Skin In The Game

By John Stallings


We hear the term “skin in the game” bantered about these days, but what exactly does it mean?

Renowned investor Warren Buffet coined the metaphorical phrase, referring to a situation in which high-ranking insiders use their money to buy stock in the company they are running.

The idea behind “skin in the game” is to ensure that corporations are managed by like-minded individuals who share a stake in the company. Executives can talk all they want but the best vote of confidence is putting one’s own money [skin] on the line just like outside investors.

You may remember president Obama using the phrase during an interview with George Stephanopoulos. The statement was made in relation to the economy & his feeling that everyone was going to have to have skin in the game, i.e. - be willing to make sacrifices for the benefit of the nation.

Of course the skin of which Obama speaks is money we’ll all have to contribute whether we like it or not.

Many things went wrong in the run up to the American housing bust but the rapid growth in little or no down payment loans was without a doubt one of the biggest contributors to the crash. The lack of “skin in the game” altered homeowner’s attitudes & also meant zero breathing room standing between them & serious financial trouble, & putting them one emergency away from foreclosure or bankruptcy.

SPORTS

If you are a sports fan, you will know that at any sports event there are two groups of people; the fans in the bleachers & the players on the court or field. You will also know that one of the major differences between the players & the fans is; the players have skin in the game. While the fans pay the price of a ticket to gain admission to the event, they have nowhere near the investment the players have.

The big difference in players & fans is-- bruises, cuts, torn ligaments & sometimes much more serious, even life-altering & life-threatening injuries. Players have skin in the game, [to put it mildly.]

I remember seeing a football game years ago on T.V when a player was so torn up they patched him up on the sidelines & sent him back into the game with blood seeping through the bandages.

WHEN JESUS ALMOST LOST HIS LUNCH

Jesus created this universe with His word. He made every cell in our bodies, every microbe, every elephant, every petunia, & every asteroid. Jesus is sovereign ruler over all creation. But this majestic Jesus, this almighty God, this transcendent creator, this redeemer who defied death, can still get sick to His stomach.

According to Revelation chapter three, the Laodicean church almost made Jesus lose His lunch or as we say, throw-up. This church had accumulated much wealth. They needed nothing & had pushed Jesus into the periphery of their lives. Jesus saw that their possessions had become a key stumbling block to them, so much so that their love for Him had cooled. They no longer had skin in their game.

Jesus told these Lackadaisical Laodiceans in essence, “You guys think you’ve become “all that” but you’d better invest in the gold that I have & trade in your Brooks Brothers suits for a white robe of servant hood. You need to get some of my eye-salve & put it on your eyes so you can really see, then repent & get your act together & get on fire for God again.”

Not only did Jesus find Himself on the periphery of this church, it got so pronounced He actually found Himself outside the church.

There’s a parable-type story of a bum who wanted to go to church. He chose a big down-town church & went in & sat down. It wasn’t long before some of the affluent church folk complained about his unkempt appearance & less than pleasant odors coming from his direction. The ushers escorted the man to the back door & gave him the old “bums-rush” & he ended up sitting on the curb in front of the church. As he sat there feeling sorry for himself, Jesus came & sat down beside him & said, “Don’t feel bad, I’ve been trying to get into that church for years myself.”

Who can forget that famous picture of Jesus standing outside the Laoicean church knocking on the door? They had shoved Him out of His church. Maybe He’d gone outside to lose His lunch, I don’t know. This Laodicean bunch is a type of the end-time or present day church. The last time I checked, the survey said 18% of church goers are carrying the financial load of the church so it would seem that few have skin in the game when it comes to the work of God.

When you walk into a church you walk on tither’s carpet & sit on tither’s pews. Tither’s air-conditioning or heat keeps the atmosphere comfortable & cozy. Practically everything you see or hear in that church is made possible by tithers, not people who give now & then, when they feel like it.

The church has gotten financially lazy which leads to spiritual lukewarmness & suddenly Christ is on the outside trying to get back in.

Many people who attend church are such spiritual babies the preacher has to walk on egg shells to keep from hurting their feelings; consequently pastors feed spiritual mashed bananas from the pulpit then rush to the back door to burp the babies on their way out. Laodicea-ism has come to the church. Being a father myself, I’ve never been against the use of pacifiers but I always said I’d never part a mustache to put one in.

THE COSMIC CHRIST

After man fell, God could have chosen to watch & see what would happen to His creation. However, God didn’t stand back & say, “Let’s see what they do.” But rather He said, “Let them see what I do.” God acted in a profound way & every Christmas we celebrate the fact that God, in Christ, put skin in the game.

Jesus moved into our neighborhood & nothing will ever be the same. He was willing to take on the living conditions of the time: the smell, the poverty, the ravages of disease & discomfort. Jesus wasn’t offered anything better on this earth because of who He was.

Jesus didn’t just show up one day. He was announced for many centuries in many different ways. We are told—In the beginning was the Word.—according to John’s gospel. Jesus was present on creation day & participated in creation; all of it, the suns, galaxies, planets the earth & all that’s in it. Yes- Jesus was “The guy from Galilee,” but He is also the Divine Creator of all things. This Cosmic Christ is nothing less than Emmanuel---God with us! God in human skin.

PAUL

Paul’s conversion to Christ was quite spectacular. He had skin in the game from the first moment he met Christ. He was stricken down & blinded by a great light. I’ve heard people say God won’t force a person to do anything against their will. I understand what they’re trying to say, & it’s true in some ways but let’s be real here. If Paul had put up any resistance, I have no doubt God would have said, “O.K then, here’s a tin-cup & Main Street is two blocks south.” King Nebuchadnezzar didn’t particularly want to leave his throne & graze with the animals in the fields eating grass for seven years either but because of his pride, that was God’s solution.

Paul had to learn in the hard school of experience what God told Ananias when he sent him to heal Paul’s eyes & welcome him into the church; “What great things thou must suffer for Jesus’ sake!”

Let’s look at the catalogue of things Paul had to suffer;

…..In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night & a day have I been in the deep.

In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness. In perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.

In weariness & painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger & thirst, in fastings often, in cold & nakedness. Beside these things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
Who is weak, & I am not weak? Who is offended, & I burn not? If I must needs glory I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.—2 Cor.11:23-30

Chapter six of the same Epistle & verse four—But in all things approving ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in necessities, in distresses. In stripes, in imprisonments, in watchings, in fastings.

By pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned. By the word of truth. By the power of God. By the armor of righteousness on the right hand & on the left. By honor & dishonor, by evil report & good report: as deceivers & yet true:

As unknown & yet well known: as dying & behold we live: as chastened & not killed: as sorrowful yet as rejoicing: as poor yet making many rich: as having nothing & yet possessing all things.-2 Cor.6:4-10

We see in no uncertain terms that from the first day Paul met Christ until he laid his head on the Roman chop-block, he had serious skin in the game.

JOB

If ever a mortal man had skin in the game it was Job. Job was hand-picked by God to suffer. Job was given a larger assignment than Adam faced & Adam failed abjectly. Job’s test was greater because it was more severe & lasted longer. He went through his ordeal with boils all over him & he hadn’t just come out of God’s creation factory like Adam.

One day Job was resting in a hammock under a shade tree, & by the time a few messengers had visited bad news on him everything he had was gone. And to make things worse, there was zero insurance on any of it.

The way the economy is right now you may feel things couldn’t get worse, but what if you lost your house, your car, your children, & your job? They were all gone. It would be pretty tough wouldn’t it? This would be especially hard if you’d been serving God with all your heart as Job had. You’d start to wonder wouldn’t you?

We find the richest man in the East, now totally broke with no bail-out on the horizon, his body having been transformed into one hurting, aching, stinging wound, sitting in the town dump, scraping his skin with a broken piece of pottery. To gain access to Job, Satan told God….Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life. Job 2:4

I realize I’m only broad stroking Job’s story here but I remind you that Job’s trials didn’t last forever. Job 42:10 tells us that God gave him twice as much as he had before. Job was compensated for his ordeal & lived into ripe old age.

Friend, no matter what has or will happen in your life, keep believing & know that God someday will restore what you’ve lost with double for your trouble. Furthermore, “When we all get to heaven” we’ll all be more than compensated for what we’ve been through. Have faith in God. Listen to Revelation 2:10—Be faithful even to the point of death, & I will give you the crown of life.

JEREMIAH

In Jeremiah chapter 32, the invasion of Jerusalem is imminent. The enemy is outside the walls. Jeremiah the prophet could have justifiably been running around shouting “I told you so,” but he was involved in a real estate transaction. What? That’s right. Nothing major, no improved real estate, no houses or hotels, just a field. But it’s a field that very well may be under the invading army’s feet as he speaks.

For Jeremiah to do this at this time would have been the same as if a German Jew had bought a house in downtown Berlin, documented it with proper witnesses & then gotten on the train to Auschwitz.

Why would Jeremiah do this? Why?

Jeremiah was putting some skin in the game; the game of trust, hope & faith in the future. Part of his job was to give the people the bad news of coming invasion, & the barbarians were at the gates. The other part of his job was to say to them, “when all feels lost, this too shall pass, this land is still ours & in the future we’ll once again be part of it.”

Hope! Jeremiah buying land in the midst of an invasion thereby saying; “though this is catastrophic, & changes the way Israel must think of themselves, they’ll always be the children of God.”

Jeremiah had been an honest man & a prophet of God. He hadn’t promised peace like the other prophets had done. There would be a price for Israel’s sins, especially idolatry. But then at the behest of his uncle & cousin he buys a plot of land in Anathoth, land which would be lost to the family unless he, the most senior male member bought it.

Realistically, the land would be of no value to Jeremiah so he’s giving good money for worthless land. But what Jeremiah is doing is showing that while he doesn’t have faith in the ingenuity of kings, he still believes in the compassion of God for His people.

Israel had been warned over & over again about her sins but she wouldn’t repent. The result is severe & the people are taken into exile in Babylonia. However, judgment will not be the final word. There will ultimately be mercy, & restoration & God’s people ultimately will be back in their land.

IS AMERICA NOW UNDERGOING GOD’S JUDGMENT?

Can you see parallels between ancient Israel & modern day America? If not, I believe you will. Our beloved country is steadily moving down the road of rejecting the wise & loving words of God in favor of the fickle & changing opinions of man.

Is there hope that we will see the ultimate preservation & restoration of the America we’ve known? It would take a turning back to God of such astronomical proportions that it would shake the nation to its very foundation. [-2 Chronicles 7:14]

WHAT KIND OF NATION ARE WE NOW LIVING IN?

Look at the symptoms of “moral rot” that occur when people reject God & cling to moral relativism that’s being fostered in our nation by so-called enlightened elitists, a mindless mass media, & post-modern “wise men” who bemoan & are offended by the word “sin” as irrelevant & outdated.

Millions of precious unborn babies continue to be aborted, same sex relationships are sanctioned, Christian symbols continue to be removed from government buildings & pornography in America is more profitable than our auto industry & all of professional sports combined. The “anything goes” worldview is becoming more & more mainstream. We’ve “sown the wind,” & are “reaping the whirlwind.”

Will America survive this? A better question would be, “will America come back to being “One nation under God,” or will we continue to reject the One who created the rights we hold dear?

Over 230 years ago a group of good men decided to put their “skin in the game” to create a country. These men were willing to fight for what they believed in: God-given rights, liberty [freedom with responsibility] prosperity based on hard work & honesty, the right to private property, freedom of speech & religion & freedom from repressive & tyrannical governments. Most of these men lost their lives or their sons & their property but their honor remained intact. Would it surprise you to learn that of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, half of them had Seminary Degrees? Many of the rest of them were non-degreed lay-preachers.

OUR BRAVE MEN & WOMEN WHO’RE RISKING THEIR ALL FOR US

My hat is off to General Petraeus, the other leaders, & mostly the sacrificial service of the brave young Americans whose efforts have wrought immense progress in Iraq. They have not only put skin in the game but every other body-part they possessed.

There will be other attacks & set-backs. Al Qaeda is not defeated. But progress has been substantial & the recent surge has no doubt helped to shorten the war. The unwillingness of many of our national leaders, especially Obama, to recognize it openly & publically shows them for the small spirits they are & I think is quite a revealing commentary on their character.

God is mentioned in the Constitutional preamble of all 50 states. Upon what was our government based? The existence of God, all men are created equal, the unalienable God-given rights, the providence of God in guiding the affairs of men & the need for government to protect our God-given rights. Why are practically none of these things taught to our children in school?

If God doesn’t exist, as so many believe, then there are no God-given rights & the government becomes the highest authority. Who would better protect your God-given rights? A Christian or a secular humanist? President Kennedy said, “The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”

Harry Truman, who could always be counted on to “lay the axe at the root of the tree” said, “If we don’t have proper fundamental background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the rights of anybody except the state.”

If Americans were asked what kind of government we were patterned after most of them would say democracy & they’d be wrong. America was & is a constitutional republic. If we were a pure democracy 51% could vote to create a virtual dictatorship. Engraved on the Jefferson memorial in D.C are these words by Thomas Jefferson;

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of the nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God?”

Doesn’t there seem to you to be a concern in the hearts & minds of our founding fathers that the nation they fought so hard to build, --the nation where so much earnest skin was put in the game & on the line,-- that the people of this fledgling country would someday forget where we came from & who made us great? That fact jumps out at me as I study the words of our founding fathers.

America is the longest standing constitutional republic in the history of the world. Yet if we continue to lose our God-given way of life, if we stand by & watch God not only marginalized but kicked out of the public square, if we are willing to witness the slow undoing of Christianity & Biblical morality, if we forget we’re One nation under God, we’ll be, in the words of Ronald Reagan, “not a nation under God but a nation gone under.”

Think & pray about that with me.


Blessings,


John