The "Maverick" Who Played Poker

Many people in the U.S. are remembering a Senator this weekend, using terms such as "hero." John McCain of Arizona died from cancer Saturday. He was famous for many things - but one of his most infamous moments involved poker.

Courtesy Melina Mara/Washington Post

In September 2013, McCain seemed to be distracted during a Senate hearing on Syrian policy. The Washington Post snuck a photographer behind the desks, and found him playing video poker on his iPhone. McCain  confessed to his actions minutes later by writing "Scandal!" on social media.

Check the Twitter comments on McCain's confession, and you'll find many people were appalled by what he was doing. Yet it fit the "maverick" label others attached to him - and it's ironic, considering Maverick was the name of an old TV western about poker-playing brothers.

This leads us to ask: is it good to be a maverick - in the poker world, or otherwise? It might make you famous, but is it a good thing?

Our old hardbound dictionary has these definitions, among several: "One who refuses to abide by the dictates of his group; a dissenter.... One who resists adherence to or affiliation with any single organized group or faction".

We think there are two ways to look at this. It's good to be a maverick if you're coming out of this world. Jesus Christ was the prime example of that....

"Abraham is our father," they answered. "If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you he truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things"... - John 8:39-40

Jesus was a Jew by birth (Revelation 5:5) who challenged the strict religious legalists of His day, such as the Jewish Pharisees. They indeed eventually had Him arrested and put to death. Yet that made the Lord the "maverick" of our salvation.

On the other hand, it can be bad to be a maverick if you're revolting against the ways of God in a lawless way. If that describes you, the Bible offers this advice:

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. - Isaiah 55:7

 We noted in a 2013 post about John McCain's game that there's a right time and a wrong time to play video poker. At the wrong time, you can even sin against God:

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as your please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord.... - Isaiah 58:13-14

So as we remember John McCain, we ask - are you a maverick? If so, on which side? We think it's better to be a maverick for the Master.