Rules of the Con

"You can never con an honest man"

"We cannot be robbed of God's providence." This was one of the common sayings in the household of Thomas Carlyle.

Benjamin Warfield said of this statement, "In it, the plummet is let down to the bottom of the Christian's confidence and hope. It is because we cannot be robbed of God's providence that we know, amid whatever encircling gloom, that all things shall work together for good to those that love him.

It is because we cannot be robbed of God's providence that we know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ -- not tribulation, nor anguish, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword.

'For over us there curves the infinite

Blue heaven as a shield, and at the end

We shall find One who loveth to befriend

E'en those who faint for shame within his sight.'"

Craig Harris of the Herald Press in Palestine, TX once wrote about God taking care of his wife in a medical situation. Craig remarked that one of his friends said to him “Yeah, God takes care of the righteous.” He replied with, “No, God takes care of the simple.”

Isn't that so true?

It reminds me of BBC's (and in the States, AMC's) great show Hustle.

In the show, an ensemble of players from card shark to accident victim to pickpocket, work for master inside man Mickey Stone (Adrian Lester). Stone, a well-dressed smoothie, imparts Solomon-like commandments - "don't have anything you can't walk away from in a minute" - to his team-members.

As Albert Stroller, former "Man From U.N.C.L.E." star Robert Vaughn finds the marks; those who need a bit of seducing are placed in the path of Stacie Monroe (Jaime Murray), who also works as an identity thief. Ash Morgan (Robert Glenister) and Danny Blue (Marc Warren) handle surveillance, disguises and execution of plans that make the victim feel like he's made a bad investment rather than been swindled.

The cons are more addicted to the grift than the riches; they're likable thieves who watch each other's backs. It's easy to cheer for them as they walk away from a convoluted illegal stock purchase gone wrong with £100,000 ($176,000) to share. Or when they create a movie star (Monroe) and a mogul (Blue) to get revenge on a casino owner who wronged Stroller. Blue is the student in the crew, and his screw-ups help humanize the operation.

While the slick overtures and fluidity of plot are impressive, what is more intriguing is the philosophy often espoused by Stone; 'Rules of the Con.'

The first, being "You can never con an honest man."

This philosophy is not only helpful toward softening the blow of the actual grift, but it also embodies a deeper truth: The honest man is somehow, in some deeper, intrinsic way -- protected.

He is immune from the con. And in Season One, Episode Three, when an honest mark (victim) is accidentally conned, the team pulls off a separate con, just to pay the honest mark back.

As I observed this philosophy in action on the show, the thought crossed my mind, "God takes care of the simple."

Scripture is profuse with the concept that God's children have a special providence over them, watching out for more than their physical well-being. The psalmist recognizes this truth when he cries out for deliverance in the psalms, entreating God to deliver him from the oppressor.

And true, while we know that we will not always be kept from physical maladies, it is an encouragement to know that when the spiritual grift is underway, we have honesty & providence on our side, and that, according to the rules, will keep is safe.

Christianity & Nintendo
The Wii, the Truth & The Life

The Wii (pronounced "we") has been outselling its more powerful rivals, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. The $250 machine from Nintendo has been in short supply in stores since its launch last November.

But less hype, and more on why Christianity today, is much like the Wii...

1. Sometimes we break it

Statistics say that as high as 35% of Wii owners who bought before the wrist-straps were re-issued, were slinging their Wii remotes across the room, 12% of them damaging either the controller, or something in the room.

Statistics also say that more than 50% of so-called "Christian" homes will experience a major relationship breakdown at some point, including divorce, abuse, or suicide. The similarities here are staggering.

Are we making sure we are strapped to our "controller?" What about our Bibles? Strapped to our wrists? Not usually. What about our Faith? Strapped? Not usually. Or, if so, the cord holding us to these things is so thin it will snap when confronted by a small amount of pressure.

Solution: Get a new wrist-strap, and hang on (Discard the sham, embrace the Truth)

2. Sometimes it's a little shaky

Unless you're pointing the Wii controller directly at the screen in some RPG's or first-person shooters, you will experience the dizzying spin known as the "Wii-free." Although some games (including Capcom's only Wii release) have overhauled their shooter-control system, Wii is still less popular in this area, especially to lazy shooters.

Similarly, our lives somtimes spin out of control, but this is only when we are not pointing at the main Thing. If we keep our focus on Christ, we'll never experience the Wii-free, we will always be on target, and (excuse the pun) at the top of our game. Maybe, for many of us, it's time to overhaul our system; re-focus, and get our priorities straight.

Solution: Keep your focus on the game, don't be distracted ("Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us")

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"Please. Just listen. I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing. I know why you hardly sleep, why you live alone and why, night after night, you sit at the computer; you're looking for him...The answer is out there, Neo. It's looking for you and it will find you..."

In an essay on the official Matrix Web site, proto-cyborg Kevin Warwick complains about the movie's man-versus-machine approach to technology. "Neo is kidnapped by Luddites, dinosaurs from the past when humans ruled the earth," Warwick writes. "We really need to clamp down on the party-pooper Neos of this world and get into the future as soon as we can—a future in which we can be a part of a Matrix system, which is morally far superior to our Neolithic morals of today."

Slate.com asks, 'Is Warwick right? After all, if Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo succeed in their quest to liberate humanity from the machines, we'll all be left to eat slop in the dreadful real world of post-apocalyptic earth, rather than becoming fashionista superheroes in the fake world. What kind of liberation is that?

Fortunately, Neo's closing lines in the movie offer a way out of this dilemma. He addresses the machines that have enslaved humanity, and he offers them an olive branch: "I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you, a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

The implication is clear: Neo wants machines and men to coexist in peace. He doesn't want to destroy the Matrix. He just wants people to understand it so they can play with it and enjoy it as much as he does. He's an evangelist for the product.'

Similarly, we desire men to abandon imaginary faith, fanciful religion, and super-imposed realities of God, and to know the real God. However, this is often mistaken for a desire to eliminate God, rather than to scrape down past the false realities and get to the original Thing...the Prime Meaning.

Just as Trinity writes to Neo, "The answer is out there...It's looking for you...and it will find you."

Do we honestly believe in a God who is big enough to transcend the material reality around us? A God who is so far beyond us, that it makes our super-imposed existence of dry, dusty religion, a matrix of our own invention? This God's reality is the True reality.

It is the only thing worth fighting for...the only thing worth dying for. And he is searching for those whom he will draw to himself. He will find them out, and bring them from the system, and liberate them. He will welcome them to the real world and unite them in a common cause against the machines of deception.

Then, the liberated can laugh at the materialistic agents of this world and say, "I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell how it's going to begin. I'm going to...show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules or controls, borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible."

Matthew 19:26