871 Why Not Play?

What potential does this day of life hold? Could the things you do today out live you? Could memories be made today that you still treasure 10 years from now? Could you do something today for the first time? Here’s the truth, today is the day all the other days of your life have brought you to. You know what that means? That means you’ve been waiting your whole entire life for this day. Now it’s here. What will you do with it sister? Whether you treasure it or not, it shall pass. Whether you seize the opportunities of today or not, this day will come and go and so will it’s offerings. This Thursday is filled with a whole lot of nonsense that really doesn’t matter, but hidden in it all is an invitation to live in a way that will wake you up to see what is truly being offered today. What is being offered is a priceless, one of a kind 24 hours of living, now let’s make sure you’re living. Our God is a God of joy. He is a God a creativity and wonder. He is a God of play. His intentions were never for you to spend this one precious life you have been given stuck in a grind. Honey, he didn’t create all of this beauty so that you would never be able to enjoy it. He didn’t place dreams and desires within you just so you could feel bad about never getting to step into them. His hand is extended to you today with an invitation to come and play. Come and live fully with eyes wide open and joy set to high. Watch a child and you will see playfulness is in our DNA. We are designed to naturally find joy in play. To laugh when something is funny and linger when something is delightful. Hmmmmm … why have we stopped that? Why have we grown so serious and put play on the back-burner and allowed joy to be overwhelmed with obligations and long lists? God’s creation shows us his desire to delight us, his most prized creation, with fantastic sunsets, beautiful sunrises and gorgeous scenery. Isn’t the peacock to display beauty? Isn’t the butterfly emerging from a cocoon to show amazing transformation? Isn’t the dolphin to show the magnificence in play? And us with a sense of humor and wonder, isn’t it to enjoy life? Doesn’t all of this prove that God wants us to enjoy his creation? I look at his creation and I come to the conclusion that we are here to play and laugh in what he has given to us to experience. Nehemiah 8:10 “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” No wonder your ability to enjoy the offerings of the day is under attack. No wonder you get caught up in the details and try to control it all. No wonder you are tempted to sit it out in fear. It’s because your joy is a threat to the enemy and it has a big bullseye on it. Without joy, you become weak. When you are weak, you become weary. When you are weary, you stop living up to your full potential. In the end it is the POTENTIAL IMPACT of your life that is of greatest concern, so you’re attacked on the lifeline to your strength … your joy. Have you stopped enjoying life? Have you decided joy can only be experienced when this is different and that is done? Have you tied strings and expectations to your joy, and those strings only hold you back as the rest of the world goes on? Last night on the houseboat we turned on spa music, put on silk robes, dimmed the lights and did facials and hair treatments together. Then we had a full on dance party and laughed into hysterics because we couldn’t figure out who was who in our masks. Then came the invitation … the invitation to do something we wouldn’t normally do. The invitation to jump off the houseboat into the water at midnight, wearing silk robes, and wash our hair. In that moment we were fully alive. We were filled with energy. Our joy was on full display savoring the offering of play and fun given to us by our Creator,