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At Play in God’s World Matthew 6: 24 – 34 |
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At Play in God’s World Does the idea of leisure ever make you feel uneasy? It might, because most of us were raised with the notion that hard work is practically synonymous with Christianity. Some of us have even been nurtured on Bible verses such as this one: “Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters ....” Or this one: “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” And in America, we have taken verses like that to heart. Being a workaholic is considered almost a religious virtue and even a form of patriotism. But all of that misses another point the Bible puts before us. Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to gather and a time to throw away. There is a time to work and a time to play. The passage concludes, “moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil,” which is a way of saying that work and play are not always separate things. It affirms that enjoyment in the things we do is God’s intention. If there’s one thing that is immediately obvious from the Ecclesiastes passage, with its sing-song contrasting statements, it is that healthy life requires a balance. Today’s gospel reading makes a similar point in a different way. Jesus says “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ....” His subject is God’s providence and our priorities, not leisure, but in making his point, he calls his hearers to step back from the purely obligatory matters of life and ponder God’s care for birds of the air and flowers of the field as a way to move beyond the worry that marks so much of life. He advises against being preoccupied with the utilitarian side of life. Seek God’s righteousness first and then take pleasure in the day that is at hand. Life in balance Several years ago, author John Updike wrote about the game of golf, saying that there is “a goodness in the experience of golf that may well be ... a place where something breaks into our workaday world and bothers us for evermore with the hints it gives.” What Updike was suggesting is that there is an intrinsic value to play. Now we would not say that play is by itself sufficient for the meaning of life — or for doing God’s will — but in balance with other things, it is very important. Studies have repeatedly shown that people who have done well and been happy in life usually have worked hard at their jobs, tended their relationships diligently and had passion for some leisure activity. And this is no less true for Christians. Stan Purdum is a pastor and author who is also a long-distance cyclist. He has written books about Jesus, and he has written books about bicycling. In one of the latter, he tells of someone asking him if he had had any “spiritual” experiences while cycling. He writes: Bicycling, especially of the long-distance kind, gives me a natural high that is more than a physical sensation. I’d go as far as to say it nourishes some inner part of me. But up until the moment of that question, I hadn’t labeled it as “spiritual.” In my case, especially, I have a natural resistance to using religious jargon to “baptize” what is basically a profoundly satisfying human experience. Ironically, that’s probably because I’m a minister. I’m proud to be in that profession, but I recognize that a wide range of claims, many of which I cannot support, get bandied about in the name of religion. ... Having said that, however, I have to admit that yeah, bicycling sometimes is a spiritual experience. It’s not just that some of my best sermon ideas have come while I’m on bicycle rides; it’s also that I usually feel at peace and deeply content wheeling down a country road, and I know enough about spirituality to realize that those feelings are often a part of it. ... Now that I think about it, the questioner had it right when he asked if my journey was a spiritual experience. It was, for spirituality — in the sense that I recognize that there is that which is greater than I am — is an integral part of my makeup. And I am grateful to my Creator for the opportunity to pedal the byways of this good earth. Another pastor hits the golf course as many mornings as possible by 5 a.m., before he goes to the church. In his book, called Golf in the Real Kingdom, Robert Kopp says, “All I know is that something spiritual happens when I’m on the course. I lose my polemic edge. I become irenic. I feel close to God. Indeed I talk to God when I play, and not just about the last missed putt.” He doesn’t recommend golfing as a substitute for church attendance, but he does mean that leisure activities feed his spirit. Leisure and labor Leisure, of course, is the opposite of labor. “Leisure” comes from the Latin word licere from which we also get “license.” The root meaning of both words is “to be permitted.” When you are at leisure, you “permit” yourself to do things you can’t do when you are at labor, which is compulsory activity. Leisure is not idle time but free activity. In leisure, we do what we like, but in labor we do what we must. In labor, we meet the demands of others, in leisure we scratch the inner itches within ourselves. For some of us, leisure means loafing, and there is a place for that. For others of us, leisure means hard work, but at something we want to do, that we enjoy doing. And leisure has a creativity of its own. Some of the most valuable work done in the world has been done while a person was at leisure, and often it was never paid for in cash. Few of us would call doing dishes a leisure activity, but for some who labor hard at their primary task, routine chores that busy the hands and part of the mind elsewhere, relieve the pressure of work, let the mind run leisurely and allow the subconscious to ruminate, often with serendipitous results. Agatha Christie, no slouch when it came to brainstorms, said she got her best ideas for her mysteries while doing the dishes. Sabbath There is one other biblical concept that applies to all of this as well, and that is the original idea of the Sabbath. God created the world in six days, Genesis tells us, but on the seventh day God rested. God didn’t rest on the seventh day because he was tired. He likely stopped working to enjoy what he had made. Likewise, when observing the Sabbath became one of the Ten Commandments, the idea wasn’t that the people of Israel would just spend every minute of the Sabbath in worship. In fact, in the Old Testament, worship, which centered around sacrifices, was a daily event. The temple operated all the time. The Sabbath was first and foremost a time for rest. In the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land, the people of Israel learned this in as simple a thing as gathering manna each day for food. God told them to gather it daily except for on the Sabbath. That which was gathered the previous day would be enough to carry them over. On the Sabbath, they should rest — have some leisure — from their labors. Part of the idea was that people at leisure can open their minds to God. If we are perfectly honest, however, we must admit that much of each day evaporates into work: shopping for groceries, fixing meals, paying bills, refereeing our kids, cleaning the house, tending the yard and preparing for tomorrow’s onslaught. Leisure never has a chance. Pastor and author Charles Swindoll tells a story from a stressful time in his ministry. Communication in his home had broken down, but he wasn’t aware of how much until one evening when his young daughter said, “Daddy-I-wanna-tell-you-something-and-I’ll-tell-you-really-fast.” Sensing her frustration, he said, “Honey, you can tell me ... and you don’t have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly.” He says he’ll never forget her reply, “Then listen slowly.” His life had gotten out of balance. God is in our time If finding time for the people who are right there in front of us is hard, finding time for God is even harder. But we can’t relegate God to certain “times.” Christians don’t find time for God. We find God is in all our time. If we are truly “in Christ,” then Christ’s Spirit fills us at every moment of our day. In everything we do, we serve God. Christians don’t take “time off” from being Christians. We are as much in God’s time on a July day on vacation, as we are in church on Easter Sunday. From this biblical perspective, it is clear that sometimes we do have to take care of ourselves so that we can then continue to do God’s work with renewed energy and improved vision. But allowing our engines to idle for a while is different from completely shutting down all our systems. If we are seeing all time as God’s time, we should be prepared to be surprised by God even when we are at rest. In other words, we need leisure and work in balance in our lives. When we include leisure in our lives and do so realizing that it, too, is a gift to God, we can come before God as whole persons, giving our whole person to him. |
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