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Play With a Purpose
One of my favorite spiritual practices is one you don't hear much about: the practice of play.
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One of my favorite spiritual practices is one you don't hear much about: the practice of play. But it seems an appropriate topic to consider during summer. Play is an important part of what I call Sabbath Simplicity—a sanely paced, God-focused lifestyle. To live in Sabbath Simplicity means we have slowly crafted a life-giving way of life—and it may look different in your life than it does in mine. But this lifestyle includes spiritual practices that create some space for God. So along with prayer and meditating on God's word, I include other spiritual disciplines like service and play. I don't serve all the time; I don't play all the time. It is the rhythm between these two things that creates a cadence I can dance to. Play helps us fight the temptation of sins that Jesus prohibited in his teaching—things like worry, fear, or lack of joy. You've perhaps not thought of play as a spiritual discipline. But then again, perhaps you didn't consider worry a sin, even though the command most often repeated in the Bible is "do not be afraid." The Bible tells us that one day Jesus' disciples came to him and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" In response, Jesus "called a little child, whom he placed among them. And he said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes a humble place—becoming like this child—is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.'" (Matthew 18:1–5) Jesus said we are to be like little children. What does that mean? Is Jesus advocating humility? Or playfulness? Isn't there a certain humility in playfulness? Little children are dependent, needy, immature; sometimes selfish. They are also, at times, carefree, trusting, or humble. There is a difference between childish and childlike. Brennan Manning, in his book The Importance of Being Foolish, helps us understand the cultural context of Jesus' remark about being childlike. "There is no mistaking that one must learn to resemble a child in order to enter the kingdom," he writes. "But to grasp the full force of the phrase 'like little children,' we must realize that the Jewish attitude toward children in the time of Christ differed drastically from the one prevalent today. We have a tendency to idealize childhood, to see it as the happy age of innocence, insouciance, and simple faith. In the Jewish community of New Testament times, the child was considered of no importance, meriting no attention or favor. The child was regarded with scorn." How can we cultivate humility but still be people who exhibit the "joy of the Lord?" I believe the answer lies in our ability to play. Play forces us to loosen our grip on our ambitions, and our worries. It is a call to trust. |
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