The Sacredness of Play

Written by: Pastor Rory Philstrom from Roll 4 Joy

Her giggles bounced off the sunbeams and rolled across the covers of my bed. "Daddy! Do it again!"

My three-year-old and I were playing. It was one of those simple, formless games of little children. It involved tickles, lifting up into the sky, crashing down onto the soft bed, silly faces, and loud noises. The game had no name, it was just play.

Play is powerful.

In my work with roleplaying games, theater, and play, I have often found that imaginative play is something that holds the capacity to open up the rich depths of human experience both in myself and others. Philosopher Friedrich von Schiller wrote, "the human being is completely human only at play."

Play is present.

Play invites a presence in the moment that is often sought after throughout life.

As my college professor Dr. Andy Fort loved to quip, "Being present in the present is a present." So many spiritual exercises involve trying to attend to the present moment, and play naturally and effectively does the same. I am fully present when I am hoist up my daughter to the sun and "sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world" (Whitman, Song of Myself).

Play is un-self-conscious. Perhaps because of this kind of presence, play is also effective at lessening our experiences of self-consciousness. I don't know that we can be both self-conscious and playful in the same moment.

This kind of experience of being fully and unreservedly yourself is one of the things I love about play.

For better or worse, when we play we play with ourselves. I mean that who we really are shows up. Maybe it's our competitiveness or our fear, maybe it's our yearning or our courage, maybe it's our awkwardness or our brashness, whatever it is it shows up!

For all of these reasons and more, play can be such a powerful spiritual practice. 

Play requires such an immediacy and presence in my body that I can't hide. Not all play, however.

There is a kind of play that is just a regurgitation of the past, of what has been. There is so much that has been that has been a search for power or truth in ways apart from God that this kind of play is not and will never be holy. This sort of play can give us masks and hide us from ourselves.

But there is a different kind of play that is generative and productive and invites a holy imagination of what is or can be or might yet be.

Playing with my kids is sacred time.

In that moment of play with my daughter, I was everywhere I needed to be. It was all encompassing and joy filled. It was the sort of moment that is what life was made for. God was there and through that moment forming me to be the kind of Father I am meant to be.

I paused in the breath after her plea, "Again, Daddy! Again!" and tried to take it all in. Tried to be thankful for this moment. And then realized that in doing so I was removing myself from that very moment! There would be time for gratitude later.

Even though there is a seemingly never-ending supply of such moments, this one was here now. It was time to get back to playing.