Ernest Burns
The other day as I was sitting around it came to my mind, and I don’t know why – some of the games we played as kids. There were several that came to me.
I will know how old you are by the response you have to these games. Raise your hands if you ever played tug of war, what about “hide the switch” (the switch was a small branch off a tree). Hey, we had limited resources. I believe the person that made up that game had some issues with inflicting pain on others.
The object of the game was, as others were not watching, one person would hide the switch and afterwards all would try to find it. When it was found, that person had the right to whip those he could catch until they got back to home base.
In tug of war, you needed a rope and there had to be an equal number of players on each team. The object was to establish a line that you tried to drag the other team across. The loophole in the game was to try to get most of the strongest people on your team.
The object of a game is for you to be the winner, and if some pain is administered, the better. Those games worked when I was a child, but now that I’m old my thinking changed.
Paul said in 1st Corinthians chapter 13:11 “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
In America today it seems we are still playing “Tug-of-war.” The loopholes in our democracy are being exploited with only winning in mind. We are still finding the switch bringing pain upon others. I wonder when we will realize that when we oppress others it also hurts us all.
Matthew 13:15 says; For the people’s hearts has become calloused, they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them.
Please God open our hearts so that we can see the pain we do to others!
Bishop Ernest Burns is the pastor at Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church.