February 6, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Tuesday, February 6.
On this day, in 1936, Parker Brothers premiered a new game. They called it "Monopoly". Over 300 million sets have been sold since that day, in 37 different languages. I assume, with some confidence, that you've played this game, and I imagine that there's a Monopoly set in your closet.
Monopoly has 40 spaces, arranged in a square, with street names from Atlantic City, New Jersey. The box contains $15,140 in colorful cash and ten tokens. The most prized is the race car, with the thimble in last place. Can you name the other eight?
A typical Monopoly game lasts about three hours, and I spent many hours playing it as a kid. Hours of great fun, centered on the desire to take my dear friends and beloved family members . . . and grind them into dust, or at least into bankruptcy. It's not surprising that Monopoly is so popular in America, the land of free enterprise and competition.
No matter how many times you play Monopoly, no matter how many trips you take around that board, you're still just going round and round that square, round and round in circles. That's something of a metaphor for America, as well. Day by day, month to month, year after year, we chase our material dreams. We run a race, the one that some call "a rat race", a race that eventually leaves us feeling like we're missing something, like there's something more. Well, there is. And we find it in Proverbs 3:5-6.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight."
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
