The Gut Shot

A short article on basic poker strategy offered this advice: "You should.... never ignore your gut. If your intuition tells you to play a hand, play it! It's usually right."

If we had a dollar for every time that was true.... well, sorry, but we wouldn't have many dollars.

There are many reasons for that. For one thing, your intuition can deceive you. We've played in tournaments where we tried a series of "hunches", and almost all of them failed. That only proves....

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. - Proverbs 16:25

Your "right" move can end with you at the rail. Our most recent post had an example of that.

But look at it another way. Other people at your poker table also have "guts." If they all use their different intuitions and decide to get in a hand, can they all be right? It's somewhat like this....

What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." - I Corinthians 1:12

These were four different ideas about living a Christian life - inside a church group! As logical as each faction probably thought it was, could they really all be correct? Proper logic should tell us the answer is no.

Yet if you've explored religious matters at all, you may have run into this. Lots of different faiths claim they're right - and that they're the only way to ultimate success and happiness. But the man who wrote I Corinthians shook off his own faction. Instead, Paul wrote....

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. - I Corinthians 3:11

Paul declared Jesus is the right starting point for building your life (verse 10). He based that not on "guts," but on a personal encounter he had with Jesus years before (Acts 9).

In a poker game, knowing the odds of success with a particular hand can logically tell you whether or not to get in. In the game of eternal life, many have come to see that God, Jesus Christ and the Bible make the most sense spiritually. It can take some digging and asking tough questions, but it's worth it.

As one man once put it: the feeling in your "gut" may simply be that you had the wrong food for dinner. Take of Jesus, the "bread of life" (John 6:48), for the most satisfaction of all.