by LeRoy J. Gardenier                                                 

       Even though they may never have played it nor gotten personally involved in it, most people are familiar with the idea behind the simple and seductive, infamous shell game. "The hand is quicker than the eye." This crude, but correct, proverb is tested by trying to locate the small object hidden under one of three inverted cups or half-shells. The game's manipulator swiftly, deftly skids the covering cups back and forth, round and around, on a smooth felt surface. After just a few furious gyrations the concealed object seems to disappear faster than a skillfully shot eight ball dives into the side pocket of a pool table. Or does it disappear? The bettor is convinced that amidst all the scrambling and shuffling his eagle-sharp eye has not lost the designated object. Whether concealed fairly or by trickery, the gambler is usually wrong in selecting one of the three shells. All the certainty in the world won't restore to him the money he has already laid down, but his real ignorance and deep stubbornness will probably provoke him to try again. The "mark" has strong, persistent faith in his own natural powers and abilities which, being translated into spiritual terms, means he is really living on hope. The more he tries, the greater the chances that his keen judgment will find the right combination. He's convinced that he'll eventually uncover the hidden object; he'll make the killing his heart desires; and, he'll be vindicated in his own if not in the eyes of others!

      Unless they had scads of money to throw away and oodles of time to waste, most people would be offended at the suggestion that they could be continuously duped by the brazen deception of the shell game. Why it doesn't even merit the dubious finesse of "the pyramid club", let alone the subtle strategy of a "sting" or con game. Yet, many otherwise sophisticated people whose lives, for the most part, are regulated by good judgment and common sense, are completely unaware of the slickest scam of all. What I'm talking about isn't a puny sport for low stakes played at some carnival barker's booth or on a portable table at the street corner of some sleazy section of a big city. The satanic shell game is played out in the open, on the world's stage, for all to see and participate in. And this deadly drama is performed for the highest stakes of all - the souls of men! This supernatural venture has all the simplicity of the shell game. Like its worldly counterpart, three standard but important items are involved in its cleverly devious operation: people, places and things. Like an experienced, confident showman the Enemy of our souls plays right into the innate ignorance and stubbornness of our inherited Adamitic nature. Combined with cocky self-assurance and persuaded by parents, friends, church and school alike that hope is really the highest spiritual attainment - "Well, all we can do is hope for the best" - we are as ready to be satanically plucked as any unsuspecting spring chicken. With natural hope alone (aka presumption) and no real supernatural faith as the foundation for our daily living, we're as ready as any rustic, straw-sucking rube to be taken in by Satan, the most crooked "city slicker" of all time. And his modus operandi is basically just as unassuming and confidently successful as that of the shell-game operator.
        He spiritually manages to move around the three most important and influential spheres of relationships in our lives: the people we love and care about; the places we like the best and where we spend the most time; and the things we seek to acquire and maintain - all those possessions and material blessings we treasure the most. The silent, but most persuasive and generally successful satanic scam involves once again, like the shell-game, at least our implicit cooperation. What the Enemy insinuates and what we sell ourselves on is that in life we just have to "hang in there" and "keep on hoping". Someday, he snidely suggests, we really will get it all together. One fine, unforeseeable day, we will finally be surrounded by the perfect people of our own choosing. With the best possible personal support and encouragement we'll find ourselves in that ideal location that we've always longed to enjoy. And, ultimately, we'll be fully secure with just the right amount of money and material comforts to make our life as complete and satisfying as possible. This natural nirvana is not just the product of an over-active imagination. Whether conscious or not, it is the apparently realistic and very attainable goal toward which multiplied millions are aspiring. Some would call it fate, kismet, or karma but like the stupefied game player, the hopeful hanger-on to the wheel of fortune is only one third, or, at the most, two-thirds successful. He's with the right people in the proper place but everything is spoiled by that serious lack of cash flow. Or, he may have plenty of money and possessions with satisfying relationships but he simply cannot abide his surroundings, whether it be the hell-hole of his workplace or simply the dismal, depressing weather conditions of his chosen region. Well, maybe now it's retirement time. He's got enough money; he has picked the right spot, but, wouldn't you know, the people he now has to live and associate with are absolutely intolerable! As one lesser known television commentator puts it, "And so it goes!" Over the centuries songs have been sung about it, from the bellowing agonies of the opera hero to the biting bitterness of some modern ballads. Dramatic presentations have acted it out and reams of stories have been written about it, from the insolent, self-destructive fool name Nabal described in the Bible to the most pathetic innocent victim of a senseless crime reported in yesterday's newspaper. Poets and philosophers have deeply lamented it and sensitive souls have wept oceans of tears because of it, yet mankind in general has yet to concede that lief in the natural is basically tragic!
        It is even less commonly admitted that without supernatural faith in the living God who requires us to receive His one and only Savior - that deficiency places us in deep trouble and, even worse, eternal jeopardy! How few still realize that without the whole new nature and life the Lord Jesus has won for us, we are in desperate danger of being taken in by the satanic shell-game. Whether pope, president, premier, lowly peasant or every other kind or condition of mankind in between, the natural life, no matter how apparently successful, potentially hopeful or temporarily satisfying, is nothing more or less than what God's Word says it is. "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world".  Ephesians 2:12
       I'm sure that it was one of New England's foremost sages who once remarked that most men live lives of quiet desperation. Like most philosophers whose main art is to make a big deal out of nothing, this one got it part way right. Thoreau was expressing the tenor of his times - the dismal prospects for daily life caused by the new industrialism. Had he lived through to "the gay nineties" he might have whistled a more cheerful tune. As it was, he taught a pattern of behavior that did little to aid his own and has helped to foul future generations. In effect his plan called for focus on self-realization, dropping out of conventional society, and then establishing himself as a detached social perfectionist. One who more or less "takes great pains and gives them to other people."
        The truth of the matter is that if we refuse to accept or remain ignorant of God's plan of salvation we'll stay caught in the vortex of a vicious cycle of alternating hopes for self-improvement and social harmony countered by the awful despair consequent upon destructive selfishness and unconquerable sin! Opposed to the confusing contradictions put forth by the Satanic shell game is the stable, reliable security of God's truth. A spiritual life of supernatural faith doesn't take us out of this world nor does it destroy all at once the cheap and tawdry deceptions of our own hearts. But, by believing God's Holy Word; by real, living faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we are spiritually and actually, "delivered from the power of darkness, and ... translated  ... into the kingdom of his dear Son" (see Colossians 1:13). That Kingdom, though invisible, is quite authentic and so very powerful that Satan, with all his tricks and all his devices, cannot prevail against it (see Matt. 16:18). And God's Kingdom has a solid, unvarying simplicity about it that redeems the three essential, relational components of this earthly life. The nearest thing to and the actual foretaste of paradise in this life is God's spiritual domain, established by the Lord Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (see John 14:6). Because of, and through Him, the Kingdom of God is made manifest, and entering into His spiritual commonwealth we become God's people, in God's place, under God's rule. On our own we'd never have "the smarts" to outwit Satan, but secure in our faith and trust in the Savior we are spared the frustrations of the Satanic shell game. The people, places and things in our daily lives become most meaningful, enduringly productive and eminently satisfying because now they are God-chosen, God-protected and God-controlled.