Tag.

Who hasn’t played the game “tag”? I loved that game as a kid. Most kids do at some point in their early years. I can remember running around on the playground during recess as a kid at Kelloggsville Christian School. Recess, lunch and “Gym class” were my (and every other kid’s) favorite part of the day. During recess we would play a number of silly games, like “duck duck goose,” “red rover,” and of course “tag.” Then when school finally got out, I would go home and often play outside with my brother, Corey, my sister, Kim and some neighbor kids.

As I was reminiscing a little bit this week on the “good ole years” of playing tag as a kid I thought about the basic idea of the game. Someone starts out as the person who is “it” they run around trying to tag another kid, who becomes “it”, who tags someone else who becomes “it”, who tags someone else who becomes “it”, who tags someone else who becomes “it”, who tags someone else who becomes “it”, who tags someone else who becomes “it”, who tags someone else who becomes “it”, who tags someone else who becomes “it”, who tags someone else who becomes “it”…

When and how does this game end?

The game ends when either: the school bell rings and its time to go back to class (or the dinner bell at house when it was time to eat); or when the kids simply get tired of running around tagging each other. I know kids seem to have more energy or better stamina than many adults, but the game EVENTUALLY gets old doesn’t it?

It seems that sometimes “grown-ups” like to play “tag” too, but on a different level. They have a bigger “playground” and they don’t simply “tag” each other in fun; grown-ups have issues and like to play this game using things like guns, rockets, bombs and missiles. At least it often seems that way around here. Rockets are being fired from Gaza into Southern Israel on a regular basis. Last week Israel apparently got tired of it and decided it was time for “paybacks” and went on an offensive raid into Gaza where over 100 Palestinians were killed, including babies, children, and teenagers.

Awful. Just awful.

Stacie and I have had many conversations on how screwed up this world is that we are living in. How is it possible for someone to hate another being so much they would actually kill them? And yet it happens. Everyday. In fact it happens so much that most of us become “numb” to this type of news. This past Thursday night, a Palestinian gunman went on his own rampage and killed 8 students, most of them high school age, studying at a Yeshiva (Jewish Seminary) in Jerusalem.

…who tags someone else who becomes “it”, who tags someone else who becomes “it”, who tags someone else who becomes “it”…

This game EVENTUALLY gets old too doesn’t it? When and how does THIS game end? There isn’t a school bell or dinner bell in the world that can stop this madness. But there is a solution. In fact a Rabbi in this country once said:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…
-Jesus

It’s both radical and revolutionary. Jesus is the only hope.