December was a month full of the movement of God in my life, more so than usual. He stirred my heart with a desire to listen to Him in a deeper way, and when I inclined my ear, He spoke almost non-stop. Over the first weekend of the month, God rocked my world through two revelational messages and a company Christmas party.

One message, by Pastor Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv, challenged us to Obey Irrationally and Give Extravagantly and included this zinger: “Don’t increase your standard of living; increase your standard of giving.” At the end of the message, God poured out his heart to me and spoke new opportunities for my husband and me to irrationally obey and extravagantly give. What’s “interesting” is that in late November we had received news that our financial profile was going to be changing come January; and, because of these changes our budget was going to reflect less income to live on per month than that of 2010. Can you sense the heavens stirring?

The second message came with a two-fold whammy. The first was a prophetic word by Pastor Brady Boyd of New Life Church that set my spirit alight: “God is going to come and whisper a promise to many of you.” Upon hearing this, and without hesitation, I asked God to reveal his promise to me.

A few days later I was in my prayer closet. During my time of worship, I blurted out almost without thought, “What is your promise, God?” and His response came immediately. Then I asked for scripture to confirm this promise and received it just as quickly as I had asked. Would it shock you to know that His promise spoke to ‘who’ He is regardless of our circumstances? Or that the scripture passage not only spoke to “forgetting the past and staying alert and present because he is about to doing something brand-new,” but also promised that he is, “making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wastelands”? (Isaiah 43:19-21) God is so good at continually drawing our focus back to the ‘Who’ and not letting us linger on the ‘what’.

That same December weekend, Anthony and I attended his company Christmas party, which included a casino theme. After our dinner, we were each given $3,000 of fun money. I played on the black jack table and before the night was over my original $3,000 had grown to $300,000!

What I remember so distinctly was my ‘small’ goal to win enough hands to earn one pink chip worth $10,000. Not only was it was the most valuable chip at the table, but it was pink! That so spoke to my girly heart. On the hand where I finally attained the elusive pink chip, I was jumping up and down and making all kinds of noise! One would have thought I believed I was playing with real money. Nope. I just love having fun, and this was a fun moment for me!

And then something happened … one of Anthony’s co-workers had a pink chip of his own. He asked me to bet mine on one hand, and, in turn, he would bet his. I was nervous. I had worked hard for that chip and even though it didn’t really belong to me, I didn’t want to risk losing it on a single hand of black jack. But then Anthony said, “Go big or go home,” and I was in. I was either winning big, or I was out of money. BAM! My hand was a winner! And now, instead of one pink chip I had two.

Feeling brave, I let that pink chip ride. It turns out I had a hand that allowed me a great opportunity to ‘double-down’. I had to put up another $10,000 if I wanted to play it. “Go big or go home,” right? So out came my second pink chip. I could barely look. Again, it was all or nothing. Score! I won $40,000 on that one hand, and the winnings just continued to increase from there. That elusive pink chip grew from one, to five, to 10 and then into 30 because of a decision I had made: I was willing to risk what I had to increase what could be.

Once I moved past the initial fear of that first big hand, the thrill of being able to do it again was contagious. I remember saying how fun it was to be able to venture out where I couldn’t in real life because the money wasn’t mine to begin with. It was all going back to the ‘house’ at the end of the night anyway.

The big moment of the night? Betting $100,000 on a single hand of black jack, not caring whether or not I won it back. By that time I had put so many large bets on the table that it no longer felt right settling on something smaller. I had gone with lesser amounts because that’s all that was in front of me. But now I had stacks of chips, and my opportunities grew in relation to my chips.

Then the sweetest moment of the night was saved for last. No matter how many hands I played, I held onto one pink chip throughout the night. It was my reminder of the small goal I had set for myself compared to what I was actually living. We soon heard of a sweet lady on another table who wanted so badly to win just one pink chip. After my last hand of the night, I walked over and gave her mine. What had seemed so elusive when we started playing was now something I could give away without even blinking. After all, I had been overwhelmingly blessed with 30 pink chips throughout the night, and I wanted her to know the thrill of that first one.

Do you remember that I mentioned a two-fold whammy? Deep into the same message where Pastor Brady spoke the prophetic word about God whispering a promise, he also hit me upside the heart with these words: “All of my chips are on the table. Even when it’s mysterious, risky or dangerous, I’ll say yes.”

As soon as I heard this, Holy Spirit replayed the events at the black jack table and spun a divine parallel between a simple night of fun at a company Christmas party and two points of a pastor’s message … obey irrationally and give extravagantly.

In my heart I walked again the path of emotions of that night: the (almost) terror of letting go of something I had worked (okay … played) hard for; the nervous excitement of making the decision to risk that first pink chip, when it was all or nothing, and the thrill of watching what I was willing to give up not only come back but be doubled, tripled and quadrupled.

Although gambling fun money at a black jack table is not the same as giving to someone in need from your own bank account, their is a beautiful similarity that translates to God’s promises of giving: we have to be willing to let go of that which we’ve worked for and strived to build up because, in reality, it doesn’t belong to us anyway. It belongs to the House.

Babs Coppedge

View More Articles By This Author