Posts Tagged ‘alanis morissette’

Posted on October 26, 2008 - by Tim L

God the cosmic slot machine

Ironic Alanis Morissette

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay
It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn’t it ironic … don’t you think
Chorus
It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
Who would’ve thought … it figures
Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
‘Well isn’t this nice…’
And isn’t it ironic … don’t you think
Repeat Chorus
Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything’s okay and everything’s going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything’s gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face
It’s a traffic jam when you’re already late
It’s a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It’s meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn’t it ironic… don’t you think
A little too ironic… and yeah I really do think…
Repeat Chorus
Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out

Talk

As a child did you ever go on holiday and get the chance to play in the fairground amusement arcade? I always remember we used to get given so much money and off we would go. We could spend all of the money but there would be no more once it was gone. That was it! Is was not very often that I came away with more money than when I first went into the arcade. I always remember the machines where you had to out in 2 or 10p and had to dislodge other coins as they piled up in the series of ledges inside the machine. I used to go around and have a good look at the most stacked up shelves before I would part with my 2 pence pieces. Some days I would win big – 14p or something but it would all go back in the machines and I would be left with nothing until the next time.

I never grew tired of hoping to win big. No matter how much I lost the hope was always there when I ventured into the arcade.

Do you live life as though you were living in an amusement arcade? Do you think and believe that God is a cosmic slot machine?

Is your experience and then reflections on life that it is all down to chance? Sometimes you win and at other times you loose. You might call it fate, others might call it chance, others might call it luck or bad luck depending upon what has happened. Life is a cosmic slot machine. You are the player and what comes out of the machine is what life has dealt you. There is nothing you can do about it. It is even in the language that we use to describe life sometimes.

“An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay
It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late
And isn’t it ironic… don’t you think”

Someone like Richard Dawkins, the atheist evangelist, would be quite happy to claim that life itself is down to a series of ‘chance’ natural selections. He would argue that God is irrelevant to the discussion, “as the existence of God is a scientific hypothesis like any other.”

Do you keep your fingers crossed when you go the hospital?

Do you wear your lucky underpants when you go for a job interview?

Do you have a favourite way to work that is luckier than others and always seems to give you a good run to work?

Are you a fatalist who shrugs their shoulders and utters ‘what will be will be’

Do you always try to sit on the same seat in the office meetings?

Is life a cosmic slot machine?

24Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. 25Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. 26What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

Matthew 16: 25-26 The Message

No one definitively knows how God works. But I do know this: of every person I have ever known and of every story I have ever read in the Bible, those who play it safe and hedge their bets on life never really live it; those who hedge their bets on God never really know him.

A glance through the stories in the Bible shows a spread of wins and losses. Abraham was invited to gamble his fertility (or lack thereof) on God, and lo and behold, God gave him a nation. Joseph was invited to bet his faith and integrity and won the role of Secretary of State of Egypt, one of the most powerful nations in the known world. Ruth was invited to roll the dice on trusting God to provide love and security once again, and she walked away with Boaz. Saul was invited to place his bets on God’s power versus his own, but sadly bet on himself and lost everything that mattered to him.

A young teenage girl bets her reputation and her very body on the promise of the Messiah and wins. A bunch of working class fishermen bet everything on Jesus, while a rich young ruler lowered his head and walked away from the table. These stories of wins and losses go on to this very day.

It’s no different for you and me. There is an invitation, a risky opportunity that God has given you. Will you take that handful of 2p you call faith and place your bet on ·God? The choice is yours. He gives you no guarantee that you won’t be hurt or suffer or even take some losses, but he does promise you this: he loves you, he knows you, he is with you, and you will win. Everyone who has ever bet their one and only life on God always wins. Cha ching indeed.

Taken from The Deity formerly known as God by Jarrett Stevens pg 52 (Zondervan, 2006)