Games People Play – Monopoly - 25th June 2008

This is one of my favourite games and has been around a long time. You can now get ‘town/city’ versions of Monopoly – I was given the Coventry version some time ago where the stopping places on the board were all Coventry places working from the rough end of town to the posh part – an innovative marketing effort I thought.

Monopoly is without doubt a game for capitalists. The sole aim is to gather as much wealth as possible and seek to take other players out the game by buying their assets as they run out of cash.

A game along a similar theme came out a few years ago called ‘Game of Life’ – it had a more fixed ending but you either ended up rich or poor – the difference being that there was the opportunity for poor people to take money off the rich people by using a ‘share the wealth’ card to get some of the cash.

As I write this I have been flicking through the Casa Reom blog and I read Martin’s comments about how people have so little and yet are so happy. I am sure there is much we can all learn from that, but to have physically seen it must make it even more real.

Jesus teaching on this was pretty clear – “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” Matthew 19:23-25.

So it makes me ask the question – does having things and “stuff” make me happy? I would like the answer to be yes, and some of the things I have certainly make my life easier, but happy? Not so sure.

One of the things I enjoy doing is giving things away. We try and recycle stuff we don’t need and we list it on Freecycle – can I recommend it to you if you haven’t seen it before – giving things I don’t need to people who need them makes me feel better about myself and that in a small way, I am contributing to the kingdom.

Today’s ending is this – is there something you can do that is going to make someone else’s life better? If so, can I encourage you to do it?