The Counting Game

Last week I was in Kansas at a Young Life staff conference for our old people in their mid 30's and above. We spent some time looking at John 4 and the story of the "woman at the well."

What hit me was that the story begins with some religious people getting their panties in a twist about the number of people who are going to Jesus. All these "good" people were turning up to be baptized and it was putting the religious establishment's nose seriously out of joint. So Jesus packs up the revival meeting and moves on. He heads to a community of people that doesn't count and then talks to the person who counts least in that community. The narrative sweeps from a traditional culturally religious scene to a counter cultural experience with those outside tradition.

When I was a kid back in Ireland when we played games there was a constant cry in almost any game we ever played. "That doesn't count!" It meant that whatever just happened couldn't be counted as a point towards winning the game. A heated debate would then ensue to determine whether it did indeed "count."

I think so many of us wonder who and what counts. And if we ever reach a point of confidence in the fact that we do indeed count, then we join the counters, those who determine who else counts.
Last week I was delighted to have some serious "counters" tell me that I count and even should be considered a counter in my own right.

But since then I've been wrestling with the uncomfortable realization that the only people who counted things in the Bible were the bad guys. Big black hats, curly moustaches and some handy rope near a railroad track.
I wonder what life would be like if I just stopped evaluating everyone else and quit the counting game.

What do you think? Are you someone who counts? Do you think there is a counting game in life? If there is should we quit playing?