God’s Infinite Games

I was introduced to the book Finite and Infinite Games [i]by James Carse by the “Games and Game Theory” episode Seth Godin’s podcast Akimbo. The Wikipedia entry on the book has this to say about its content, “There are at least two kinds of games: finite and infinite. Finite games are those instrumental activities - from sports to politics to wars - in which the participants obey rules, recognize boundaries and announce winners and losers. The infinite game - there is only one - includes any authentic interaction, from touching to culture, that changes rules, plays with boundaries and exists solely for the purpose of continuing the game. A finite player seeks power; the infinite one displays self-sufficient strength. Finite games are theatrical, necessitating an audience; infinite ones are dramatic, involving participants…”

The properties of the finite game are essentially why it is so difficult to engage political or economic change as an individual or “regular person.” The rules are different. It is a different game from what we are used to engaging in daily life. The finite game is a reinforcing feedback loop, it is one-upmanship and brinkmanship. It produces the prototypical damped sine-wave cycle, wherein a disturbance causes an oscillation about the goal point that decreases over time. The next disturbance sets up the oscillation again. It is the pursuit of the win. It is the game played by the various institutions, businesses, and even churches that order our reality.

Damped sine wave oscillation

We can only access the infinite game, in other words see a glimpse of God, when we cease trying to win, when we begin to live life for the sake of living life well. This was the Israelite’s problem, the reason that they periodically experienced exile and famine of various types. The Levitical code spells out the processes of life, the means of access to God. It uses the language of rule and regulation, but the living out of every minute rule was never the point. The attempt to live perfectly by the Law was the error of the Pharisees. This is also why means of reconciliation are built into the Law. It cannot be followed perfectly. The Law is death, Jesus is quoted as saying. Salvation cannot come through adherence to the Law. But the Law is all that Israel had.

God showed up, became visible, when Israel was focused on the process of living rather than on achieving the specifics of the Law. When Israel cried out to God during their enslavement in Egypt or their exile in Babylon and elsewhere, God listened, became again present to the people, because the process of their living had become so unbearable that they had no choice but to focus again on that process. They ceased their pursuits of power, wealth, and status – the objectives of the finite game – and refocused on the rhythms and processes of life – the focus of the infinite game. It is in the processes of life, in the cycles and liturgies of everyday existence, and in the relationships in which we experience love that we best find God. No amount of winning, no amount of power, no amount of positioning will enable us to find faith or experience God.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_and_Infinite_Games

On Order

The sixth chapter of Ephesians contains one of the most quoted verses in all of the Bible. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”(Ephesians 6:12) The common interpretation of this verse is that people of faith are in (or should be in) a constant struggle with the systems and forces of this world that seek to usurp God’s order and send us all spiraling into chaos and darkness. 

As appealing as this interpretation is, as comforting as it can be to those of us who seek a sense of order and security, I wonder about the broad idea that our struggle is to (help) create order. For one thing, theologians and social scientists have noted that the “powers and principalities” of the earth, though they create many injustices, still serve to maintain an order that is pleasing to God, or, if not pleasing to God, then at least an order that is broadly beneficial to humanity. If our job, as Christians and as human beings, is to struggle against the powers that create a recognizable version of order, where is God? What order is God trying to achieve and would we even recognize it if we saw it?

Question: Is God’s idea of order as limited as our own?

The motion of particles in a fluid seems disorderly and chaotic to us. This type of movement is called brownian motion and is defined thus, "the erratic random movement of microscopic particles in a fluid, as a result of continuous bombardment from molecules of the surrounding medium." We cannot quantify or predict those movements. But if God is who we say God is, the Creator and sustainer of all things, might it be that God is able to comprehend the patterns in the seemingly chaotic? Might God see order where we do not? Might God understand pattern on a level incomprehensible to humanity? Why then do we limit God’s idea of order to what we can calculate or comprehend?

Brownian Motion: image credit "physics.TutorCircle.com"

Convergence:

I am not advocating for the devolution of society into anarchy, but a less managed society can still be orderly, especially if we expand our imagination of what order can be. A messier set of human relationships, defined by a more equitable distribution of power would indeed more chaotic and far more difficult to manage, but if a greater distribution of power leads to more human flourishing then the cost would be worth it. Where can we loosen things up, slacken the grip of order, efficiency, and organization so that God might do more work in the revealed space?