Survivor: Christian part 1 – Know the Rules

Posted by Christian St John in Faithblogs | 0 comments

You would have to live on a desert island not to have heard of the TV reality game show Survivor, and even then, you’d probably have heard of it. The premise of the show is quite simple, 16-18 people journey to a far off remote place such as the African plains, an island in the middle of nowhere, or the Australian outback, their goal – to be the last person in the game and win $1,000,000.

I don’t want to promote reality TV game shows, as I’m not a big fan, but I want to draw some basic idea’s from a few reality TV game shows to try and provide us with some practical tips for our own survival here on this island we called Earth.

We all face challenges and face trails. We all make decisions that affect us every day. And some days it takes all that we have just to survive. So how do we live through our own survivor experience and come out a winner in the end?

Well my first point that could help us through this maze we call life is, we need to know the rules. In any game it’s always good to know the rules and failure to adhere to the rules ultimately hurt’s someone’s chances of winning and can lead to disqualification.

The contestants on Survivor have a list of rules to follow that prevent them from being eliminated from the competition. These rules include things like, no making deals to share the prize money and participation in all challenge events and activities is mandatory.

Besides that, they also have some common sense rules such as, when collecting firewood, always use a stick to overturn the wood before picking it up, as fallen timber is an ideal habitat for snakes, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, etc. Another common sense rule is to never confront wild animals such as spiders, wild pigs, and snakes. If threatened, they will retaliate; for example, if you walk through a narrow path leading to the river and one of the above is drinking, with no escape route, it will attack.* Both good pieces of advice.

Author Robert Fulgrum wrote a book back in 1989 in which he boldly declared All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. In this humorous book he writes up rules for us to follow in this life. Here are some simple rules that Fulgrum presents in that book: Share everything, play fair, don’t hit people, put things back where you found them, clean up your own mess, don’t take things that aren’t yours, say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody, wash your hands before you eat, flush, warm cookies and cold milk are good for you, live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some, take a nap every afternoon, and when you go out into the world watch out for traffic, stay close, and stick together.

Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all the governments in the world had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are… when you go out into the world, it is best to stay close and stick together.

In Luke 10:25-28 Jesus was asked about the rules of life:

“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”"

Loving the Lord in such a way (with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind) implies that we must first get to know him. I mean, how many of us can truly love someone before we get to know them? Usually we grow to love someone by getting to know them. And the only place we will ever fully learn how to love both God, and others, is by spending time with him in prayer and reading his Word.

So if we are going to be survivors in this life, we first need to know the rules of survival as revealed to us in God’s Word, our instruction manual for life. So let’s crack open The Rule Book and get studying!

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
February, 2009

Picture by RKL and the Survivor website