Providing a critique of pop culture, analyzing secular trends, the media, and Western worldviews.
The Scholar's Corner exists to challenge the Church to higher righteousness and to engage contemporary culture with the claims of Christ.
Google Ads are not
screened by The Scholar's Corner.
Very little is said in the Bible about the concept of play or fun. Yet
as children there is very little else we care about except having fun.
Curiosity made learning exciting. Playing together took up the bulk of
our energies and enthusiasm. We fought at times, but our fights were quickly
forgotten and we came back to play together again. Jesus said that unless
we become like little children, we cannot receive the Kingdom of God (Mark
10:15). And I think he had play partly in mind. How can that which forms
so much of a child's life not be part of what God means when he says we
should become like children? If we are to receive the Kingdom as a child
does, wouldn't that include its joy and fun? After all, doesn't it say
that "the joy of the Lord" is our strength (Neh. 8:10)? Joy
speaks of gratitude for our life. It speaks of an enthusiasm that can
carry over into every area of life. Can you imagine saying, "I can't
wait to get to work today, I am so excited about what I am doing there"?
If you cannot say that, some of the joy of the Lord is missing from your
life in the area of work.
Most people do not know joy in the place of their labors. But did you
know that the priests who served God in the Temple were not supposed to
wear wool or anything that would make them sweat (Ezekiel 44:18)? Do you
know why? Because sweat is a sign of frustration and frustration is a
sign of the curse. When Adam sinned, God told him he would have to earn
his living by the "sweat of his brow" in fields full of thorns
and thistles (Gen. 3). Life would no longer be easy for those in the world,
but hard. However, for those who serve God, their labors were not to be
part of the frustration of the Fall. Instead, they were to be a sign of
a return to an Edenic like relationship with God: free of the fear and
the frustration that so burdens humanity in this world. Their service
to God was to be a light duty with an easy yoke. And for those who are
in Christ, the scripture says that we are a royal priesthood (1 Peter
2:9). We too are to serve God just as the priests of Israel once did -
without the sign of frustration upon our brow.
I realize that not everyone can like their work. It is often only a necessary
chore that provides food for one's table. But all of life is not to be
drudgery and joyless. Their should be a joy and enthusiasm in worship
and in praise and in the Church, which is God's house. If there is no
joy there, then something is wrong either with the place you worship or
with you and your attitude. If it's your attitude, change it; if it is
the place you are not worshipping, leave it. [Yes, you will have conflicts
with others, as children often do, but hopefully you have learned the
lesson of forgiveness so that you can quickly return to friendship and
joy and true worship.]
One thing that the Lord has been teaching me over the years is the value
of play. I am tempted to be a perfectionist, intense, and to take myself
too seriously. Yet God has upended my theology on a number of occasions
and has told me to "lighten up." Jesus went to parties and banquets
and enjoyed himself. He celebrated and appreciated the life his Father
had given him. He took great joy in life in the midst of a very evil world.
But even the evil of this world did not destroy his joy or his celebration
of life. Many times when Jesus healed people, he was on his way somewhere
else - to a banquet or a festival. He was not on his way to be "a
minister." He ministered life and power wherever he went, but he
was not going with ministry as an agenda. He was going to enjoy himself!
And ministry happened on the way.
When I was a new pastor, I spoke with a Presbyterian pastor from Greenville
who had tried to start a youth group without success for over a year.
Then he told me that he began to ride bike trails because that is what
he liked to do... And before long he had a bunch of kids following along
with him because that is what they liked. There! He had a youth ministry,
but not by trying to start one. It developed by "accident" out
of the things he loved to do. What he communicated to those young people
was his love of life and of the Lord in his enjoyment of the things of
this world (1 Tim 6:17). That witness of joy created a ministry.
About a year ago, I got involved with a flight simulator group that plays
games over the Internet. I did it because that is what I like: computers
and games. [Besides, I always wanted to be a jet pilot, and now I can
be one without hurting anybody.] The interesting thing is that this group
adopted me as the squadron chaplain and the number of ministry opportunities
that have developed have been incredible. I prayed over the Internet with
a pilot's wife stationed in Arizona after a crash killed some pilots on
her base last year. The whole group allowed me to minister and pray with
her in the name of the Lord. Yet all this comes not from trying to minister,
but from just being myself and ministering while I am playing with others
and having a good time. I don't intend to minister, but ministry sometimes
just happens. And it is earning the favor and respect of non-Christians
in the group. Now how can this be? God can use things you love and enjoy
to be your greatest opportunity of outreach to others. After all, if you
enjoy the life God has given you, don't you have something to offer to
others who don't have that joy in life? Is your witness just going to
be your anger at evil and sin, which the world already knows, or are you
going to show them something about the goodness of God about which they
know nothing, but which would cause them to hunger to know him for themselves?
Jeff Peterson is a Macintosh pioneer, acquiring his first 128k Mac in 1984. In 1993, he produced one of the first electronic magazines, O Theophilus, and some of the first educational courses for the web. He started his own web design company in 1999, www.PetersonSales.net and is still acquiring new clients. He writes for www.MacReviewZone.com. Jeff is also a part-time theologian on The Scholar's Corner, and he loves to play Flight Sims when he gets a chance, being part of the notorious Shadow Riders, call sign Padre =<SR>=