A Stupid Mistake

“All chess masters have on occasion played a magnificent game and then lost it by a stupid mistake, perhaps in time pressure and it may perhaps seem unjust that all their beautiful ideas get no other recognition than a zero on the tournament table." Bent Larsen

I read this right after losing a chess game because of a stupid mistake. The game itself was hardly “magnificent”, though I hope it had some merit. The mistake was stupid. The sad thing is that I analyzed the move a few times before making it; I probably over analyzed it, made it over complicated, and in so doing made the stupid move; and so I resigned. The move didn’t have a good feel to it but I made it anyway, this made the move all the more stupid. I should have trusted my instincts that there wasn’t something quite right about the move.

Well, the good news is that it was only a chess game. But how many times are beautiful ideas and beautiful plans wrecked in life because of a stupid mistake? It can take only a few seconds, a few minutes, for a life to unravel because of selfishness, sin, thoughtlessness, or inattention. Sometimes the unraveling may not be readily apparent, sometimes it may take days or months or years for the fruit of the stupidity to be fully manifested.

In chess a loss is a loss. In our society we don’t like to think of a loss being a loss, of sin being a sin, of stupidity being stupidity. We are masters of the spin and gloss, experts in the excuse and rationalization. Thank God for redemption and forgiveness in Jesus Christ – the loss is still the loss, the sin is still the sin – Jesus does not gloss over what we have done, He does not put a spin on our transgressions; He died so that we might be forgiven and come into a relationship with God our Father – and in calling a sin a sin and turning from sin to follow Jesus we experience forgiveness and new life. We often must continue to live with the consequences of our stupidity and sin…such is life…the hands of time cannot be turned back. But there will come a time when there will be no time…and then we will know the purity of life and conscience and peace that we were always meant to know…that will be beautiful…most beautiful…then there will be no more stupidity, no more stupid mistakes.