God wants us to have fun!

God wants us to enjoy everything we do, to laugh and sing and rejoice! Why then, does the Christian life sometimes appear to us to be nothing but a rigid regiment of strict discipline, scarce amount to anything fun? Why do we think to follow Jesus means a desert? Why do we forget King David as he lept before the Ark of the Covenant?

The true walk the Christian is called to walk is one of joy. Outside of joy, what is our strength; if we do not love, what is our spirit rooted in? We must always seek to rise into joy, to seek God in all things, and to feel his presence in all we do, which eases us of every burden, and makes all trials into blessings. There is nothing in our lives that cannot be given back to God with thanks; even in our sufferings is there only cause to give God praise.

The reason we may think the spiritual life is boring, a burden, or daunting, and turn aside from it to instead go out to the mall or to attend some party, thinking we will have fun here, is ignorance. We are not being led by wisdom when we do this, but by what is immediately appealing to us. God withholds gratification as we follow him; for we are evil, and what we desire for ourselves is rooted in what is of immediate benefit to us. But as we turn from this, and first seek God, then what good we receive comes from God, and no longer from us; in Christ we receive every blessing, therefore there is a reason to give thanks. This is not the case, if we chose it for our own sake, for in this we were only seeking our own interest. But if we are in the light of the Holy Spirit, everything is a joy as we realize that every breath is a gift given by God.

When we are confronted by the moment of sacrifice, then does the spiritual life seem daunting; but only to ourselves. We compare this sacrifice against what we want, and believe we are deprived, as we see we must morify our own desire and welcome God. What we may not understand, is that we are evil, and what we were originally seeking, what we are sacrificing, is rubbish; and as we begin to follow God, we are fortified in all the virtues that lead us closer to life, wisdom, and happiness. We are evil, but in Jesus there is a fountain of life that pours into those hearts willing to receive him, and makes everything we do holy in him – and the fruit of this is life, and life in abundance. (John 10:10)

God is always advocating for our lives and our wellbeing and our good; but we, being sinners, often stand in the way of God. We are very stubborn and set in our own intentions, which we only sorely relinquish, and believe we often know better than God. It is better, so we think, to leave Sundays open for doing chores around the house; not wishing to waste this time according to our own standards, as we disagree with God that we need to rest. We fall under stress, anxiety, and dissatisfaction as we busy ourselves about the house, so focused on what is in front of us, we have long ago stopped considering God at all. 

God is always there, especially when we think he is absent. He is always drawing us to himself, leading us in every turn – if we are ready to listen – to seek the better road, the narrow road which leads to Heaven. We are in daily need of him, but so often depart into our own desire to sin, concerned more for what is in front of us, than trusting everything to Jesus. We do not understand, that in him there is joy, in God alone is there anything good. And so many of us think that to be Christian, means that we must never have fun; but how much this way of thinking is opposed directly to the truth – in living a life of sin, in placing ourselves first and foremost and watching that next episode of a show we really want to watch, even if it is 3a in the morning, we are living a life of death. We deprive ourselves of sleep, endanger our health, and destroy our relationships as we seek only ourselves – our way is not fun, but a desert that drains us of all joy, making us wondering what happened to the love we once knew, but which we can no longer find in anything we do. But a Christian lives a much different life, a Christian does not go down those paths appealing to the appetite, but lives on the rock of Jesus; in whom there is true joy in all things.

God reveals to our hearts the way to walk, and those who walk it are joyful; while those who have not accepted Jesus, think it is difficult and dreary, if only because they do not see those things in which they have set their happiness. But if God were to open their eyes, then they would see, that all things lead to Jesus, and that he is good – and to be a Christian is to be a child of God, finding a cause to have fun in everything we go about doing, even if we have found ourselves in a prison cell, as Paul writes:

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13)