There was a great mixture of laughter and a wee bit of competitiveness in the air. Many of us knew this game from our elementary school days but at some point it became cool to play in high school. The four players are all strategically positioned behind their specific box. The objective is to hit the ball into another player’s box in such a manner that they will not be able to hit the ball, or at least not into another box: Four Square!
I watched the raucous intensity of the game, all the while mentally musing on something I had recently heard on a podcast, and a metaphor started to come together. Our lives are lived in four boxes: Suffering, Temptation, Boredom and Blessing. We rotate around those boxes in no set order but rather precipitated by either outside forces or those of our own making.
Suffering:
Each of us ride a wave of greater or lesser degree of suffering. Sometimes this suffering comes our way due to the actions or even inactions of others. Sometimes it’s inflicted intentionally and at other times we are collateral damage. There are times that we find ourselves in a place of suffering due to our own choices. And then there is the suffering we experience when the responsibility lays at no one’s feet.
Temptation:
The world – like cable news – runs 24 hours a day. With endless promises of how some thing or some one is going to bring us satisfaction beyond our wildest dreams. Yet the reality is we do not need outside influences to be tempted to engage with those things that are not particularly healthy for us.
Boredom:
Regardless if you are a small child or a person in the twilight of life there are times that all of us find to be less than engaging. Boredom has the potential to precipitate less than stellar choices; it can also prompt opportunities for great creativity.
Blessing:
There are those moments when you feel a sense of love, joy, wonder, satisfaction, or creativity. When you embody a deep abiding feeling of appreciation for___. It is also found in those taking-stock moments where you are able to take a look from the balcony of your life and become aware amidst it all that you feel quite fortunate.
The journey through the lands of suffering, temptation, boredom and blessing is quite familiar to those who have made intentional spiritual pilgrimages or have been on extended retreats. In my experience it is in these spaces when we are just more aware of that which is part of all of our daily lives.
How then will we respond? The good news is regardless of the circumstances, by God’s grace we have agency. Suffering, temptation, boredom and blessing, all are spaces ripe with the capacity for transformation…both our own and those that walk with us or we are blessed to walk with.
With that metaphor matrix in mind, and on the cusp of a new year, my musings turn to how might I up my Four Square game? A good place to start is to become even more cognizant of which box I find myself in and more aware of the box my neighbor finds themselves in. Then I’ll be seeking where the potential is for transformation. I know the opportunities will abound!