Play

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis may notice a constant theme of balance in life. I spend quite a bit of time thinking about how to live a balanced and healthy life, asking myself questions like: What things in life are important? Is this a good activity? Am I getting enough rest, nutrition and exercise? This list could go on, but these few examples should give you the gist of what my thoughts often are and why I often blog on the subject.

Last month night I attended my first “Port and Pipe” night with some friends from college. They smoke pipes, drink port and attempt to play poker (for fun, not for money). The point is to have fun, socialize and play.

I have another group of friends that typically gets together once a week to play board and card games. Sometimes we do dinner, while other times we get together to celebrate holidays, birthdays and other life events. However, the main purpose of our gatherings is to relax, have fun and play.

I’ve been wondering the past few weeks if we play enough. We fill our lives with so many different things: church, work, school, weddings, funerals, and volunteering, to name a few. But do we include play in our list of things to do? In living a balanced life we try to include down time, alone time, resting time, but do we include playtime?

According to Dictionary.com, the verb “play” means “to exercise or employ oneself in diversion, amusement, or recreation.”

I’ll often joke that kindergarten was the best grade in school. When I went, it was for a half day. We would get to class, work on a project, have recess, listen to a story, do a craft, take a nap, do another project and go home. What could not have been great about that? We would play, relax, socialize and have a bit of learning all going on in the space of a few hours. I wonder if society needs to take another look at how kindergarten is structured and rethink some things.
As a society we seem to fill our lives with so many concerns, activities and responsibilities. Is it any wonder that we live stress-filled lives? The news constantly bombards us with reports on “Cheney: Obama Setting A 'Terrible Precedent',” “Severe H1N1 Warning” “Fired for Refusing Sex?” “Florida Man's Body Found Tangled in Bulldozer” and a plethora of other headlines. The human mind body and spirit can only take so much.

We desperately need time to play. We need to distract ourselves with amusement or recreation. As we all strive to live healthier lives I would encourage you to find time in your busy schedules to play.

Abraham

“Now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you….So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him…” Genesis 12:1-2a; 4a

“By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8

Something new and amazing is going on here. This is not just another man listening to the voice of God, stepping out in faith. This is Abram, the father of faith. The man who would later be renamed Abraham, the father of many nations; the man who would one day offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God. So many great things this man did, and the one thing he is remembered most for in the book of Hebrews is that when God called he went.

What was so special and so amazing about Abram going “forth as the Lord had spoken to him”? In Thomas Cahill’s book The Gift of the Jews we begin to see a picture of what was so special with this one act of faith.

From what we understand of the history of the region Abram came out of there are many things that make this such an extraordinary event. First, God was probably one of many gods Abram worshiped. Abram in all likelihood had no concept of one all sovereign God. And yet, at this strange command Abram goes. Second, Abram was coming out of a land where the status quo was more important than it is today. There really were no ‘dreamers’ or ‘optimists’. In their worldview history moved in cycles, seasons changed, you were born you died and the only reason to offer homage to the gods was to ensure a good harvest, so the cycle would continue. There was no concept of God directing history towards an ultimate goal (as the Christians and the Jews believe).

What was so amazing was that God was calling Abram out of everything he knew and believed: everything familiar, his home, his family, his entire view of the world and how things worked. God was calling Abram to a whole new way of thinking and living. And the most amazing thing is that Abram went. No questions asked, no excuses, he just went.