As a grandfather, I’m gaining a new appreciation for childhood. When I observe my grandchildren’s energy for life, I’m reminded that there is an untainted desire for fun and entertainment hardwired into our psyche from the time we’re born. Recently, my entire family went to the hospital to visit some friends who had just had a baby. We were all quietly sitting in the reception room when, suddenly, my grandson turned to the other two grandkids and said, “Let’s play Thomas the Train!” So each one lined up behind the other and began taking turns going around the room pretending to be Thomas the Train loudly exclaiming, “Choo! Choo!” I saw how much fun they were having, so I joined in by forming a crossing rail with my legs. However, when my legs got tired, I’d put them down. But then they’d say, “Poppa, put your legs up again!” My grandchildren will go to great lengths just to experience the sheer pleasure that comes from having fun.

Children are the ultimate experts on pleasure and fun. No matter where they are, their vocation is to fi nd, create and enjoy fun activities. They have the ability to instantly register their enjoyment or dissatisfaction with the activities they participate in by using their built-in “fun-o-meter.” If the enjoyment level of an activity registers low on their fun-o-meter, their mind tells them to disengage. This mental warning doesn’t go away until they either quit the activity or it’s changed into something fun. Sadness comes over their little lives whenever they have to ignore their fun-o-meter and do things that are boring, make no sense, are too confining and, as a result, suck the life right out of them.

As we move into adulthood, somehow we ignore and disable our fun-o-meter. There are many who hold to the notion that adult responsibilities leave no room for fun. But by starving ourselves of fun, we end up trying to fi ll our innate desire for it through an escape into sports and hobbies and sometimes even drugs and alcohol — anything we can use to fi ll the void of fun in our life. During times of stress, worry and frustration, we refl ect on the simple days of fun we had when we were younger and long for them to return. We want the peace and joythat fun produces but struggle to find it, so we replace it with cheap knockoffs.

I’m convinced that as adults we need an active functioning fun-o-meter in our lives just as much as children do. We need a fun-o-meter to monitor the activities we participate in so that we can identify those activities which recreate our soul and spirit, provide joy and give us life.

Paul told the Ephesian believers that it was God’s work in them to cause them to will and to do His good pleasure! Wait, you mean God is into pleasure? Yes! Think about this for a minute. When Jesus told His disciples they should be childlike, maybe, just maybe, He was suggesting that they incorporate playfulness into their daily lives. I know that’s a bit of a revolutionary idea for some, but what if that’s what He meant? In his book, The Rest of God, Mark Buchanan puts it like this: “Maybe all the other virtues of childhood — trust, humility, simplicity, innocence, wonder — are not separate from a life of playfulness, but the fruit of it: that apart from cartwheels and kite flying, leapfrog and hide-and-seek, snakes and ladders and digging for buried treasure, all those other things wither.” The virtues God desires to form in us were never intended to be developed in an environment devoid of fun.

If your life seems stale, withered and mundane, ask yourself these questions: Is your fun-ometer broken or disengaged? Have you forgotten what it’s like to enjoy life by simply having fun? Why not give yourself permission to enjoy life; to find and participate in fun activities. Sit down today and make a list of things you like to do, activities that are fun and pleasurable. If you can’t list any, then a change needs to take place in your life. As followers of Christ, we ought to understand celebration, joy and peace more than those without Him. We can find pleasure and demonstrate fun that the world doesn’t understand. Fun that reflects the nature of God doesn’t hurt us and others or involve illegal or immoral activities — it rejuvenates, refreshes and ignites life. At least one day a week, let’s start up our fun-o-meter and renew God’s life in us!

When we play, we nudge the border of forever.
~ Mark Buchanan