“What about using playing cards?” New Era, Sept. 1974, 13–14

“What about using playing cards?”

We should not use playing cards because the prophets of God have counseled against it. That in itself should be sufficient reason to leave them alone. There are, however, other reasons we could consider. The greatest loss of power that we have in this world is the loss that results from the failure of individuals to reach their potential. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps one of the most important is failure to use time effectively.

Life is short at best. Furthermore, no matter who we are, we pass through life but once, and whatever record we make is made forever. Unless we put purpose into our living, the hours can slip by and get away from us without our having very much to show for them. Let us think for a moment or two about the letters of the alphabet. There are only 26 of them in our English alphabet. We can repeat them all frontwards and backwards, but they have no meaning when so used because they have not been put together with purpose or direction. The result is quite different when they are creatively put together, however, and the end product may be great poetry, prose, songs, hymns, scientific papers, and so forth.

Ernest Hemingway once said that he found it necessary to rewrite the opening chapters of his books 45 to 50 times before he felt they were ready for public consumption. By working at it in this way he wrote “easy reading.”

Robert Ripley, the “Believe It or Not” man, once pointed out that “a plain unfinished bar of iron is worth five dollars. This same bar of iron when made into horseshoes is worth $10.50. If made into needles it is worth $355. If made into pen-knife blades it is worth $3,285, and if turned into balance springs for watches, that identical bar of iron becomes worth $250,000.” (Gore Michael, “How to Organize Your Time,” Personal Success Program [Garden City, New York: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., 1959], p. 3.)

As it is with this bar of iron, so it is with time. Many people are able to make horseshoes out of each golden hour of time, but very very few have the ability to make of it balance springs for watches.

Let us keep these things in mind as we think about playing cards. Such an activity can take up a lot of time. When we use our time that way, are we using it effectively? There is some fellowshiping in association with others to be sure, but aren’t there better ways for us to use our limited time?

Let us not overlook the fact that some of life’s greatest accomplishments have been made by men who have used their so-called spare time to develop special talents that they possessed. Einstein was a student of mathematics, trained to be a university teacher. But he could not land a teaching appointment, so he took a job as a routine examiner of patent applications in the patent office of Berne, Switzerland. This allowed him ample leisure time. He devoted it to his special talent for mathematics and in 1905 startled the academic world with the most influential thesis since Newton’s laws of gravity, his special theory of relativity. Buttressed by three other papers that he published at the same time, he reshaped the world’s fundamental approach to physics and fathered the intellectual revolution that has made possible the achievements of nuclear science. He let his talent be his guide. (“How to Use Your Spare Time Effectively,” Personal Success Program [Garden City, New York: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., 1963], pp. 8–9.)

Alexander Graham Bell began as a teacher of teachers of the deaf and thus became interested in the mechanics of speech. When he became professor of physiology at Boston University, he pursued the study of electrical transmission of sound in his spare time and invented the telephone. He had an original idea and devoted his free time to perfecting it. (John S. Bonnell, “Putting Purpose into Your Life,” Pageant, January ca. 1963, p. 100.)

John S. Bonnell wrote an article that was published in Pageant Magazine a few years ago under the title “Putting Purpose into Your Life.” He began by asking the question, “Why do so many people fail to catch hold of the abundant and happy life?” He stated that there are really three reasons: (1) They lack purpose. As Voltaire put it, they are like an oven that is always heating but never cooking anything. (2) They lack staying power. At the first taste of success they begin to slow down, to turn aside, or to falter. (3) They make no genuine effort to correct their faults. (Bonnell, p. 100.)

We all have the same amount of time at our disposal each day we live—24 hours. How are we going to use it? We make that choice because we have our free agency. Let us not squander or waste our days away, for if we do, we will end up with many blanks in our lives where there could have been a rich harvest of worthwhile, satisfying living.