Games People Play….

Obscurantism (French: obscurantisme, from the Latin obscurans, “darkening”) is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or the full details of some matter from becoming known. There are two, common, historical and intellectual, denotations: 1) restricting knowledge—opposition to the spread of knowledge, a policy of withholding knowledge from the public, and, 2) deliberate obscurity—an abstruse style (as in literature and art) characterized by deliberate vagueness. ~ source Wikipedia

What connection does obscurantism have with the art of playing games? And by games I do not mean games per se ~ football, chess or the joys (and pains) of physical and mental exercise. But to better clarify the word ‘game’, let us present it against the backdrop of the bouts of boxing itself.

Borrowing from the Wikipedia again, “A boxing match typically consists of a determined number of three-minute rounds, a total of up to 12 rounds (formerly 15). A minute is typically spent between each round with the fighters in their assigned corners receiving advice and attention from their coach and staff. The fight is controlled by a referee who works within the ring to judge and control the conduct of the fighters, rule on their ability to fight safely, count knocked-down fighters, and rule on fouls. Up to three judges are typically present at ringside to score the bout and assign points to the boxers, based on punches that connect, defense, knockdowns, and other, more subjective, measures.”

In a boxing match, there are pre-determined numbers of rounds, fixed times for the rounds itself, rules against foul play and at the end of the match, although there is a victor and one who has lost, there is no bitterness or the carrying on of the match outside the ropes.

Frame that against the everyday world of Christian organizations, be it a church, a fellowship or even larger scaled institutions. Every single day in the life of these organizations is nothing less of a boxing match, complete with punches, not physical mind you, although that has also taken place. Verbal assaults are the order of the day, in the likes of open criticism, subtle innuendos and worse still, character assassinations.

Follow that with up obscurantism, restricting and withholding knowledge, especially when it comes to speaking up for the truth for things gone wrong. The overdrive for covering up only serves to heighten the wrong doing when finally exposed. What do we see in all these feints, below the belt punches and outright ‘silence of the lambs’….? We see a fragmented caricature, nothing of what the Lord has envisaged when He spoke of His church, His bride, His brothers and sisters….

And what does the world see? Anything but the Word……and only the games people play. We who are called to be different, are worse, than those without. Because in seeming to follow the Word, all we do is play upon it. And in so doing, become a stage for all to sneer, to mock and ridicule…

                                                “…Life is a tale told by an idiot,

                                                Full of sound and fury signifying

                                                Nothing…..”

                                                                                     ~Macbeth, William Shakespeare