Open Letter To Dennis

I was googling some info about chess strategy the other night when I stumbled across a really interesting blog post by a guy called Dennis M (namely Dennis M's Chess Site). 

The post was entitled "Christians Can Play Chess... at least some of them, under certain circumstances". I don't want to try and describe the post in too much depth for fear of mis-representing it, I recommend anyone who's interested to follow my link and check it out.

A loose paraphrase is - Its a post questioning, exploring and discussing the validity or moral position of being a Christian who plays chess. Dennis seemed to be arguing that although there can be arguments made for the beauty of the game, and for its strength in bringing people together that the main reason people play chess is to win, or to put it better, playing chess engenders competition and the urge to be better than someone else, therefore being "un-christian".

This was really interesting for me as I'm both a Christian and a someone who has just started developing an interest in chess. Also this is the sort of question that I plague myself with constantly. Is this or that behaviour Christian? Is this or that activity more or less christian?

When I read Dennis' post I had a strong reaction to it. I wanted to talk to him about it and wrote a comment back immediately. Unfortunately I wasn't a member of blogger at that point and therefore wasn't allowed to comment. So now that I am a blogger member I went back to comment and realised that the post on Dennis' site was four years old and that year he had stopped blogging on blogger and setup a new blog on another site. I didn't think it would be very relevant trying to post to the old site or even his new site for that matter. Dennis would have moved on by now. But I still wanted to say what i had said to myself and written down that morning. As i realised after I had written it that it was important to me. Maybe if there's another Christian out there ( or non Christian) who feels the same as me and if they read this, maybe they won't feel alone.

So anyway, below is what i wrote down in notepad at 3 am that morning after reading Dennis' post.

I've left it as I wrote that morning, as although I'm sure I could check up on some bible dictionaries and think it through more clearly and come up with a more theologically sound response I really felt what I was writing and for once I want my heart to win out over my head:

The most important thing as Christians is that we love God and love Jesus with all our hearts and minds.

Jesus is not calling anyone to be perfect. Jesus loves us in our imperfect, messed up world. That is what makes the Gospel of Jesus so amazing. The love and the grace and the fact that we can't earn it or lose it.

It is patronising to God to try and take it on ourselves as humans to judge the validity of competition and all competitive sport/games as "Christian" or "non-Christian". God created us, and chess and he created in us the desire to compete. People have been competing for thousands of years and not, do I believe, to the general detriment of good will or love. I love my girlfriend deeply and even know that she is fragile and a bit prone to being sensitive when it comes to competition. But if she wants to play a game of chess with me, even though I know losing will hurt her feelings (not saying that I always win or anything), I will still play competitively and still love her. These things aren't mutually exclusive. 

I don't think God wants us to drain all passions from ourselves - walking around as complimenting, smiling, polite robot drones from some pleasantville nightmare. 

God knows the darkness in us. He knows our worries and loves and the things that we are passionate about. He wants us to walk towards the light but he wants us to be real, to be fully human. The most complete revelation of God ever to have occurred was in a form both fully human and fully divine. We don't move closer to divinity by denying our humanity. 

I don't know if this ramble is making much sense. It's 3 am over here in Australia. I just came back from a concert where I danced to loud music and laughed and jumped up and down and was overwhelmed by fantastic rock music and walked away a person who still loves God and is amazed by the beauty that God creates in this world. 

I want to give my life to God and to my church - I also want to live a life full of love and praise, and not anxiety and pedantry. I hope that doesn't sound to harsh. I have an anxious disposition myself and tend to get anal about lots of things and worry that I'm not being a good enough person for God. Maybe I needed to write this for myself as much as anyone else.

Much love to all you wonderful people on this blog.

"Do not owe people anything, except always owe love to each other, because the person who loves others has obeyed all the law."

Romans 13:8