“Skin in the game, skin in the game” that phrase seems to be the clarion call for so much of what we do to disqualify us from experiencing God at work in our world today.
If I feel someone does not have skin in the game then I do not want to waste my time and money on them. They will just waste it because they do not value it ! I want to address this myth.
Let me frame this in a biblical context. If God used the “skin in the game “ matrix then we would not exist as human kind.
You see God GAVE Adam and Eve the garden and them told them what he expected them to do with it. He gave them cloths, He gave them children, He gave… and He has not stopped giving .
So where is OUR skin in the game ? What have we “paid’ for life? If I were to use the metaphor of Christ when he said “abide in the vine” or if I look at the picture of the father in the parable of the prodigal son. Our responsibility is wealth transfer agents! God has plans for His resources. He gives, whether it is money, time, talent, or opportunities. We spend to make a return for HIS kingdom. Our skin in the game is the realization that we have nothing ourselves except what is given by God !
When Paul writes in Romans 12 “don’t be conformed to the pattern of this world” this is what he was talking about. Don’t use the currency of this world to achieve God’s desires.
For a modern day example look no further than George Mueller – who started and ran his whole ministry on the assumption that God would provide everything for HIS purpose, all we must do is pray and wait. Here is where it gets messy. Let me finish Romans 12 1,2 in the New living translation, and see how Paul translates that “skin in the game” to “give your bodies to God”