Christian Living

What's Your Trump Card?

by Honey Stone
06/03/17
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I just knew when she walked in the door that this was going to be one of their toughest cases. I worked at a chemically dependent treatment center as a receptionist and I helped the women get food stamps for their stay. This woman... I will call Sunshine. I’m not sure if Anger or Bitterness was her middle name but I was glad that the receptionist desk was designed as a high barrier.

As a benefit, I got to take some of the classes along with the women and so I entered into the Multiculturalism class. We got to choose which of the four tables we would sit at and then we were told to be quiet and read our instructions. This was not a lecture; we were all going to be playing cards.

What we didn’t know was that each table had a different trump card, so as the game began it was all good because I started at the heart table (aka the love table) – smooch sound. When anyone won, they got to move to the next table. It wasn’t long before a fight broke out. One of the rules was “No fighting” and so she was kicked out of society…I mean this social experiment. 

Finally, I got to move to table number two - the diamond table (aka the wealthy table). That’s when things got confusing. I couldn’t follow what was happening but I remember Sunshine glaring at me for grabbing a pile of cards. I’ve never felt so much hate directed at me in my whole life, but then again it seemed like everyone was ticked at me and so I became more cautious. 

I was actually considered an authority figure in that place and it felt like some of the gals were just submitting to my actions for that sole reason. When more and more of the heart team entered the diamon table then I began to feel more at ease. We smiled at each other because we understood each other’s game. The hearts dominated the diamond table because we were now the majority.

Someone how – gasp - I made it to table number three that originated with the Spade-ites (aka the deep thinkers). There was a strange mix of notions and things got intense. You could call it “Confusion Central” if you wanted. Someone just grabbed the pile of cards and gave it to me so I could move to the next table. Nobody wanted to mess with the only authority figure in the group. It felt a little fraudulent.

Table number four was the club table and it matched its title because it was violent. It felt like everyone wanted to club each other. Just living through that was an achievement. The song, “Welcome to the Jungle” would be the theme song of that time and space. In the world, sometimes it is the sharks that make it to the top. I am so glad I've got God and it doesn't have to be about survival of the fittest. It can be about seeking His Kingdom first if we let it.

When it was all over, the teacher told us what that was all about. She said, “Every culture has a trump card. If you know what that card is and you play it than you are fine but if you don’t then confusion or anger or even violence can break out. I had to admit that I experienced all of that and more.

I began to think of the Finnish sub-culture that I grew up in. The trump cards were clearly to be serious and quiet and straight-forward. If you wanted to be “cool” or “in” that is what you became. Nobody handed me any instructions but I picked it up as I went along. This confliced with the mainstream Minnesota culture I grew up in where beat-around-the-bush and being expressive were the norms. I had to learn to transition. It was not a fun thing and this explains why many Finns do not mix with those outside of their world much.

I began to ponder the church cultures I had been a part of. Some valued the mind or the gift of prophecy or inner healing or prophetic worship or prophetic intercrssion or faith healing. It usually had to do with the strength of the leader or group or leaders in the bunch. I realized that people submit to a leader not because they are right but because they don’t want to rock the boat. But this is not always the case.

I remember being a member of a large teacher-biased church and we all got together to vote on whether to have the parking lot paved. Everybody cheered because the majority clearly voted to move ahead. I was among the minority of five people who voted “no.” The interesting thing was that leadership decided not to pave the parking lot. I figure that one of those three “no voters” must’ve been a seasoned prophet because in that church they actually listened to the prophets though there weren’t many. I was glad that in that church culture that the voice of God trumps all.

I’ve been trained in enough churches or ministries to know that I am going to get some glares. I am prophetic and I have an arts ministry – so talk about controversial. It took awhile for me to move in it so some of the puzzled looks are understandable but the question in my mind when I get some negative reactions is, “What is their trump card?” I want to design a banner for each person that has their trump card symbol so they can wave it in worship. People are pretty passionate about their gift-biase and even their church of origin culture-biase. Some of that is developed and some of it is religious.

Back to the treatment center….I didn’t work at a faith-based nonprofit but Sunshine chose Christ anyways. She exchanged her trump card of “anger” for the “new creation” card and it completely changed her. One of my favorite jobs was to type up the women’s daily affirmation or poem that they wrote and hers was called “I am a New Creature in Christ.”

I mailed out surveys after three and six months to the women who had graduated with sobriety. She sent hers back each time saying that she was still sober and a “new creature in Christ.”

I think of all the people who have inspired me by their life and Sunshine has got to be up at the top. She was one of those rare beauties who quickly transformed from a low life caterpillar into a butterfly. Maybe that's why I feel so strong about true transformation and not just more information. I always want to know what are the things that really help change people. For me it has been a collection of an accepting community and great mentors and prophetic words and deliverance and inner healing and hearing God's voice and purpose and obedience and...it's no just one thing.