Apparently a considerable number of people met their Maker when playing poker in the old Wild West.

What we can learn from this?
Although the evidence is sketchy, it is generally accepted that Hickok’s hand was all black suites made up of the ace of spades, ace of clubs, eight of spades and eight of clubs, a dark hand indeed. There are many claims as to what the fifth card was and it may have been discarded. What is certain is that Bill had drawn or was drawing his final card when he was shot dead. We all have a final hand to play and a final card to draw whether in life or death it is an “ALL-IN” play that demands a choice. It doesn’t happen by chance.

According to legend the hand of cards in question is cursed and a foreboding of death. It causes one to pause never the less. The truth is that when dealing with life situations, circumstances, compulsions, addictions and sin we are dealing with the unknown; we are powerless. We have the devil breathing at our neck and the abyss in front of us. The future is beyond our control. At this point the solution to life comes down to the spiritual.

You face a conundrum and a paradox your choice is a cross road fraught with factors, odds, runs of luck, hesitancies and hedges. Do you come to believe and turn from your old ways? Or do you continue following the path of insanity, feeding your compulsion by doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result.  Whatever you choose the cost is significant.  The factor facing you is supernatural, because you bet your life.

Everyone has a life-or-death decision to make. We have all been created by our Maker with the supreme privilege of free will, the ability to choose. Even when we are in the bondage of our addictions, we still have choices confronting us. When we are in a new life of recovery. It is a “one-day-at-a-time” choice to deny the temptation and the tug of being pulled back into our addictions. The freedom to choose brings with it the burden of the consequences and the responsibilities of our choices good or bad. These choices affect our life and the lives of those around us.

God spoke through Moses, saying, “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death. I have commanded you today to love the LORD your God and to keep his commands, laws, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and the LORD your God will bless you. But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, … then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed …. Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live! Choose to love the LORD your God and to obey him and commit yourself to him, for he is your life” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).

Although you may feel out of control and powerless with respect to your addictions, whether gambling, alcohol, drugs, habits or hang-ups. You can choose to set a new course in the direction of your life. You can choose God and begin to follow His path, plan and purpose should you choose this path to change you will be restored and recover.

If you are willing to consider or choose to change; return to the home page and choose the winning hand.

-Allin