I Believe in God, but I Just Want to Have FunSýnishorn

WHERE THE FUN BEGAN

There was once a garden. Its maker created it as a place of beauty and stillness, peace and wholeness—a place of pleasure and purpose. All living things were fully satisfied, complete, and fulfilled. It was perfect.

But an enemy came to the garden. And he hated its maker, and he hated that it was perfect. And so he whispered lies. Is this really enough? Are you truly satisfied? Don’t you want more? And the ones whose hearts were created to be filled up with their maker and His perfect garden suddenly doubted the truth and turned toward the lies.

And every single person born since that time has been created for the garden but has been born into the brokenness and consequences of lies and sin. We are creatures longing for beauty and peace. We have a place deep inside us that needs to be filled up, that wants to be satisfied. We will look for pleasure and purpose everywhere we go. It is what we were made for.

But wait a second. Remember—we’re no longer in the garden. Our ideas and perceptions of what we need and how we find it have been broken and skewed—so much so that the very thing that is the source of satisfaction and pleasure and perfection and joy and FUN is the very thing we assume is trying to prevent our fun and make life boring. And that’s what this reading plan will wrestle with: I believe in God, but I just want to have fun. God is the one who made us crave fun and pleasure. And yet, we’ll reject Him and look anywhere else to find it. We want the garden without the gardener.

Ask Yourself:

-What is your idea of FUN? Where do you find FUN? Who do you have FUN with?

-Do you believe that being a Christian is FUN? Why or why not?

Pause to Pray: God, you created the whole world to find peace and joy and even FUN in You! Open my eyes to see the fun that life with You brings.

Take a Next Step: Have some good fun today! Tell silly jokes with some kids, play on a playground with a friend, turn on your favorite song and sing it out loud, add chocolate syrup to your milk, play a board game—just pick something simple that sounds like good fun!