Most of us would change some significant details of our life story if we had our druthers. Had God asked us ahead of time, we might have suggested any number of changes: different parents, different socio-economic situation, different ethnicity, different geographical location, different allergies. But God didn’t ask and here we are stuck with an inherited hand of cards.

What to do now? It seems to me that we have several options: complain, fold, or play the hand.

• Complain? Those who complain about their hand of cards have more than an attitude problem, they have a God problem. Nursing a grudge against the author is useless and quickly turns a character into the villain of his story.

• Fold? Those who fold are more than just quitters, they rob themselves of redemptive opportunities and a chance to live a glorious story. They also have a God problem. They lack the imagination to see possibility and, therefore, hope and that leaves them without the desire or the ability to make a move.

• Play Out The Hand? The only desirable action left for those with a bad hand is to play. We can play well or we can play poorly, of course, but the goal of life is to play it well. Robert Louis Stevenson said as much:

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”

Sometimes it helps those holding poor cards to see others who have played a bad hand well. We need inspiration and we need tips. One such inspiration for me is Booker. T. Washington.

Booker was born into slavery in 1856. Despite inheriting some rather daunting cards in life, Booker T. Washington knew that “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” So he took care of the little things, working hard even at menial jobs to obtain the respect of those who knew him. Before he died in 1915, he had become a prominent African-American teacher, orator, and presidential advisor.

Some of his life tips:

• “Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.”

• “There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.”

• “Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.”

• “Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.”

Booker did not have a God problem. He had a deep faith in God and had the imagination to see possibilities and hopes where others could see only defeat. Booker T. Washington did not become an inspiration overnight. He made small choices that lead him incrementally towards glory. His life was the accumulation of small glories and now he serves as an inspiration for us all. Likewise, we may not become an inspiration overnight, but we can make small choices that lead incrementally towards glory.

Holding poor cards? Take each moment one at a time and play your hand well. Who knows how it will all play out in the end? God does.

benpalpant.com – life re-imagined