A Vision of Success

"Blinds up!" the man down the table from us said as the blinds changed.... and he stood up.

Later on, that same man declared he'd "check in the dark."  And since he started it, we couldn't resist joining in the humor.

"Don't you check 'in the dark' most of the time?" we asked.

"I check in a blur," he explained. Aha.

If you haven't figured it out by now, we played poker recently with a vision-impaired man. He's apparently a regular at the poker room we visited, because the dealer was ready for him -- announcing every card as it came out on the board, while the player held his cards practically against his eyes.

The man isn't 100-percent blind, so he can play -- and he played well enough to reach the final table.  We give Prairie Band casino credit for accommodating him and his situation.  He's an example of why you shouldn't let disabilities or physical obstacles get in the way of playing poker, if it's possible to do so.

A Bible writer had something to say about this sort of thing:

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. - II Corinthians 12:7

The Bible doesn't tell us exactly what this "thorn" was. Some have guessed the apostle Paul developed partial blindness, like that man at the table had.  Whatever it was, the apostle wanted it out of his life.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness...." - II Corinthians 12:8-9a

Sometimes God heals; sometimes He does not.  Sometimes He takes us out of difficult situations, even in a poker tournament; other times He does not.  The key is to learn what the apostle learned....

...Therefore I will board all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - II Corinthians 12:9b-10

Are you facing some kind of trial, at the poker table or away from it?  There's nothing wrong with praying about it, as the apostle Paul did. But learn to expect strength from God, even if the trial doesn't end in the way you might like.


NOTE: We'll have more to say about this man in our next post.