Playing Together
A challenge for your hobbies this year
As Adam walked the garden and inhaled the air breathed into his frame, a quiet need cried out to the God who already knew. In a few words, the Lord spoke it aloud, and shattered the pattern that had been echoed creation after creation: “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen 2:18, emphasis mine). And ever since we see the reminders of the very same truth.
We see it through our vocations—through inventors, businessmen, laborers, and artists who wouldn’t have been able to bring their beauty into the world without the help, encouragement, and expertise of others to push them. We cling to its truth inside our church buildings—through the growth, support, and admonishment we receive from the pilgrims beside us. And we get bludgeoned with the truth through the glow of our screens, as we’re reminded again and again of the dangers of disconnection to fellow image-bearers and the travesty of an isolated life.
We need each other. This truth is truth for all of life, but while we might know it within our jobs, church, or friendships- have we thought about the way this includes even our play?
In each chapter of Created to Play I labored to not only share the joys and worship available to the singular hobbyist, but to shine a light on the joys of participating in hobbies together. And there are so many. Unfortunately, our participation within hobbies can sometimes pull us away from rich community. We can do this in a couple of ways. On the one hand, we might treat our hobbies as something strictly personal—they’re the quiet, singular activities we fit it in our rest time. On the other hand, we might include others, but find that the majority of our communal play is through the online world—the Facebook group who chats with us about food preservation or the online book club we partake chat with.
Please hear me: I don’t think those groups are bad. I even recommend looking for some of these very options in my book! The internet provides a host of great opportunities to learn and connect in our play with others. It too, can be a gift from God. Neither do I believe that enjoying hobbies singularly is bad. However, both at times might pull us further from the local community God’s placed around us as they steal away our time and attention.1 Yet instead of starting with all we need to stop, what if we used this year to think about what we might add. Let’s model God’s provision of embodied community and look for ways to add the same within our own play.
The good news is, these don’t even have to be huge commitments. You may not have time to join a weekly in-person book club, but what if you texted a local friend and asked if they’d like to read the same book? What if instead of watching that new movie alone before bed, you call up a friend and plan a movie night? Maybe instead of depending on websites for your sole source of sourdough help, you took a few minutes to find someone in your church or neighborhood who already bakes, and ask them a few questions?
Instead of sewing, crocheting, baking, or painting alone, you could ask a younger student from church, your child, or a neighbor if they’d like to try it out themselves one afternoon with you. By all means, learn from your online groups and enjoy playing together online, but also search for the ways you can carry that joy of play to the people you brush by every week.
Of course, even small acts like these will take some amount of effort. It takes humility to bear with the tiny baker next to you who isn’t doing it right. It takes patience to wait to watch a movie with a friend when you wanted to watch it now. It requires effort to send that text and leave yourself vulnerable to whether or not your friend will want to join you. Yet the chance to play together is worth it. God has fashioned into your frame a need for community, and this stretches into every facet of your life—including your play.
So who will you play with this year?
I love talking about the way the Lord shows his goodness and beauty amidst the every day. If you do too, check out my upcoming book, Created to Play: How Taking Hobbies Seriously Grows Us Spiritually.
Whether or not one should rethink their online communities of play will require wisdom. There are certainly times when one is without a local community for a number of reasons (moving, loss of church community, etc.), where it would make sense to see the online opportunities as a particular gift from the Lord.
That's such a good point, Brianna! I recently started reading a book with my mom (second read for me, first read for her), and I completely agree that the joy is multiplied when you share it with someone else. Reading it by myself was good; reading it out loud to her has been even better.