a poker player includes the terms “in the air” and “out”. In the air refers to the start of a tournament when the cards are dealt, in the air by the dealer. Legalized gambling is in the air, with the deck being dealt to the public. Aren’t we all being dealt a hand on the planet? God gives us the talents, abilities, and gifts. He says here is the “hand” I am giving you, now you use it for your good and my glory. Like the poker player we can sit on the hand or we can play our cards. God expects us to play our hand in this game of life. In the book of James, the apostle admonishes us, “But be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only.” What the world may see as a gamble, God sees it as the destiny that He has planned for each of us. In the poker game, a player may find himself presented with a card that it will improve his hand. This card is a called an out. Like cards, God can give us the original hand, then through time, experience, and His perfect will He can bring about an “out”, that improves our play.
I don’t know how Alabamians will or if they will vote on the gambling issue. I know how I will vote if given the opportunity. But as a Christian, God has put “in the air” cards for me to play. And if I play my cards right, who knows what an influence the cards I play can be? I know this that it will be for my good and His glory.
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