Snakes and Ladders

We had the old vintage game of snakes snd ladders in my childhood. Green and white checked squares on the board with yellow ladders and many different colours of snakes. The chubby cheeked children in the pictures who climbed the ladders were depicted doing good things and then hit a happy reward at the top of the ladder. With a lucky dice roll you could advance far past the other players by climbing a ladder. Maybe the pictures showed a child praying or getting a hug or graduating from school after studying hard. Mostly all that mattered as we played the game was the pure glee the advancing player felt as they climbed past all the other players.

Oh, but then there were the snakes. Those long twisty slides you could take from your winning position all the way down past all the other players almost to the beginning of the game. The depression a player experienced as they lost when they’d thought they were almost winning could look traumatic. Why did we place personal value on ourselves for where we happened to end up in a game of chance? Roll the dice and land on a figure of a boy riding a bike with no hands…well, there you go! Slide down that snake all the way from your top placed position and now you’re the loser. You could cry, tip the game over , get mad and be a real time loser. The best choice was usually just to keep nonchalant and laugh it off as just a game. Just a game of chance. Cheer with the winner and play it again. A roll of the dice can make you good or bad in snakes and ladders.

Social life and our ego as a human being goes about like a game of chance. You wore mismatched clothes today and someone made a comment. Down you slide. Why are you such a loser to wear strange clothes?

You sang off key in your class song. You spilled your fancy latte. Your family vehicle was dirty. You tried to be brave but ended up being stupid. You slid down all sorts of snakes in your thoughts and you’ll never be able to climb ladders.

Hey, maybe you won today in someone’s eyes! You wore the right brand and they complimented you. You acted exactly how they wanted you to act and said the right thing. You knew everyone at a social function and everyone knew you so nothing awkward happened when you tried to meet a stranger. You play volleyball really well so you got asked by a good player to be on his team. You’re climbing ladders!

If it’s bad as a teen it’s even worse as an adult when someone disapproves. You might get a text that says you’re not a good parent and you need to have better structure with your children. You might get told that someone would never do like you do and it’s a mistake. Your family, your house, your yard, your job, your bank account all have to pass others scrutiny.

Then when everything in your life passes others judgement, you’re climbing ladders! You’re winning this game!

What if your grown child tells you something you did wrong years ago and now they are working through it? Or the economy crashes and you lose all your money? That’s a snake long after you thought the danger was past. You thought you were about in the safety zone but down you slide. What if you fall mentally or physically ill and can’t rally and people all have ideas about how you should eat or how you should treat your illness? You fall in people’s expectations.

Sometimes adults climb way up the ladder and nothing negative has ever touched them. But a snake will always come. If nothing else, as death comes close we start to realize what is truly important and we know that all those snakes and ladders of our ego in the social game were really nothing. They shouldn’t have happened at all and so that’s one big snake of a thought we have to deal with.

There’s only one choice our little human selves as players get to decide every day and it erases all the social snakes and ladders. It changes us from players into heirs of Christ if we decide right. Will we follow Christ? Will we focus on Him and His Word?

It’s as if deciding to follow our Saviour dumps a glass of miracle liquid all over the game board and suddenly all the snakes and ladders are removed and every player is equal, no one above and no one below. Hands held out on equal ground to take hold of and lift us up and we in turn can lift up somebody.

Maybe a fellow close to you says a judgemental comment that really hurts, as you follow Christ you can forgive him and keep an outstretched hand because you know he’s loved by Jesus too.

We people seem to love placing ladders and snakes in front of our fellow humans because we’re trying to make sense of things that God is in control of and we don’t understand. If we judge a person as good because they did the right thing we judge, “Here, a ladder for you, sir. I applaud your success.”

But what about the man who’s feeling down today with a migraine headache and really could use a ladder of affirmation and support? We don’t understand why he’s not working hard or advancing at all so we hand him a snake and help him go further down. “Sharpen up, man. You’re really dragging us down and being grumpy so we’ll just help you further down.”

Who are we to be judging who gets the ladders and snakes? Are we game makers now in this journey of life? What about in death? Can we place people where we think they should go after they die? That seems like it's up to God although some people leave a clear testimony.

No. Death is a safe zone, it’s God’s zone. We stand alone as we near the death zone with our guilty hearts and hold them up to our Judge. “Here, God, take a look. Am I a winner or a loser?”

God can’t even stand to look because He already knows. I’m a loser. You're a loser. All those games we play about judging each other, they help make us losers. Yet God so loves us that He gives us His Only Son to make a Way.

There’s only one way. We have to die every day to ourselves, hold up our guilty dirty hearts and ask Jesus to wash and fill us up with His Life. Only after the blood of Jesus has been spilled over us will God look at us and He says, “Well done. You’re fighting a good fight.” Then we look at others with the eyes of love and mercy too.

The choice to die daily is the only fight we have to make. From there on, we go through our day and keep reflecting back to that choice. A friend might get angry and we feel like putting a snake of judgement in place for him but we look at Christ’s mercy and there are no snakes or ladders left in our mind.

“Kind to the erring one, faithful is He, He the Great Example is and pattern for me,” has inspired me recently to look at Christ when I start placing judgments. If someone falls, I want to be there to lift him up and walk beside him. When I fall, I hope someone is there for me.

The game board of ego can be washed clean with Christ’s sacrifice. He built a Ladder that reaches to Heaven and it’s the only Ladder that counts. It's more of a bridge between our messy life and Gods perfection.

I want to be cautious about placing ladders and snakes as I judge people because I know in Jesus’ eyes we are all on equal ground. We are all loved. I even have to be careful about judging people who seem to delight in placing ladders and snakes in front of others. I walk beside them, I’m one of them, and my tendency would be to stay far away because I don’t want to be judged, I want to be loved. But Christ says He is the ultimate pattern of love. His is the love Paul talked of in 1 Corinthians 13 as he wrote to the church who was busily playing games of snakes snd ladders judging their brethren’s spiritual gifts or lack of spiritual gifts.

1 Corinthians 12 sets the stage for 1 Corinthians 13. Paul wants the people to understand that there is one Spirit and one Jesus but many ways they work in people. All these different gifts come from the Source of Life and it pleases God to have all the different talents. “There should be no schism in the body but all the members care for one another. When one suffers, all should suffer, when one is honoured, all should rejoice.”

Then Paul ends the 12th chapter to say there is an excellent way. Though we do everything good and everything right, and all appearances and words ring beautifully, it is all just irritating noise to God unless Christ’s love is in it. Our hearts are just loser hearts but Christ’s heart is acceptable.

1 Corinthians 13 contains a whole new truth to me when I consider it as myself dying and letting Christ work in me.

I get confused with all the talk of tongues in 1 Corinthians 14 but Paul seems to be using speaking in tongues as an illustration. It is a gift that can be used publicly to put a ladder in place for someone. You have a great public talent, hear, hear! Please do climb up in church standing! You are successful in overcoming temptation. Climb up, climb up! But everything counts as nothing without an understanding between fellow men. If anything we do gets used to elevate position instead of honouring Christ, it is wrong. Paul says he would rather speak five words that could be understood than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

We don’t get anywhere in relationships and helping others without Christ’s love. I can’t cook a gourmet meal for someone and invite them to my banquet table and expect they will reciprocate the way I want them to. Oh, I really hope my good cooking could put a ladder in place for me or at least take away the snake or two they set up for me at times.

Maybe I could be a really great person and lead someone to Christ. Nothing I do will be edifying or really support life unless it’s submitted to Christ and His ideas. The most helpful things for me in relationships have been small steps here and there. Small words to help each other other. Small steps closer together. Small words might not even be about spiritual things but the door between us to talk of spiritual things hangs wide open as we get closer together. I can trust they will help me and they hold open the door of that trust by trusting me. Members of the same body in equal standing. “God is not the author of confusion but of peace.”

Have your specific talents and dedicate them to God, Paul seems to say. Use them to edify others and not to honour yourself. God delights in giving you a gift to enjoy and are passionate about. When it is continually submitted to Christ , it can inspire others.

1 Corinthians 15:26 says the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Death can only be destroyed by submitting to it, by the act of dying. Then God will rule over all. A Spanish song says “I give you thanks, God, that when I die, then I’m truly living.” (Gracias Te Doy in Alabanzas Favoritas)

“And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?” We should rejoice for we have Christ and can die daily and live daily in Him as Paul did. The resurrection of Jesus is life and we can live in abundance and joy each day. When death comes it is in reality just a door into a wonderful world.

Snakes and Ladders is a child’s game and I don’t want to play it anymore but some days it’s all I understand or think. On my final Day, I won’t have to struggle with it anymore but I shall know myself as God knows me. I want my heart to be washed in the blood of His Son as I stand at the Judgement Bar. Then we shall cross into Safe Grounds, Home forever with Jesus.