“Life is tough. It takes up much of your time, all your weekends, and what do you get in the end of it? I think that the life cycle is all backward. You should die first, get that out of the way. Then you live twenty years in an old-age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young. You get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.”  (From a sermon by Rabbi Edward Paul Cohn)

“After a close call when one of our lamps fell over, we made it to the top of the bed and began bouncing, when suddenly, we became aware of a law of physics. We noticed that if one of us timed his jump so that he landed from his leap at the split second the other person was pushing off the bed, he would go much higher on his jump, and consequently, upon landing would propel his partner to even greater heights.” (Mike Yaconelli, “Dangerous Wonder”)

“Jesus Christ knew how to play as well as pray; how to laugh as well as cry; how to be serious about life but not take Himself too seriously. Jesus Christ came to save us from our sin and to save us from becoming severe, unyielding, harsh, and terminally serious.” (Mike Yaconelli, “Dangerous Wonder”)

Mike Yaconelli does spend a lot of time in his book speaking of childhood activities, and childhood play — after all his subtitle for the book is “The Adventure of Childlike Faith”. As such, he uses a lot of examples from his childhood to make statements about our faith lives.

It sounds like Mike Yaconelli’s childhood was one filled with wonder, excitement, adventure, and well, he has a lot to remember that was good. Too many people do not have such childhood experiences to help them recapture their “child-like” faith—because they were denied such experiences. Too many people spend a lot of time trying to forget their childhoods that they have nothing to reclaim that might give them some memories that match that of the author. And though I do have a lot of happy childhood memories, I for sure would not want to return to my elementary years, or my high school years—even with the wisdom I have today because of my life experiences. I made too many mistakes in relationships, said too many harsh comments that hurt people, and had too many mistaken priorities.

And yet, we can see how Yaconelli has a point about the playful nature that often does not accompany our faith journeys as we get older. I shared a snippet of Yaconelli’s book describing a time he and his friend were bouncing on his bed. After his father yelled at him for bouncing on his bed instead of going to sleep, Yaconelli says: “If you can’t bounce on your bed at nine years old, when can you? Before you know it, you not only stop bouncing on your bed, you stop skipping, you stop playing hide-and-seek, you stop playing!”

Is it possible to approach our faith playfully? Should we live with a faith that has more play and less rule following? Even if our younger years were not as playful as we would have hoped, we still can approach our faith with a youthfulness that puts a spring in our faith journey. Perhaps it is time to spend less time following the rules of our faith, and instead just “follow Jesus”.

Pastor Dave