[Card Talk and Game Commentary]

 “Add more positive cards,” They said.

“Remember the Bible talks about happy things too,” They said.

“Report on God’s redemption of a broken world,” They said.

“Give people Canon Cards that have a measure of hope in them,” They said.

So we did. 

And They thought we were making a crude a sexual pun. (Seriously? We just can't win). But there are two things we want to say here, one about the game and one about this card. 

I. It's all how YOU play the game

The statements above were actually made while we were beta testing the original game. Our intended purpose with this card was to include more of those good, holy, nice things mentioned above. However, the fact that some read this in a sexual way illustrates a portion of the critique raised by the good people at GameChurch in their review of the game, “A Game That *Might* Make You a Better Christian”. This is something we want to speak to at present.

Game play requires that you, the player, make determinations on how you view the card: which Canon Card you play, which one you choose as the Pharisee, but also how you interpret the meaning of the card. We can't control that. We didn’t tell you to match “What do Good Christians wait until marriage for?” with “Accidentally sleeping with your sister-in-law” (Genesis 29) or “A little sister with no breasts” (Song of Solomon 8:8). 

This is really no different than how you read the Bible without the influence of the game. In community, how do you view the Word in your hands? In community, how do you interpret the cards, and what is the conversation you have as a result? 

Our cards are not “cherry picking the dirt of the Bible,” or “attacking fundamentalist,” or “finding all the sexual puns in the Bible,” or one of the host of other inaccurate things one might say about the game. 

This game presents the Bible whole-hog, warts, smooth skin, and all. They are often chosen to point out passages that Bible-believing (supposedly reading) Christians are unaware of, and once they see them, they must deal with them. 

We present the cards. You decide what you will do with them. 

II. There can be happiness at daybreak

This card speaks to something that we all need to remember: Hope and Joy.

As we have written about, many time, there are myriad reasons we can cry out in lament. It can seem, feel, like our lives are one crisis after another. That we are merely creatures of chaos, waiting for the phone to ring, signaling our next tragedy.  

But this card takes its content from a  Psalm of praise.  A poem wherein the speaker remembers how God rescued him from a time of trouble. A song singing of salvation from "sheol," "the pit," "evil," "enemies," and all the typical ills that befall psalm writers. 

But this is also what we like to call a "bribery psalm"-- the writer attempts to offer God something in return for His divine favor:

“What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the Pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me!
O Lord, be my helper!” (vs 9-10)

No matter how you look at it, this card was included in the game as a reminder that things get better. 

We fall down only to rise up. 

Our souls can be in the depths death, but we can still be restored to life.

Mourning can be turned into dancing; funeral clothes traded for wedding attire.

A night filled with tears can be dried by the joyous light of the morning Son/sun.

So that our souls may praise and not be silent. That we may give thanks forever.

World Without End. 

But what do we know: we made this game and you think we’re trying to bring you to Hell with us.