I think “play” needs a lot more ground in my faith journey. I take myself way too serious 99.9 percent of the time. I believe there is a lot more joy and adventure waiting to be discovered and explored, but I think it requires having a child-likeness that I rarely tap into because our culture sees ‘playing’ as purposeless, unproductive, meaningless and childish. Being a young aspiring professional and leader in my community (not to mention being a woman professional/leader…) creates a tension of wanting to be taken seriously and not wanting to be seen as an immature and childish girl.
I guess my response here touches more on my wrestle with being a young professional rather than my faith… but my profession is partly pastoring, cultivating, and fostering healthy community which overflows from my faith… so in my mind it interrelates. More directly related to the question at hand. I think God is way more playful and creative than I perceive. Because I see God as a serious God, it is hard for me to allow “Play” in my life… but I’m on a journey of understanding God’s playfulness expressed all around us. As I see God in a different light, I think it will give me freedom to see myself in a different light. I have a deep sense that “Play” is very important to our spiritual health and well-being.
It is so reassuring to read your words about the importance of play and playfulness as part of your spiritual path. I’ve just written a book exploring just that issue. You can download it for free at http://aplayfulpath.com – forgive me if this seems like spam. It’s prompted by, like your post, a sense of mission.
Thanks for writing such an important book Bernie!
I didn’t really feel I had the choice in writing this book. It was more like inevitable. But thank you for your kind words, Tracy. I’ll be VERY interested to learn if you find the book helpful in your explorations and would welcome any thoughts you have on how I can more effectively reach out to people who could make good use of it.