Following God is serious.
But it doesn’t have to be so serious.
I think we get into this trap of treating God like He’s only serious, awesome (like the word awe, not like Lego’s), majestic, judging, stern, disciplining, calm, or insert “adult” adjective here. And God is those things. But not only those.
He is also silly. Have you seen the platypus?
I believe God wants us to fear Him, but also to enjoy Him. To honor Him, but also to laugh with Him. To follow Him, but maybe to skip and sing while we are doing it. I think God wants us to live life with a sort of whimsy about us.
My friend Bob Goff (Okay I’ve haven’t met Bob Goff. But if I did I think we would be friends.) had this to say in his book “Love Does.”
“Living a life fully engaged and full of whimsy and the kind of things that love does is something most people plan to do, but along the way they just kind of forget. Their dreams become one of those “we’ll go there next time” deferrals. The sad thing is, for many there is no “next time” because passing on the chance to cross over is an overall attitude toward life rather than a single decision.”
God wants us to change our attitudes about life. To stop thinking of it as this journey that I am on and start thinking about the adventures we are having together.
Life is not meant to be lived alone, and it is not meant to be lived selfishly. If Jesus is to be our ultimate example then why do we focus so much on ourselves? He was fully engaged with the people around Him. And I seriously (pun intended) doubt that He was this serious guy who just taught all the time, and never laughed or joked like we might picture. That’s how I have viewed Jesus anyway.
I think Jesus was probably whimsical. Especially as Google tells it.
“Playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing and amusing way.”
And the best part about living a life of whimsy is we don’t have to have this grand plan of how to do it. Bob writes, again in “Love Does” about this.
“Whimsy doesn’t care if you are the driver or the passenger; all that matters is that you are on your way.”
So let’s get on our way. Let us follow our serious God.
Our silly God.
Our just God.
Our whimsical God.
