Deal 'em

 

I was playing Euchre with a group of guys on an overnight fishing trip.  Euchre is dealt in a unique way.  In sets of three, then in a set of two, five cards are dealt to each player.  The remaining four cards are set in the middle of the table and one is turned up.

 

Like any card game eventually you get dealt one of those hands that just looks incredible; you're holding both bowers and the Ace King in Trump.  And you will also get dealt some of those lousy hands, nines and tens, a queen high in four suits.

 

I was thinking about the game today and one of those leadership thoughts snuck up on me again.  When you are playing euchre, all you can do is play the cards that you are dealt to the best of your ability.  Sometimes it's everything you can do to just take one trick and stop your opponents from running the table. Other times it's a cake walk, go loner, shoot the moon and score four points taking them all.  But the truth is that in both cases all you can do is play the cards you have been dealt to the best of your ability.  

 

As a leader, there are a lot of similarities between euchre and life.  Perhaps more than we ever realize most of the time all we can do is play the hand we are dealt.  Circumstances, seasons of life, economic trends, and numerous other things are usually out of our control.  So what is required of us?  Play the hand to the best of our ability.

 

Sometimes it will seem like you steam roll the competition, results are obvious and abundant, fruit of your labors is seen on all sides.  And other times, it feels like it's everything we can do to just hang on, to see it through, to not give up and quit.

Let me paraphrase how Paul said it, "One thing I do, forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is ahead, I press on."

Been dealt a great hand recently, press on.  Play it out well.  Going through one of the seasons where it feels like you been dealt one lousy hand after another. 

Press on, play the hand well.

Deal em.

The man in the window

And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.  2 Thessalonians 3:1

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.