We Were Created to Enjoy Life and to Have Fun

by James Allen Nelson

My favorite depiction of Jesus is the painting “Jesus Laughing.” He has his head tilted back, eyes partial closed, and his mouth open in what is obviously uproarious laughter.  The painting reminds us that Jesus was human and that he enjoyed life to the fullest.  If you can get past reading everything in the Bible seriously and look for the humor in some of what Jesus did and said, you will see what I mean.  Afterall his critics accused him of eating and drinking with sinners.  Jesus even says of himself, “the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ (Matthew 11:19 NRSV).”  I doubt he was a “drunkard,” but then at the wedding at Cana in John, he did turn water into “good” wine. Jesus found joy in life. Let’s face it, if Jesus came, at least in part, to show us how to live, then shouldn’t we also find joy in life?

God didn’t create us to suffer, to deny ourselves the good things of life; but to relish our time on earth, to have fun, to laugh, and to enjoy the good things God has provided for us. God wants us to savor the good foods, natural foods provided for us, not subsist on the bland and merely functional foods.  God even wants us to enjoy sex, not abstain from it.  Admittedly, we are to enjoy it in a responsible, consensual, appropriate manner.  But wasn’t one of the first commandments God gave us as humans to “be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:28)?” You may choose to abstain for personal reasons, which is fine, but don’t do it because you think it is necessary to help you grow closer to God.  Besides, I think today if we were still listening, God would be telling us, “Thank you good and faithful servants for being fruitful and multiplying, but enough is enough.  You learned how to avoid multiplying, so please continue to enjoy the intimacy with whomever lights up your world, as long as it is a mutually satisfying, consensual, equal, adult relationship.”  Whom we love is not nearly as important as that we do love.

Being faithful doesn’t mean we have to live a dull, boring life; and definitely does not mean we have to suffer.  In the past, some mystics thought that by suffering and/or denying themselves the good things in life, they would grow closer to God.  But why would God give us all these great gifts and then expect us to turn them down for something less satisfying.  A few verses later in the Matthew 11 from the one quoted above, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Mt. 11:28-30).” So why would Jesus want to make our “burdens heavy”?  

We speak of life as a blessing, a gift from God.  If all God wants is for us to praise God and worship him constantly, why would God create earth with all the beauty and gifts for us to enjoy if they are not for us to enjoy.  In Matthew 26, Jesus and his disciples are having dinner at the home of Simon the Leper when a woman pours a costly ointment on Jesus’s head.  The disciples complain about the waste of money that could have been given to the poor, but Jesus responds, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me.  For you always have the poor with you.”  He is basically saying you don’t have to worry about the poor every minute of every day, they will still be here in the morning, and we will return to our mission.  But sometimes it is OK to accept a gift from someone else, and to enjoy an evening with friends.  Sometimes it is just as blessed to receive as it is to give, for by receiving we are allowing someone else to have the blessing of giving.  Besides, why are we not worthy of some of the finer things in life on occasion?  Love, laugh, and enjoy to the fullest the life God has given you!