Monday, November 25, 2002
Play, the eleventh commandment?
Found this article on the Pendle Hill (Quaker Study Center) site. Here's a taste:
Despite our country's Puritan work ethic and culture (and that of early Friends, I might add), I'm certain that God did not create us to work—or at least not just to a dreary, dull kind of work existence. No. God created us to play! The Garden of Eden story in Genesis is one of many that show us how we let our minds, our free will, lead us (literally) down the garden path when we forget to focus on the One from whom we came and to whom we will return.
Look again at the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Sounds like they were handed life on a silver platter, and got into trouble because they had too little to do and too much time on their hands. We've all heard the warning about idle minds, right? Maybe their "banishment" from the Garden of Eden to the world of work wasn't punishment at all. Maybe God was just trying to keep them (and us) occupied and out of worse trouble! But does that mean that we can't play a little while we work? Having made it this far doing it the hard way, I say "hooray" for play, whenever and wherever we can find it—especially at or in work since we spend so much time and energy there.
Despite our country's Puritan work ethic and culture (and that of early Friends, I might add), I'm certain that God did not create us to work—or at least not just to a dreary, dull kind of work existence. No. God created us to play! The Garden of Eden story in Genesis is one of many that show us how we let our minds, our free will, lead us (literally) down the garden path when we forget to focus on the One from whom we came and to whom we will return.
Look again at the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Sounds like they were handed life on a silver platter, and got into trouble because they had too little to do and too much time on their hands. We've all heard the warning about idle minds, right? Maybe their "banishment" from the Garden of Eden to the world of work wasn't punishment at all. Maybe God was just trying to keep them (and us) occupied and out of worse trouble! But does that mean that we can't play a little while we work? Having made it this far doing it the hard way, I say "hooray" for play, whenever and wherever we can find it—especially at or in work since we spend so much time and energy there.
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