Mike, Tiniki, and Cam

   I play Ruzzle.  It is a game on my phone that is a race against time to see how many words the participant can find in a four-by-four grid.  My daughter Kate showed it to me a while back.  She knows the interest I have in those quick kinds of mental challenges.  When one plays, he is playing against an opponent from somewhere else in the world.  You seldom know who these people are.  Each of us has our "gamer name" (by the way, I am bigdaddio2) and one earns points for various things.  Sixteen letters, two minutes, one opponent, and off you go.
   One fun feature of this game is the chat.  It is a built-in texting program that will allow players to have conversations with other random players.  My daughters and son-in-law make sure that they play me every so often and then the chat becomes a little encouragement mixed in with a little trash talking (although when they call me "Chemo-Brain" I think it is more out of pity than out of ridicule -- at least that is what I would like to think).  Most opponents will use the chat to say things like "nice round" or "great job." Only a few use it to downplay their opponent.
   I have met a few people through chat:

• Mike is an aspiring writer from Missouri who is now praying for me.  He lost his father just about the same time my father died.  We are now Facebook friends.  He has told me he is reading this blog every so often (hi, Mike!)  
• Tiniki is the mother of four little children and she lives in Philadelphia.  She is active in her church and also works with young people.  She just returned from a weekend retreat she said was wonderfully enriching.  She is also praying for me.  
• Cam is not a Christian but a good Ruzzle player.  He lives in Florida and we have just recently started a conversation about cancer and Jesus and things of more importance than Ruzzle.  We will see what comes of that conversation.

   You just never know.  The more I play this game, the more I realize that ultimately it is all just a waste of time.  If I was well, I would probably not be playing very often, but now that I have all of this time on my hands, I find myself playing several times a day.  But then maybe it isn't a complete waste of time after all.  It seems to me that God is so big and so creative that if he wanted to he could even use a game like Ruzzle as a means of building his kingdom.  I wonder if Cam is ready to play...and chat.  We'll see.