If it weren’t for highway billboards I would never know about some really amazing opportunities. Like this one: “The FireKeepers Casino is giving away one Buick every week to a lucky winner!!!”
I’m not a big gambler. I mean, I’ve gone to casinos before. And I’ve taken trips to Las Vegas. But the most I’ve ever done is play slot machines with a roll of nickels. I always lose it all. Even when I win some money, after a while it’s all gone, and then I’m done.
So I don’t have to deal with the gamblers’ compulsion. Or do I? I have plenty of other compulsions that encourage me to spend money. For example, I love decorating my house. I seem to always be “doing something” in an effort to “improve it.” Recently I felt compelled to “improve” my garage. It has been perfectly serviceable for 30 years. Now it looks like I’m parking in a living room. It’s so nice I could take a cup of coffee and sit in there and relax.
“Seek and do not find,” (CoA.Tx.12.VI.1.4) is the outcome, says the Course, when we believe in the form and do not recognize the content. Truth is, by fixing up my garage I’m really just trying to improve the feeling I have when I’m in my house. And isn’t that the same thing a gambler is doing? Trying to improve the feeling they have at any given time? Seeking and trying to find peace in the form and not the content?
And isn’t that what we are all doing, all the time? Gambling in our own FireKeepers Casino, hoping to win one of five Buicks.
(originally appeared in Miracles Weekly #347, July 28 2022)