A teammate Michelle and I played Sorry! with two of the girls in youth the other night.
It was a fun game to bond over. Enough of a task where it held everyone’s attention, but not so demanding that we couldn’t hold a conversation.
It was a little over halfway through that I noticed something. We had created a culture in the game.
For those of you who have never played Sorry! it’s a 4 person game where each player gets 4 pieces that correspond to one of the four colors on the board. To be able to move one of these pieces you have to roll a 6 to let it out of the prison it starts in, then the piece has to make it all the way through the board (into other’s territories) and into the safe zone without getting bumped back to the start-jail.
I’ve played this game with competitive people, and it can be quite vicious. They get excited to throw others’ pieces back to start. But from the beginning of the game, we would only bump someone back to start if it was our only option.
We would mean “sorry” when we said it, instead of saying it sarcastically like you would in the cutthroat version.
No don’t get me wrong, the cutthroat version can be fun with the right people. But God was showing me in that moment how to be Him even in a competitive game. How to bond with these girls and my teammates through encouragement and laughter. How to show my heart for them even when we are on seemingly opposing sides.
PS our ministry this month is building relationships and connecting people with the church we are living at! The youth here are amazing and so much fun to hang out with! Sometimes I cant believe this is my life!!!
