Ninety degrees and 70% humidity. What is there to do for fun? I remember summers growing up with hot summer days. We couldn’t be too active because we would just sit and sweat. However, I remember we put up our biggest umbrella outside and my four other sisters joined me and we played cards.
Do you know the card game “War”? Yes, the game where you split the deck of cards in half and then see who can get the entire deck. You inevitably play for hours—unless someone is being a little too competitive and stacks the deck against you. So, in the heat we would play, sometimes taking forever, sometimes “accidently” losing so that we played longer instead of going inside for dinner. We did this all the time, it was “fun” to us—it was simple but kept us laughing and brought us together, and we enjoyed it. Let me tell you, card games are taken very seriously in my family, and it is one of the ways we connect and find enjoyment.
That game would prevent me from saying the phrase “I’m bored” growing up—among many others. But more than keeping me from being bored, I had fun. I enjoyed it. Somewhere in the 24 years of my life, I have learned that many things can be fun—it all depends on how you look at the activity. Fun is the enjoyment of life to its fullest potential, whether the situation or experience is simple or complex. In this case it didn’t matter if it is simple card game, or if it would have been an intentional large gathering. Fun is not a concept inside of a box. Fun is defined as the following: “enjoyment, amusement, or lighthearted pleasure”. That’s right, there are no other qualifiers.
Fun does not have to be a specific activity that involves laughing, it does not have to be a big extravagant event—yes, those can be great but that does not have to equate fun. Fun to me could be sitting in a jazz club, it could be playing an intense game of sand volleyball, dancing, having a serious conversation about something that matters, it could be sitting reminiscing with roommates, it might be camping, sitting around a bonfire, star gazing, and the list could go on forever. See, at any point in time those things I enjoyed, as part of the life that God had blessed me—therefore they were fun. But, just because they are fun to me does not mean they need to be your idea of fun.
One of my favorite memories that brought joy to my life was Valentine’s Day a few years ago. I decided that I loved breakfast burritos, friends, and meeting new people. So, why not invite some people over and do that? I provided breakfast burritos and invited people over to eat and chat because those are things that made my life full at that moment, and was true to who I was in Christ.
Fun does not mean you become something you are not, just in order to have fun. That’s the beauty of God’s kingdom. He created it to be diverse so that fun includes, but is not limited to, getting to know someone from other cultures, learning new things, enjoying a variety of activities. The beauty is that you understand more about those who inhabit it, and experiences in it—and appreciate them.
At the end of the day, fun means that you are embracing who God created you to be and you are enjoying the blessings around you, small or big. So, it might take a shift of perspective, but take today and find an opportunity to embrace who you are in Christ, and look for His blessing. Take the opportunity to have fun, by enjoying the opportunity of freedom we have in Christ, whether that is by yourself, or with others. Have “fun” in Christ—it’s the best enjoyment in life you can find.
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