"Are You All In?"

At congregation this week, Rabbi brought up a message that we had both heard while we were on eXperiance Israel in Yerushalayim about Texas Hold'em. The point was that when watching Texas Hold'em, you see one of the players will get really excited, stand up, push all of his chips into the center of the table and say, "I am all in!" if you watch them, they will pace, they will think about it, they will get excited, and they will wait for the outcome in the belief that they will win out in the end. So we were challenged, "Are you all in?" With this question, I began to consider the meaning of this in my life. I had to give up to G-d all of the bastions of the World and the Flesh that I hold so dear, but like the card player who wanted to win big, I knew I had to let it all go and have faith in the Messiah and my relationship. I would go all in. Immediately His voice was telling me this and that and this to get out of my life. There was excitement on His side and I felt like I was finally going to do something right! After asking Him to slow down for my weakness, I have started to delete chunks of sinful hideaways. There has been the obvious: Korn, Tool, A Prefect Circle, and the hidden, Facebook and Myspace. but here I am on the journey to put all those chips in! I feel I finally have a solid direction and a family supporting my success and failures. I look forward to the journey almost as much as I do the destination!