Jumping around and having fun

This morning I received a message from a new friend on myspace. He shared his website with me, and on the website was a link to a pretty cool site, the Personal Promise Bible. On this site you can order a Bible that is personalized with YOUR name in various verses (5,000 verses, I think). You can view samples here. (Example: Col 3:3 For Joel died, and his life is hidden with Christ in God).

On the sample page, I typed my kids names in this morning as they were playing on our other computer next to me, and the sample verses appeared with their names in them. I read the verses out loud so they could hear them. They perked up as they heard some verses that they recognized with their names in them! I think it's a great idea to personalize the Bible in this way (keeping the Bible verses in proper context of course)!

After I had read a few verses out loud, my seven year old daughter, in sort of a funny-sarcastic way, asked, "Does it say anything about me jumping around and having fun?"

I snickered for a moment and then I realized what an "out of the mouth of babes" statement that was! Although she was joking, I had been seriously thinking about a similar thing just yesterday evening as I was finishing work. It's great to understand doctrine and it's great to hear how specific scriptures relate to our daily lives in Christ. It's great to study Bible doctrine and to understand what it means to us.

But I know that sometimes I can get so caught up in the meanings of verses and in understanding God's grace and growing in it that I forget to enjoy each precious moment, no matter what I'm doing! I do laugh every day and I really do enjoy life overall, but yet sometimes my over-thinking, over-analytical mind keeps me from enjoying my life in Christ to its full extent. Having read several of your blogs lately, I know I'm not alone in this! Again, I love studying scripture. I love digging deep and learning the meanings of words and verses. But I guess sometimes I can get so caught up in head knowledge that the peace of Christ doesn't reign in my heart (Col 3:15). When Christ's peace reigns in my heart, LIFE is lived to the full!

Is there anything in life that distracts you from letting the peace of Christ reign in your heart?

I don't know exactly how I started thinking about all this last night but I think it came as a result of me feeling like I had squandered a big chunk of my day yesterday. The kids were off school due to snow and my boss had called, telling me that most of my job was canceled for the day due to the weather. I just needed to come in and the end of the day and do a few things. So I was home most of the day, and basically I did a whole lot of nothing! I did do a couple of "serious" things like folding laundry and clearing snow off the drive, and I attempted to help a friend with a computer issue by writing an email. But as I looked back on the rest of my day I felt like I had wasted a lot of time. I pretty much messed around on my computer as the kids played on theirs. We usually have time limits for the kids on the computer, but I pretty much let them play most of the day yesterday.

Throughout the day yesterday, and into the evening as I was looking back on my day, I felt tinges of guilt creeping in because I wasn't "about my Father's business," either in the way of doing something to spread the gospel or in giving of myself as much as I could to my children or others. However, the guilt did not last because I'm grounded in the truth! And my daughter unknowingly helped to solidify this in me even more this morning! Not that I don't want to spread the gospel and not that I don't want to spend time with my family, but is it not also ok for me to jump around and have some fun?!?!

The seeming problem would be that I cannot find a Bible verse that specifically commands or admonishes Christians to "jump around and have fun!" And I can't seem to pinpoint the exact chapter and verse that says, "Go therefore and play a computer game." And why can I not find any scriptures that say, "husbands, love your wives and take the family out and have some fun at the bowling alley?"

But yet can't all those things (and so much more) be part of the beauty and enjoyment of our LIFE in Christ?

We can get so caught up in studying the scriptures and trying to apply them to our LIVES that we forget to LIVE! We read all of the New Testament epistles and we see all the things Paul and others said about holy living and loving one another and serving one another. It would seem, from reading these epistles, that these guys never laughed or had fun. All their words seemed to be about serious Christian doctrine. Paul's own life seemed to be nothing more than traveling and preaching the gospel and confronting people and leading people to Christ. We don't see Paul ever stopping to play a game of UNO, or ego-surfing (imagine what he'd find!), or saving up enough money to buy a Nintendo Wii (if he could even find one). We don't know if he ever told any jokes. I think there are hints of sarcasm in some of his letters, but what I'm getting at is that Paul's letters were not moment by moment journals of all of his life's activities. We mostly find doctrine in his letters. And doctrine is a great thing! I'm thankful for doctrine. And I think that as an apostle, it was Paul's biggest joy to teach and preach the gospel.

But shouldn't that doctrine, shouldn't that gospel message, be freeing us to live, rather than keeping us in joyless cages of head knowledge and trying to keep ourselves in line with every jot and tittle of scripture? We find a lot of doctrine in Paul's writings, but isn't the overall point of the doctrine to lead us into the living out of the full, abundant life that we have in Christ? One more time, I love scripture and I always hope to learn more and to understand better. But if I'm not living - if I'm not jumping around and having fun - then what's the point of knowing?

Thoughts, anyone? I typed this up kind of hurriedly, and even if my thoughts didn't come across perfectly I hope my overall point came across.

Col 3:15-17
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
NIV