Double Down

To double down in Black Jack is to continue your current play but to increase your bet, hoping the next card will be a winner.  It is a good strategy if you hold the right card.  It is a terrible one if your cards are anything less.

In politics, to double down is to keep moving in the same direction, digging in deeper, raising the stakes, so to speak.  And, if you are on the right track, it is a good play to make.  But, if you are going off the rails, it is a train wreck waiting to happen.

Last night, as I watched the New Hampshire primaries play out, I noticed that nearly everyone was claiming a vindication of their message - a win in some manner regardless of percentage of votes garnered.  They each seemed to believe that they just needed to keep presenting the same message, only raise the stakes.

In actuality, there was only one winner on the right and one on the left, the rest actually lost, reflecting the fact that the voters were not buying the message delivered, the deliverer of the message or both.  In any case, to simply ignore what the voters were saying and continue pressing forward seems to indicate the insular world that politicians tend to live in.  Reminds me a bit of Little Johnnie's mother who commented on the marching band saying, "Look at that.  Everyone's out of step except my Little Johnnie!"

Jesus said of the insular hypocrites of his day, "they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn" (Matt 13:15).  It seems our politicians have a similar problem.

But, before we pass judgment on the hypocrites and the politicians (is that redundant?), perhaps we ought to take a look at our own lives.  Are we really open to hear the truth, to turn from our waywardness or are we set in our ways, insulated from the Word of God and fact-based warnings of others.

Many smokers still insist it really isn't hurting them.  Gambling addict often believe they have it under control all the way to losing everything.  Junkies started out just experimenting with the very drugs that result in their expiration.  Marriages are destroyed by "harmless" Internet chatting.  All along the way, people who care are warning and God's Word was calling but they or we were not hearing being too busy doubling down on the path to destruction.

What about you?  Is there a passage of Scripture that you are avoiding because it doesn't resonate with your choice?  Are there friends and family trying to talk to you about something that just makes you angry and you shut them off?  Is there something in your life that you just don't want to take a close look at or peer down the road to see where it might end?  Is it possible that you are doubling down on the wrong cards?  Jus' Ask'n.