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Tetris is a crazy game! Play it too long and the ever-changing, multi-colored grid superimposes itself on your surroundings, stirring the exasperating need to fill every existing gap you come across and pack everything together tightly. Suddenly, the spaces between houses need telephone poles, and clouds change shape too slowly.

It’s maddening!

The same goes for politics, a crazy game if ever there was one! Click on too many links or watch too much news coverage and the viewpoints and panic of others superimpose themselves on your reality. Neighbors become political opponents, and the “change” potential leaders promise just can’t come quickly enough, stirring within you the need to be heard and to win at all costs.

It’s maddening in the truest sense! And that’s the problem.

I suppose those who truly believe that their best chance for peace and happiness exists here on earth are justified in playing King of the Mountain, pushing, shoving, and wounding to get what they want for themselves and those they care about while they still can, but those of us who have placed our eternal hope in Jesus Christ have more important matters to attend to. We simply cannot allow the frenzy and confusion of right now to blur our eternal focus or to jeopardize our God-given mission to win souls for the Kingdom by inciting us to behavior that doesn’t represent Jesus correctly (2 Cor. 5:17-20).

So, how do you fight the tide?

Well, those who play Tetris know that the only way to quit seeing shapes after a binge is to play a different game altogether.

Want to shake the nausea caused by the ever-changing, multi-party political current? Unplug. Power off. Exit out.

Fix your eyes on the Father. Immerse yourself in His Word. View the world from His perspective and focus on what you know to be true; that there are no ‘sides’ in the Kingdom, as we are all just sinners in need of grace; that the only change that will ever make a real and lasting difference in the world is the transformation that Jesus brings about in the hearts and lives of individuals who put their faith in Him for eternal salvation from the consequences of sin; and that the only message that simply MUST be communicated is the Gospel.

Remember, brothers and sisters, we serve a sovereign God who is more than capable of sorting out and settling the playground disputes of mankind. Let that calm your spirit.

If anything stirs your heart, let it be the plight of those who have not yet put their faith in Jesus. If anything compels you to action, let it be His love.