Punch Buggy

At our recent Summerscope event the seven-year-old son of the youth minister and one of the kids from the youth group we were hosting were playing punch buggy in the front row of the van. They were doing this every time I took them back and forth between the Casa Verde and the apartment where they were staying, which was at least two round trips per day. Predictably, this was getting really annoying. (I mean, is there a more annoying game in existence? Probably not. Also in Mexico those who do play this game play with only yellow ones because there are so many VW Beetles here. So it’s extra absurd to play punch buggy here!) Plus the kid’s dad had already told them to quit, but he was way in the back of the van and couldn’t monitor it, so I finally told them to stop. I outlawed the game in the van. So about one minute later, or less, I hear them – instead of saying “Blue punch buggy” … “Red punch buggy” – just saying “Blue” … “Red”, etc. and still punching each other! So I asked them if they really thought I was that stupid! As if just because they weren’t saying the words punch and buggy it was any different. Because it wasn’t. They were still playing the exact same game, with the exact same annoying and bruise-producing results. But I had the thought that this is exactly how we act with God when we play the games of religion. We know full well the spirit of the law but manipulate and dance around the letter of the law in order to keep doing what we want to do, all the while knowing it’s not what God desires and not what He has asked of us. We treat God like a fool the same way those guys did to me. And in the case of punch buggy it was kind of funny and mostly harmless, but in the case of our faith life it is just pitiful and sad, and can have devastating results.