“Jesus called a child, whom he put among them, and said, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 18:2-3 4:1 These are pretty strong words that don’t get a lot of attention in a hyper-competitive and success-driven culture. Yet it may be exactly what we need to renew our faith and rediscover our passion.  Have you found that in the process of becoming respectable you’ve left behind curiosity, excitement and adventure? As a young doctor, Stuart Brown was doing research into the character of murderers who otherwise had no criminal history. He discovered something amazing, a common thread in 90% of their stories: as children, their play was severely restricted. Brown, a workaholic, spent many more decades studying play. He learned that children grow empathy through the rough-and-tumble of play, that play lowers stress (duh!), that play makes us more creative and helps us accept and adapt to change. He finally got the message, and started to play more. Voltaire once said that “God is a comedian playing to an audience that was too afraid to laugh.” I would add that God is a loving, playful Father trying to engage his children in a playground of beauty and adventure who are too proud and to afraid to risk appearing silly, childish or insecure. Unfortunately we associate our spiritual life with the “work” of the church and not the play.  We often treat the stuff we do as a kind of bitter endurance, a heavy burden to be carried. No wonder people fade away. How often does the phrase “play of the church” enter our vocabulary? What if we played kickball after church or gathered for softball game on a warm summer afternoon? Or had adult time in the bouncy house at our church summer picnic? What if a group decided to go for a polar bear swim at the winter solstice in the Ohio? Or threw an dance party with bubble machine and disco ball, watched the kids go crazy, and then went crazy with them? Play, Brown said, is any activity that is alive with child-like enthusiasm, dissolves ego boundaries, and restores joy to a dry soul. I would add: it’s also an activity that delights God, who, after all, was the first one to play with us in Eden. What was the Creation, after all, if not a dance of creativity and love? Prayer: Lord, may we never take ourselves more seriously than You. Amen.