Play is a Serious Issue

God has been re-teaching me how to play lately. And, by "play," I don't mean wasting time by avoiding responsibility or frittering my life away in selfish endeavors. As a matter of fact, wasting time can be very hard work. One of my favorite songwriters, Ben Harper, sings, "You can kill a lot of time if you really want to put your mind to it, or leave it all behind and never go through it." Much effort and mental energy can go into wasting time, avoiding both my inner and outer life.

The type of play I'm talking about is a mentality where I take myself lightly, embracing laughter, tears, pleasure, pain, beauty, or ugliness; whatever God, in His sovereignty, allows. G.K. Chesterton, the great British novelist, theologian and apologist once wrote, "Angels fly because they take themselves lightly." When I take myself too seriously, I tend toward self-protection and control. On the other hand, when I take myself lightly, I let down my guard and free myself to experience all of life. Life with God; life with others; the beauty of creation.

I call this "Growing Young." Growing old is easy, but deadly. All I have to do is float down the world's stream, winding up in a pool filled with the flotsam of negativity and the jetsam of cynicism. Growing young takes focus, and it is a focus that frees me to dive and explore. Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, wrote, "We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." By focusing my gaze on Christ, I am supernaturally renewed, gaining heart and learning to seriously play.