When the Game is Over, It all Goes Back in the Box,

When the Game is Over It all Goes Back in the Box, is written by John Ortberg, a pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California. The book was the winner of the 2008 ECPA Christian Book Award.

“How to play the game of life is what this book is about” writes Ortberg in the introduction. Using the image of life as a game, the book takes the reader through different aspects of playing the game - the object (being rich toward God), set-up (keeping score, taking turns, preventing regret), how to play (with rules, gratitude and a mission); hazards (competition, greed, losing) and finally how to win the game.

In teaching us how to play the game Ortberg writes about his own personal experiences and blends these with quotes and anecdotes from psychologists, scientists, journalists, comedians and even film scripts, along with many references to the Bible. Writing this way Ortberg creatively and imaginatively conveys his views and makes them easy to understand and relevant to every day life. The book is also crammed with valuable messages and life lessons; for me, some of the best are:

  • Arrange your life around what matters most. Starting today

  • We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give

  • Spend as much time caring for the inner you as you spend on the outer you

  • You and I were created to have a mission in life. We were made to make a difference

  • Life is a gift, every day is an un-purchased miracle

  • The object of life is to be rich toward God.

Personally I think it’s a fantastic book - it’s well written, easy to read, at times very funny and other times truly moving and sad. It contains so much information that it’s probably best read in small sections, and as Ortberg says in the introduction “feel free to skip around”. In terms of benefiting from it, the book has helped me examine the priorities in my life. However as Ortberg points out, “left to our own devices, we seek all the worldly things”, so for me it’s a book that will need read and re-read when I lose sight of what’s really important and forget “how to play the game of life”.

 

By Sarah

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