Replacing "Fun"
We’re leading our 11th trip to the Emmanuel Children’s Home in Juarez, Mexico! As happens so naturally for most people returning from trips like this, the question quickly comes, “How was your trip?”
Fair question.
It may not always be my initial response, but oftentimes it is this: “It was so much fun.”
Fun: A word Americans love, but a word Christians should pursue less!
I read a great post by a well-known Christian author and speaker, and I think he’s on to something. God created fun, and created many things to BE fun. But on the priority list of Kingdom characteristics, I think it falls behind, well, most everything else.
When was the last time you did something fun?
Most of you could rattle off a list of 15 things you did today or this week that were “fun.” I know I could…
Better yet, though, when was the last time you did something meaningful?
Inspiring? Encouraging? Equipping? Edifying? Significant? Strengthening? Valuable? Transforming? God-exalting?
That list, for most I imagine, is a bit more difficult to generate.
That doesn’t sit right with me because as I take a look at the life of Jesus Christ, his lists of the meaningful and significant and edifying and transforming were endless. And we’re called to follow Him.
We at Ace in the City know how to have fun. Join the Ace family and we’ll show you a great time! But our pursuits are for something much grander—that in everything we do and the relationships we develop (and sometimes relationships are the opposite of fun because of the energy and investment it demands), our aim is to give glory and praise to our God! “We must decrease; He must increase.”
In devotions this morning with our Juarez team, the challenge was to be asking God to reveal ways that we can and should be replacing fun with something even better. As Paul describes in Romans 9, it means focusing on the eternal state of things—not transient things of this world, but God-exalting things that will last forever!
The challenge is for all of us. Let the challenge begin…