Survivor - Redemption Island - comes to an end..

This past Sunday was the final of Survivor season # 22 and the end of Redemption Island season #1. While the game ended with somewhat of a dud, meaning no suspense with Rob the professional survivor player taking the prize as sole survivor after his 4th time playing the game in the last 10 years. I was actually pulling for Rob to some extent because he had played the game so well with the alliances he formed and how he positioned himself to not be the target, which seemed impossible at the beginning.

Matt the young Christian whom I've posted about previously, spent most of his time on Survivor at redemption Island fell one challenge short of getting back in the game. Matt continued to the end on the recap show giving glory to God for his time on Survivor and commented that during the airing of the season many of his friends and family indicated that redemption island was the place where Matt was intended to be all along. I agree with his family and friends.

As Mike testified on the recap show that Survivor had been life changing in that he had grown closer to God by having the opportunity to spend time on redemption island with Matt.

In the end Matt did not win the millions of dollars, but he won at lot of respect which was evident by him finishing second in the fan favorite voting to Rob. But bigger than that was how he was a witness for God to Mike and others in the game. In the end it is a game and it is television, but God is present everywhere and in all situations. I have yet to see a Survivor season where matters of personal faith were so overt and codo's to CBS for not avoiding the discussion.

Life lesson is to never under estimate where God can use you. At one point Matt did not see how he could be used for God being outside the game, but he did, but not without Matt being open and intentional for being used by God and in a graceful way.

The Gospel On Survivor Continues....

Wow.. This week was another amazing one on Survivor for portraying the Gospel. This week two others joined Matt and Mike on redemption island, Steve and Ralph. The four competed in a contest to see who would spend an afternoon with their loved one, this being the one who finished first with the 2nd and 3rd place finishers staying in the game. Before coming to the competition earlier in the day both those in the game and those at redemption island got video messages from their loved ones to build up their spirit and anticipation. As the four competed Mike quickly broke all four of his tiles to finish 1st with Matt and Ralph finishing 2nd and 3rd.

After Mike had won and Steve was eliminated, before Jeff offered Mike the afternoon with his loved one, his mom, he gave Mike an option to forgo his afternoon (literally said his love) so that others might share the afternoon with their loved one. First the offer was for his partners on redemption island, but then the second offer was for the 5 remaining in the game or the larger group. Mike commented that he had been reading the Gospel of Matthew or Mark where Jesus communicated the greatest commandment which is to love your neighbor as yourself, and that Mike felt giving the afternoon with their love one to the larger group was extending the greater good, thus living out this commandment.

Jeff commented that no way would he had ever seen this happening, about a zero percent chance.

Afterwards back at the redemption island camp Ralph was upset with Mike because he did not think he would win any point by doing this favor for the larger group and that he would have never done that after how they had treated them. Mike indicated he made that decision because he had asked God to let him win and that he thought this was the response God would want him to make, he indicated that he did not do it to win votes, but it was just the right thing to do, he seemed to be genuine in his intent and purpose.

Other interesting moments a couple of weeks ago when Matt was ready to cash it in, then at the redemption island contest Jeff asked Matt about where he was mentally, also asking how many day's he had been on Redemption Island Matt commented 20 something days, Jeff asked Matt how many days was Jesus in the wilderness, Matt smiled and commented a very long time 40 days. Matt indicated that he would be fine with being eliminated, but that he just wanted to continue doing God's will and if it was staying in the game then so be it. After Matt won the competition Jeff commented that God was not done with him yet.

We can see that God is not done with Matt, it appears that Matt has been an influence on Mike as in an earlier episode Mike was reading Matt's Bible and discussed scripture within him, almost in a way as though he had never read it before.

Again I think Matt has been a powerful influence on a number of his fellow competitors on redemption island. It may be that for some this is just playing the game at times things seem almost scripted, but I can't or don't believe that it is. Jeff's interaction on these topics and reactions is quite amazing as well as he's not avoid the discussion of faith and Christianity. It will be very interesting to see how this all turns out.