Chess & Life© 2006 by Peter Jude Fagan
This quote is from: Horowitz, I.A. & Reinfield, F., (1954). Chess Traps, Pitfalls, & Swindles. A Fireside Book. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. p.172. Often when two people come together they do not think of God or His involvement in their meeting. They do not think of God and how He has caused (or allowed) them to come together. If a chess master can have absolute and complete control over the chess board when competing against an amateur, so also does God have absolute and complete control over the lives of humans. If a chess master can prevent two of his or her opponent’s pieces from coming together until such time as he or her wants them together, so also can God prevent two people of this world from coming together until such time as He wants them together. Indeed, no two people or groups of people can meet if God does not want them to do so. To deny this is to deny the power of God over this world. If I may paraphrase from the above: Now we see wherein lies the pleasure to be derived from a chance meeting of two people. It lies in the knowledge that a super intelligent mastermind is behind the scene dominating us amateur humans, and giving us the breath of life. We may regard is as an intellectual delight, equal to that afforded us by the knowledge that behind so many apparently disconnected and seemingly chance events in this physical world lies the one great ruling spirit of God. Many individuals may deny this and say that if God has allowed two people to meet and one or the other should sin, then the sin must be His fault. But this is not true. If there is sin involved, then the sin is the product of the individuals who commit such, not God. God has allowed them to come together for His own good reasons. Our Lord is in control of this world and nothing happens unless He either inspires it or allows it to happen. A classic example of God’s power may be found in the 60s musical Tommy, in the song See Me, Feel Me by The Who. The of the song are a paraphrase of what our Lord said to St. Thomas after His resurrection. Thomas did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead but our Lord appeared to him and said: Then he saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered, and said to him: My Lord, and my God, (Jn.20:27-28). Since then millions of faithful have climbed a mountain of faith and found glory at the feet of Jesus. Life is much like a game of chess. Just as in chess there are different pieces with different powers and abilities, so too in life some people have more power or ability than others. The same ability also applies to countries. Some countries have more power than other countries depending upon their place in time. In chess, the power a player has over his/her opponent is frequently dependant upon their position in time. A person can have many more pieces on the board than their opponent but still have a losing game if his/her opponent’s pieces are more strategically placed. Also, a person can have what appears to be a winning game but still lose if he/she does not have enough time to bring his/her own pieces to the defense of his/her king when it is attacked. The same is true with life. The power a person has is dependant upon their position in time and place. Also, a nation may be a world power at one age but then lose that power to another nation with the rise of a different set of circumstances or the rise of different technology. Finally, in chess one will often finish a game and have pieces that have never moved from their original placement. Some pieces will have advanced only partially into the game, while some pieces will have been moved all over the board and across to the other side. Similarly, in life one will have qualities, character traits, even beliefs from one’s childhood that one will never develop, some qualities one will only partially develop and other traits that one will fully develop. The same may be said of mankind in general. There are some societies that have never developed themselves, other societies have only partially developed and some societies are fully developed. |