Chess

You're no doubt familiar with chess. You know the old game of chess. Well, think about this. God likes to use people like pieces on a chessboard. He moves you forward two squares so that knight up in the right corner can swoop down to you in an L and bless your day. While the queen off to your left presents you with a challenge that grows your character. And the pawn you sidled up beside cries out to you for help on a project. Just imagine if every person you came across every day were a piece on the chessboard of life. That means that they were meant to be where they were when you came across them on the square that they were on. And you came across them for a very specific, preordained, providential reason. No coincidences. Master of chess, controlling the game. Now, I live my life through that lens. For example, if somebody randomly pops into my head, it isn't just random. I'm supposed to call them or text them to check in. If a book falls from my shelf and lands on the floor by my feet, I pay attention to that and I open the book. Might be nothing. Might be something. Usually it's something. If a magazine I'm flipping through contains a raw cashew lemon cheesecake recipe that I just can't seem to take my eyes off of, it's not a suggestion I should think about making cheesecake, but rather a kind of commandment that has become part of God's chess game of life. And I'm supposed to make cheesecake. I was meant to make cheesecake on my own. Life. And the lives of others will be better because of the experience of learning, preparing, and observing with gratefulness and pride when my family gathers around the dinner table to sink a fork into Dad's moist, luscious, freshly made cashew lemon cheesecake. Which, by the way, if you were just paying attention, not a coincidence. It's not superstition. People laugh at this kind of stuff. We live in a magical world. It's chess, so pay attention. Everything happens for a reason. You're in a board. Pay attention to the square that you're on right now. It'll pay off.