On a recent trip to Vegas, I stumbled upon a life lesson. I certainly didn’t go to learn about life. I went to celebrate a huge task being over. The lesson came from the obscurest of places… a slot machine. I had the worst luck while I was there. If I touched a machine, it would just take my $20 and stop winning. My stupidity was that I kept thinking that I would play that machine over and over, thinking eventually I’d hit something that would, at least, give me my money back, so I could walk away thinking, No harm done. However, it never came.
There is a statistical law that I learned about in college. The law states that everything must eventually balance out. If you flip a coin 100 times and you (miraculously) get heads every time, then should you flip it 100 more times you’ll hit tails. The odds will always win, no matter how much of a “streak” you think you ride. This law was my motive for staying at that losing machine. Eventually, I’ll start winning.
However on the last day there, I realized something. Life is a slot machine. Not the fair-balanced, statistically-sound slot machine of my dreams, but the one that seems to never stop loosing or never stop winning. Life is a machine of streaks, and though we’d love to believe that it all balances out, it doesn’t. You may never win. You may never loose. You may be at the highest of highs one minute, but that next pull may take you down to the bottom. You may think all is lost and then instantly you’ve got all your money back and them some. You may be (contentedly) just breaking even. What’s worse, is you may be stuck at a loosing machine in which you’ve invested your trust money for hours then give up and walk away, and the old lady that’s been machine-lurking you sits at the machine you were just playing and gets 5 wilds on the first pull.
The point is that you can’t let life’s unpredictability or imbalance keep you from playing at all. If you don’t risk anything you’ll never know how much it’s all worth. Sure, you’ll go through slumps and streaks, but the idea is to relish those winning streaks so much, that you can remember to keep trying when winning seems like a distant memory.
I write this blog after a series of slumps. Important slumps. Slumps that taught me lessons, that made me value life, and appreciate that I can’t control my circumstances. Shortly put, I’ve learned to trust the Lord, and let life throw at me what it may. This is a new day, though. I stand on the eve of new things, and in this new chapter I’ve decided to risk more, fear less, and love harder. Sure when you risk more, you may loose more, but you also may win more too. I just refuse to live my life afraid.
