20-Minute Monopoly

WHAT!? Monopoly in 20 minutes! Something is wrong with this new thinking. What about the fun spent around the table chatting while everyone else is taking their turn. (We're not serious game players, if you can't tell by now.) And there were already "short" game rules for the board game. So why the need for this mini version?

The news story said that many of the old games have been redone to suit the needs of today's fast-paced people. But I'm not so sure they have their facts straight. People say they don't have enough time to socialize around a board game any more, but those same poeple spend hours in front of a video game. I don't buy the fact that our lives are too busy to take time to spend with other human beings either. Adam wouldn't have needed Eve if we were to live solo in life.

And what about other things in our lives? What about our time at church. There was a day when almost all of Sunday was spent at church. And then we met again during the week. Today, with smaller families, we have less time? I don't buy it. We choose to be so busy. We can take control of our lives, set boundaries, and stick to them. We personally chose to raise our family with limitations on after school activities including jobs, all in the middle of a father who worked a rotating shift. It can be done.

And what about our personal time with the Lord? Do we try to abridge that time as well? "Oh, I can pray in my car." "I do daily devotions, but it only takes five minutes to read the short writing." "I don't have time to pick up my Bible and read the scripture that goes with it, but it's ok because part of the verse is quoted." I'm sure most of us have made up some of these excuses at one time or another.

I thought back to the times when I truly meditate on the Word. Sometimes it took weeks to research something that I was searching for. Other times it was searching the same piece of Scripture for more, deeper meaning to things. Oh the blessings that are there.

Look up the word meditate (I deliberately didn't post it here to make you take a moment to do something the old fashioned way.) We don't do enough meditating any more. As busy as we say we are, some of us get so much more done in a day than others. Funny, because we all get the same 24-hours every day. Maybe we don't prioritize what we spend our time doing.

Challenge yourself. Determine to spend a little more time meditating, relaxing, enjoying life. Maybe we won't need all the stress relievers we think we do.