After one of my first trips to India someone asked me, “Did you have fun?” The question so took me back I am still thinking about it! We seem think everything has to be “fun.” If it is fun, do it, but if it isn’t fun, don’t do it! That just doesn’t work in real life for the responsible, committed Christian. The Bible puts “fun” way down the list of priorities for us. In heaven God will make up for all that and we’ll have unlimited “fun” – by any definition you have of fun. But this life is not heaven!
So, do I have “fun” in India? I am often extremely uncomfortable and stretched to my limits physically, emotionally and spiritually but I also have times of deep joy and great satisfaction. The blessings are too deep and too numerous for me to put in words. The honor and privilege I feel goes way beyond what anyone would call mere ‘fun.’
Do I have “fun” in India? No, not in the way the person asking the questions means it. But I get overwhelming pleasure and indescribable blessing that make ‘fun’ seem like nothing. And I think that is what we all will have in heaven. Will heaven be “fun”? It’ll be so far beyond fun we can’t imagine it.
Is it “fun” to be a Christian? Or is it something far greater and deeper and wider than “fun” can ever be? I hope it is to you. (February 2, 2019 Kurnool, India)
Proverbs 21:17 Whoever loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich.
Ecclesiastes 8:15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. (“under the sun” refers to life without God)
Do you make an idol of “fun”? Do you evaluate everything by if it is pleasurable or not for you?
Jerry Schmoyer
Christian Training Organization