What Candy Land Taught Me About Faith

“For when the One Great Scorer comes
To mark against your name,
He writes—not that you won or lost—
But how you played the Game.”

~from “Alumnus Football” by Grantland Rice

We entered a fun new era in our home when our youngest turned four this summer. As he learns his letters and numbers, our little guy is excited to join in the family pastime of playing board games.

For many of these games, he remains part of a team with a parent patiently teaching him the rules and making sure the older siblings don’t take advantage of his novice. And with minor coaching, he can play a few games nearly independently. He beams with pride as he matches cards in UNO or flips a matching pair in Memory. He loves to play just about any game, but his excitement overflows for Candy Land.

He carefully chooses his favorite color gingerbread figure, which changes daily. He slowly matches his moves on the board to what he sees on the card. Cheers ensue when he gets a double move card or one of the coveted character cards.

Then, my baby’s emotions dramatically turn the other way when he gets a card that moves him back instead of forward or he misses a turn while others continue to play. We empathize with his frustration and remind him it’s all just a part of the game.

As we were playing a particularly long round recently, my eyes began to glaze over from boredom. But then I refocused on the full frame of the board: the long, curvy path to the castle, the shortcuts, the interesting stops along the way, and the sticky licorice tar pits. A quiet, bittersweet chuckle escaped my lips when I realized how much faith journeys resemble a Candy Land board.

My faith became my own after a season of treating my body more like a dumpster than a temple, a time of substance abuse and promiscuity in college, trying to fill an emptiness only God was meant to fill. Like the happy children pictured at the start of the board, I was ready and excited to start down a new path leading to wholeness, leaving behind the way of brokenness.

I moved along the road, square by square. My squares took the shape of steps toward discipleship: confession and renouncing the sins of my past, participating in a Bible study group, regularly attending church. Occasionally, I hit a Rainbow Trail, a single event moving me leaps and bounds forward in my faith. Serving has been one of those faith boosters for me. After years of consistent progress, I felt like the lithe, beautiful Princess Frostine gracefully skating on Snow Flake Lake, getting close to winning at this thing called faith.

Few things will deflate a Candy Land player as much as drawing a card with a gingerbread man or candy cane just as he or she is rounding the corner to the castle. Our faith journeys are filled with setbacks and swamps where we feel defeated and stuck. These are the hard places where faith goes to grow or die. My swamps have included loneliness, depression, health issues, and loss. Suddenly I was back at the beginning, no castle in sight.

If we dwell on them, disappointment, depression, and bitterness can take over our hearts. But if we acknowledge them as part of the journey, with lessons to be learned and more road ahead, we can make it out of these hard places. We may have a few scars, but we will also have new perspective. And just as in the game, when we feel defeated, and in the mire, the best thing to do is to draw the next card and take the next step right in front of us.

Candy Land and faith differ in some important ways, however. Unlike Candy Land, our faith journeys will not be complete this side of heaven. We will face troubles much more frightening than Lord Licorice. Sometimes we stay in one place in our faith for long seasons until God is ready for us to move on.

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The great news is we have a coach with us each step of the way, someone who walked the dusty, rocky roads of this life, tasting the bitter and the sweet. The Bible tells us he is with us even in the darkest valley, through the most dangerous and terrifying places on our journey (Psalm 23:4 NIV). Keep walking the road of faith, knowing you’re in the best of company with a coach holding your hand in all the highs and lows. He will see you through to a winning finish.

Lindsay Hufford is a happy wife and homeschooling mom to three kids. Whether she is reading, running, gardening, teaching, cooking, dancing, writing, or chasing hens, she counts it all as joy. Lindsay writes about this beautiful life at searchforthesimple.com.