Wow! INTIMIDATING challenge but exciting. I was raised Catholic, I got this, right???  I even know my way around ‘Little Joe’ – yes, I’ve put in my time – I might even impress them and maybe even win… I was PREPARED.  Oh… hmmm… maybe NOT… OH WOW…..

SO VERY INTIMIDATING..  I’ve never done THIS much… Oh, and they went double fast too… oh, they don’t even know ‘Little Joe’ – am I sunk?  No, I laughed at my inadequacy and inflated deflated ego. I focused. I got more efficient and faster. I PRAYED.

No, I’m not talking about LIFE, I’m talking about walking into the most BIGGEST fastest BINGO ever! Whoa!! 24 cards at a pop? Super fast calling? Little Joe? Nope: “Fireman’s Pig in a Pen” for the eight spaces around the free space. Same game different name – just like Catholic and other traditions to use different conventions… No inside and outside corners here, just outside corners… and yet SIMILARITIES through the ages: when someone rang the bell at ‘O66’, my heart rang in 45 plus years of Bingo memories… cool… 

What a fun way to reconnect and visit with my friend, we used to teach Sunday school together with our babies 3 and 6… so long ago but our friendship is such a blessing to us. It’s not just church for church, it’s connections for God that bring us to community with communion. Jesus likes to GATHER His sheep, making it more enjoyable to hangout together… Friends are blessings.

But shhhh, quiet the chitchat, wow absorb this challenge of 24 cards!!! Yes!!!! 24 at a time! Lapboards, bingo dabbers for specials, new crazy games on top of it!!! I love how Methodist traditions do not include games of chance because God is not a God of chance, nor should we think of God randomly but deliberately, TRUE. But I was raised Catholic and this is group weekly fundraising at its most classic form. Back at Catholic school, my dad called numbers, my mom sold tickets, or sometimes flipped the switches for the lights – she was scared to mess up! High Stakes! I helped at the concessions – low stakes – and those glass bottles of soda were cool and classic. Friday nights were fun – even with the 1970s gym filled with smoke. This is how they kept the school open, crazy how we live our lives huh?, especially that smoke. And shhhh… Jackpot was $200… SO SERIOUS!!!

Jackpot here at the firehall 50 years later? $900!!!!  so many of the many games were $50 to $200 in prizes like normal. Door prizes were free entries to the next nights (twice a week)… Nope I didn’t have inflated entitlement to winning anymore – I knew this IS a game of chance but fun, and I was just lucky to get a parking spot! (well there is NO lucky there is only blessed – and yeah praying for and recieving safe parking is a BONUS that God gives us)…  SO, best thing was that I was and am Blessed to have spent time with my friend. It was fun. we will do it again – but not like these “regulars”…  I found it more mentally challenging than any sudoku or logic game, because it was fast – and physically like PT for repaired shoulders for each of us. $20 to $30 for 3-4 hours, a bargain and a fundraiser. No smoke either. 

Here’s my big “BINGO” thought – a devotion God gave me that won’t rest until I write it out: We can talk about ‘AI’ all we want, but seeing and hearing how the winner-checker worker peoples ONLY called out the serial number of the lap board or special, not the bingo numbers, was interesting… for the computerized tracker KNEW that set of number would have won… WOW… Even though the number balls air blown came up randomly, it was entered and verified by the video feed on the electronic board (no more light bulbs). Yes, the entry into the computer system verified that winning set of numbers and board with the numbers existed. WOW!!! I think the caller might have had the inclination there was a winner in the room before the winner did… and yeah the view of the ball before being called caused you to hear the people rustling ahead of time because someone close by was on the verge of winning.. Someone, not you, had it… they knew. 

Who knows for you?  Yeah in Life it is God Who knows all for you…

God Has Got YOUR Number!!! God makes you A WINNER!!! See, in life we think things are randomly in front of us, and surely no one knows the way the wind blows, especially those bingo ball numbers, but God does! God not only knows your number, He wrote it, He knows the way you will turn, He knows your struggles, most intimate thoughts. God provides both the numbers AND the Win but especially the times you don’t “win”… God knows and it is OK. God knows the pitfalls, intimidation, dropped opportunity, but He HAS your number, so He calls YOU! God blesses and corrects. God makes the wind flow and life go.

There are random games and adventures awaiting you in life, you might buy the extra pop-ups or skip them, life is always finding distractions and opportunities. Just be aware and let God know your cares. Don’t take on too much. Don’t let the sound of the distractions rustling (or even cooking in the amazing full menu fireman’s kitchen cooking cheesesteaks and galore!) distract you – that’s just life noise to put in the background. KEEP AN EYE ON THOSE CARDS! Oh! The “STARBURST” round? Dollar a ticket? ONLY PLAY ONE AT A TIME. Oh my, lightning-speed calling just numbers, faster than whack-a-mole, oy! One card and one card only. No time for distractions! whew… Some people skip this game just to get rest!

God? One God and One God Only to direct your ways – HIS WAY! Don’t get distracted – God Has Your Number and He’s the Only non-game in town. B1 of His devoted children. You don’t have to “keep up with God” – only have to love Him and believe in Jesus, the One He sent. Jesus already is sitting so close you you that you will be amazed when He intervenes.

I’ll take God for the WIN. Actually He took us first…

GLAD and BLESSED to B1 of His Flock.

B I N G O…

Amen

---

Ecclesiastes 11 from Solomon 

Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return. Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie. Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun. However many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all. But let them remember the days of darkness, for there will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.

You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.