"Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin."
Luke 15:9
I thought long and hard about what I wanted to name this blog before I settled on "The Sacred Adventure." Although I like this theme very much, I was a bit concerned with the word "sacred." For many, this word seems to evoke ideas of something that is very serious. Describe something as a "sacred task" and the impression is given that it is something about which you absolutely must not fail, something to which you must give your most serious attention. For many, the practice of religion is profoundly serious.
The parable of the lost coin, one of the most familiar of the parables of Jesus, suggests to me a different possibility. After her ardent search, the woman in the parable exclaims to her friends and neighbors, "Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin!' I believe the faith of Christians embraces, at its very center, the joy of God in finding us. I also believe that where this is so, we are free to be a great deal more playful in our response to God, to one another, to the world. I don't mean to suggest for even one second that our faith is frivolous. I do mean to say that when we enter into the joy of God over finding us, we are free to become more creative, to brainstorm new possibilities for our lives, to dream new dreams.
I have observed the phenomenon at work many times in groups of people: When a group, whether a family, a committee, a Bible study, a class or a church is overly serious, it sees very few possibilities. What was done yesterday must be done today and tomorrow. The group is stuck in its own ruts. When persons in a group become more playful, on the other hand, the process of brainstorming is let loose, imagination is generated, the group is free to look out and beyond to new horizons, new possibilities, a new day. What if God's action upon us is a generative action, a power that frees us to be more creative, playful and imaginative? It seems to me that such a thing is no stretch to children who participate in God's joy over finding them.
4 comments:
Couldn't agree more. And there is compelling evidence that people who know how to have fun and laugh can rally their immune systems more effectively than serious, morose people. Hmmmm. If God pronounced Creation to be good; why not rejoice and be glad in it? (I'm now thinking of that wonderful picture of the laughing Jesus that you had for so long.....)
Wish I could say I practice what I preach. Occasionally I actually find myself stifling an impulse to smile or laugh. Perhaps it's because by the time we hit midlife and beyond, we've experienced a lot of pain and sadness. Whatever the reason, I agree that creativity and playfulness are extremely important ways of expressing our connection to our Creator.
“Play is not frivolous. Anyone playing at something has to be serious, even as children are never so serious as when they are at play. A child does not skip rope casually, but with serious concentration.” Surprised by Laughter, Terry Lindvall
CS Lewis viewed the opposite of seriousness, not as humor, but as triviality. To treat someone or something trivially was not to take them seriously. To joke or laugh does not imply a lack of seriousness.
I think Christians often confuse and exchange the playfulness you are importantly encouraging for the trivial.
Peter Berger believes that when we surrender to our play and let it remain simply that, we encounter a “signal of transcendence.”
Placing our life under the claim of God’s rule does not exclude any of the ordinary human activities. There is a danger in forgetting this if we let the Sacred in sacred playfulness become too big and receive the majority of the accent.
Play is crucial not only for health and sanity, but for courtesy and kindness, virtues which seem to be diminishing in our culture. I see it in myself when the playfulness you write about is absent from my life.
“The playground is a place for humanizing those who might otherwise be tyrants or experts.”
Many thanks for your encouragement to sacred playfulness.
I wonder when this confused division between serious and joyous started...probably when the holiness revival/reformation started. We were oh so serious about all of that and KNEW the truth. No time for playing around; no fun and games--just get 'er done: save the church and save the world. (Yes, I know, those pesky songs kept creeping in and cheering the brethren up), but still. I remember a few years ago working on the development of OneVoice. A resounding outcome of the surveys was to have a "heritage" page. So, I asked one of the editors to do some research and find a few early editorial one of which we might include. I looked at 3-5 and decided that we couldn't use them. Not only were they unrelenting in addressing the issues, they were pretty mean spirited--denouncing nearly everyone who wasn't with us. You'll notice that there was no heritage page in OV.....
I also remember reading a lot of research that pretty clearly suggested/stated that laughter really is the best medicine and persons who find laughter, actually do heal better and more quickly.
arthur
My life is a testament to the bipolarity of taking things too seriously and not seriously enough. I think the most important thing not to take seriously is ourselves. It leads to hubris. Or maybe I should say the thing not to take too seriously is certainty. My knowledge of the world, self, another is a tool useful for exploring the world, self, another. But it isn’t the world, or the self, or another. It is collection of information about “a” world, “a” self, “an” other. It isn’t the thing, or even a complete description of the thing, any more than it is a complete description of what it (he, she) isn’t. This is where it gets funny. The human brain has the capacity to act on incomplete information as if it were total. We essentially suspend disbelief in order to live our lives. It turns out that not taking our lack of knowledge about the world too seriously is what makes us functional. I’m going to tell myself a story about myself tomorrow as method for making sense of whatever happens tomorrow. We get in trouble when we forget that not taking our lack of knowledge too seriously was what made it possible to take our assumptions too seriously in the first place.
brant
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