Call Me Irresponsible? III

In our series based on a pamphlet waiting at a casino gate, we come to the third and final "warning sign that you might be at risk" of a gambling problem:

3. Have there been periods of two weeks or longer when you spent a lot of time thinking about your gambling experiences, or planning future gambling ventures or bets?

Based on the wording of this question, every player who makes a "November Nine" at the World Series of Poker Main Event could be a "problem gambler." After all, they have three or four months to think about "future bets" - between the preliminary tournament days in July and the final table in the fall.

Beyond that, we doubt many players in the WSOP simply decide on a whim to drive to Las Vegas and try their luck. For one thing, the Main Event normally has a $10,000 buy-in. Doesn't a player have to do some planning, to save up money for that?

But we think the real point here is to see if gambling has become all-consuming for you. Is it "top of mind" all the time? If so, that could indeed be a warning sign. So what should be at the top of our thinking instead? We're glad you asked....

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.... - Philippians 2:5 (KJV)

Having "the mind of Christ" (as I Corinthians 2:16 puts it) sounds a long way from thinking about a poker schedule. But that's OK - and that's a good thing:

....Declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. - Isaiah 55:8-9

The mind and thoughts of God (Father and Jesus Christ) are "higher" because they're greater in size and capability than ours. Only God could have made such a perfectly-timed and positioned solar system for human existence. They're also higher in holiness and righteousness....

For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.... Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.... - Philippians  3:18-20

As an outgoing U.S. First Lady might put it: When man's ways go low, God's go high. And he wants us to have high thinking - as in heavenly.

So if you're planning a poker junket of some kind for 2017, do so carefully - but don't make the only thing on your mind between now and then. If you haven't done it yet, ask God in prayer to work with you on your thinking:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.... - Romans 12:2