Friday Night Lights

The setting seemed strange -- and for us, it certainly was.  We sat at a blackjack table at a casino, well after sundown on a Friday night.  No one had dragged us there against our will.  We'd made the decision to go.

But we should start at the beginning.  Last Friday was Valentine's Day, and the church movement we attend has taught for many years the "holiday" is wrong.  It's based on pagan Roman traditions, as opposed to the Bible....

Thus says the Lord. Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. - Jeremiah 10:2 (KJV)

Yet in recent years, the church association we attend has taken this view of Valentine's to what we considered an extreme.  An article posted last winter was moved up to the association's top-level magazine this year.  It says....

What about showing love on Valentine's Day if I'm not doing it for pagan reasons? Isn't that okay? No, because the expression of that kind of "love" is still rooted in a former pagan holiday. True Christians must not adopt pagan festivals as holidays, for they are to strive to please God in everything they do.

Based on this paragraph, any display of love on February 14 is wrong.  And it continues....

It's a good thing to express your love toward others through a card, flowers, dinner out or any number of other ways. But don't do it under the trappings of a pagan holiday like Valentine's Day!

So with this instruction in mind, we try hard not to love people on Valentine's Day.  This year we sounded gruff at work -- even shouting in frustration at one point.  We grunted or mumbled when we met people, as opposed to saying friendly such as "Hello."

But this year was different, because the night of February 14 included the start of God's seventh-day Sabbath:

Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.... the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. - Exodus 20:8-11

If it's wrong to express love toward others on February 14, we said to ourselves, shouldn't it be equally wrong to express love toward God on that day?  After all....

This is love for God: to obey his commands.  And his commands are not burdensome.... - I John 5:3

So, we logically concluded, it's wrong to love God on February 14.  We responded by not praying on that day, studying our Bible or listening to Christian radio.  And as a 6:08 p.m. sunset approached for Sabbath, here's what we did:

5:55 p.m.: We exercised with a two-lap 24-minute speed-walk at a relatively empty mall.  With no socks on, a big blister developed on our left foot which made us limp a little the rest of the night -- but then again, we shouldn't love ourselves on Valentine's either, right?

6:30 p.m.: With a loud rock station playing on our car radio, we went to an ATM and withdrew $100 -- the sort of money-handling we'd normally do on Friday afternoon.

6:35 p.m.: We drove toward the casino south of town -- but had to change the radio station when it cleverly followed the song Deal With the Devil with Living On a Prayer.  We moved to a Spanish-language station - wary of any song with too much "amor."

7:00 p.m.: We "limped in" (literally) at the casino and entered without problems.  A big crowd was on hand -- with an especially long line for the buffet restaurant.

We walked slowly around, especially looking for the "heads-up" poker machine we'd played at another casino the previous weekend.  But it wasn't in the small area with poker machines, so we concluded this casino didn't have it.  After pondering what to do, we sat down at an Ultimate Texas Hold 'em table (barely acknowledging the dealer) to see what would happen.

BLINDS: 10 (+ 10 ante)

IN THE POCKET: J-3 of clubs

We had an early small win, but this is nothing to get enthusiastic about.  We simply check.

ON THE FLOP: Jd-9d-7d

Wrong suit -- right top card!  It's worth a "double down" $20 bet, freezing our hand.

ON THE TURN/RIVER: 7x-6d

Uh-oh -- a fourth diamond hit the board.  We have two pair, but if the dealer has a diamond, we're sunk.

After a last round of betting, the dealer does not show a diamond.  Instead he shows.... 7-5.  That's three of a kind, and we're sunk anyway.

Another loss left us with $30 from our starting $100 -- barely enough to play another hand at the $10 table.  So we left there and walked around some more....

(NOTE: This entry will continue in a future post.)