Play Like a Child — Again
**Guest post by Demian Farnworth at Fallen and Flawed.**
My son owns a red tricycle. Behind that tricycle he likes to pull a red wagon. He likes to haul stuff around in that little wagon.
One day he lugged a large, faded plastic Joseph (from an old nativity set) around. I asked my son, “Who’s in your wagon?”
“Joseph.”
“Jesus’ father,” I said.
He looked back at the faded Joseph. Then back at me. “Yeah, God’s dad.”
I chuckled. But then it struck me–that’s exactly what we do with God…that’s exactly what I did with God. Let me explain.
Destroying My Family
Not long ago there was a time in my life when, as a Christian, I toyed with God. Yes, I said the prayer, bought the Bible, spent a lot of time at church.
But something was wrong. Very wrong.
See, throughout the first ten years of my so called Christian walk, I obsessed about one thing and one thing only: Becoming a world famous writer.
Much to the disappointment of my wife, this ambition took first place to everything else–my marriage, children, work–and even church.
In fact, I believed it was a very natural thing to neglect your wife, children and God for the sake of art. But you want to know the really sad part? I was miserable.
I lived that way for ten years until I finally crashed and burned. And it’s no surprise that when we are bent on our own way that we eventually crash and burn. The Bible teaches that pride comes before the fall.
So true.
The Happy Ending
In the end, I wasn’t pulling God around in my little wagon. I pulled around a resin coated image of God. The real God was waiting for me to surrender.
Listen: God is not a toy. Nor someone who tags along. He’s not our “co-pilot.” He’s the Creator. The guide who blazes the path. The pilot who’s behind the divine rescue mission called salvation.
In essence: He’s in control. And usually we’re out of control.
So let me challenge you with this: How’s your spiritual life? Is it full of joy? Peace? Or is it dominated by frustration and anxiety?
If the latter, there’s good news: You don’t have to live like that. A full, complete surrender to God means incomprehensible joy and peace.
It means you get to play like a child again. Which sounds like a lot of fun, don’t you think?
Author Bio: Demian Farnworth is keynote blogger for Fallen and Flawed.
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Thanks for the opportunity, Daniel. It’s always a pleasure.
How timely is this post . . . I have made my blogging world my god. I’ve actually been on the net all day today (literally) trying to boost stats, create new features, arousing discussions in the atheistic corner of reddit. I haven’t done anything profitable to my home.
Wow, did I just say all that?
off to repent.
Have fun!
“He’s not our co-pilot”. That gave me a laugh. Because it isn’t even accurate that God is our pilot and we’re His co-pilot. Really, he’s the pilot, and the plane, and we’re just back in the cargo hold along for the ride, not knowing where we’re going or when we’ll arrive, but with total trust in the pilot and the plane to get us there.
Of course, we do sometimes pull a muscle when trying to look out the window to figure out where we are and make sure the pilot is on course. (Which is silly, since we don’t know the destination or the flight path.
)
Jonathan W: I’m with you. There are days when I feel like I lost the reins on internet time.
Jonathan Roy: “…we do sometimes pull a muscle…” That word picture fits me to a T.
[...] How to Play Like a Child–Again How’s your spiritual life? Is it full of joy? Or is it dominated by frustration and anxiety? You don’t have to live like that. [Desire Spiritual Growth] [...]