Fun is a CHOICE!!! (It's not gonna just happen... trust me!)

Fun is a choice.

Heather blogged about FUN being a spiritual discipline, and she talked about how its something you have to set aside time for, and something that you have to be intentional with. Which is true. But you can go to Disneyland and find a way (or many ways) not to be happy at the “Happiest place on earth”. Why is that? Because FUN begins in our heads!!!

Fun begins in your head and your perspective is just the beginning of it all. Every day you get to CHOOSE your perspective. You get to CHOOSE how you will respond to circumstances. You have a CHOICE. You get to CHOOSE to discover fun and how it can be found in every circumstance.

Its not just a choice to make your life more fun, but you are combatting what the enemy is trying to do in getting you to focus on the negative in your life. Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 10, that our battle with the enemy begins with our thoughts.

I watched a TED talk last night, and it stated that only 10% of our happiness is determined through external circumstances, 90% is our choice. Did you catch that? 90%!!!!!!!!

You may think once you have a yard, or a picket fence, or no more debt that you will be able to have fun or  to love life. Truth is – that isn’t going to happen unless you find a way to choose your perspective NOW. I love what Paul says in Philippians 4:11-13 – He found the secret in being content in ANY situation, and that is focusing on the creator of the universe. The one who is guiding your steps, who is walking beside you, ahead of you, behind you, above you and below you. He is present with you, and when you can discover ways to dwell on the goodness of God, you are able to discover fun things, because your mind is focused on HIM, the author and creator of FUN – because he created YOU.


Watch the TED talk here:

Theology of FUN: Fun in the Mundane.

This is the 6th installment of the THEOLOGY OF FUN blog series that Heather Zempel and I are doing. If you haven't read the previous ones, you should here, here, here, here, & here!!!

How often do you take the same route to work? Do you go to the same restaurant and order the same thing over and over again? We tend to be beings of habit and routine. Change is often viewed as a bad thing, and a lot of people don’t like it.

But what happens is we get caught in the trap of the mundane and the routine. We wonder why we are tired, cranky, or wonder what is wrong with us, but what happens is that we have forgotten to find joy in all situations, or we have forgotten to be intentional with having fun. We have to remember that having fun and finding joy is a discipline. Fun and Adventures don’t just happen, you have to be intentional about the way you talk, the words you speak and also being intentional about keeping your perspective in finding the fun in the mundane.

My problem is I think I live a mundane life. Almost TOO mundane, but I have worked hard to change the way I see things to make things fun and random and adventurous. One of the verses that I keep going back to is James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Count it all joy. ALL things – finding ways to find joy in the little things and in the big things, the easy things, and the hard things. Counting joy when it hurts. One of the ways that I try to count all things joy is calling everything that I do an adventure. My definition of adventure is doing things where you don’t know the outcome. And in all actuality – most things we do we don’t know the outcome. Your trip to Ikea could be considered an adventure – you don’t know how what could happen, or an early adventure to the airport to pick up friends - you JUST never know what’ll happen (You could get pulled over by the police officer, or followed closely by the same officer). It could be easy to see everything you do as a chore, but when you add the element of adventure, and an unexpected ending, the options are endless!

My friend Alexa and I were really good at creating adventures within the mundane. When we were overwhelmed with work, we would stop and have a 4 minute dance party. If we needed a change, we would get in the car and make cards real fast with directions to stop, turn right, turn left, chinese firedrill, or make a U-turn…just to see where randomness would take us. Does that seem silly or stupid? Maybe. But its taking the mundane and turning it around and making it an adventure! We didn't know the outcome of those things, and a lot of times, it meant we were laughing hysterically at our stupidity. 

There will never be the “perfect” situations. Life doesn't roll like that. Something is always bound to go differently than you expected, good or bad. And it all lies within the perspective you CHOOSE to have. Do you find ways to choose the joy in each and every situation? 

Sometimes it’s choosing to go a different way to work, and noticing new things in your neighborhood, or taking the long way to thank God for the situations you are in. I mean, if you want to try something new, trying to brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand! And tell me that you didn't giggle at your inability to do it well. 

Afterall... Joy is a choice. 

(even while brushing your teeth...)

Fun is a choice.

 (airport runs can be fun... Right, Summer?)

How are you choosing to have fun in the mundane situations that you have?

Having Fun and Laughing Together - Theology of Fun

This is a Part FOUR of a blog series that Heather Zempel and I are doing. To catch up click here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

I get to work with kids and teenagers for a living, and quite honestly it’s the best job on the planet. And then, I also get to work with people who want to invest in those kids and teenagers, and I get to give them tips on how to develop relationships with these said kids and teenagers.

I’ve discovered you have to work especially hard to develop those relationships with teenagers. See, kids have an automatic trust for adults, but teenagers have a hard time deciding who they are going to trust and why. That’s why our “Uprising Getaways” are so valuable to our student ministry. Not just for our students, but for our leaders as well.

See, we intentionally plan so many opportunities for fun and games on these retreats. Games from “Poop the Potato”, to "Fly on the Wall",  to “Human Foosball”, to “Blindman’s Volleyball”, to “Noodle Hockey”, not because I think ridiculous games make you closer to God and into relationship with Him. Its because when you get the kids AND leaders laughing together, playing together and having fun together there is this invisible bridge of trust that is built between the student and leader the moment they play together and have fun together. Sometimes you just need to do ridiculous things to make them laugh at you (Like wear a hotdog costume!!!). I don’t know that it’s a magical formula, but I have discovered the value of having fun together when doing ministry with and developing relationships with teenagers. If you are able to have fun together, the fun moments builds a bridge for deeper conversation and further discipleship. 

"Human Foosball"

"Fly on the Wall"

Hot Dogs are the best!!!

"Wacky Wiffle Ball" - Shaving Cream anyone?

"Noodle Hockey"

"Blindman's Volleyball"

The coolest people I get to hang out with. EVER.

The Theology of FUN (What does FUN have to do with GOD?)

I find myself to be a relatively positive person. I am not sure why, or how it works, but I consider it a gift. But it wasn’t always that way. I had friends in high school and college that would say, “Jenilee, you are too happy. There is no way you are real, or that there is any depth to you.” I remember crying and praying to God asking for a more serious side so that people would see me as someone with depth, not as someone faking my personality. Following those comments, anytime someone would point out how happy I was, I immediately got insecure. I worried that people thought of me as someone who couldn’t carry intellectual or deep theological conversations because I was too positive and happy. And in order to have any good theological conversation you have to be serious. How silly is that?

Whenever I am around a child, I have a personal goal: to make them smile or laugh. I think in my mind, how long will it take for me to make them smile, and what lengths will I have to go to complete this challenge? Some kids break easy, and they smile, and giggle quickly. Then there are those who are stone faced, and it takes a lot of funny voices, smiles, flailing of arms, and if you’re desperate, sometimes it takes jumping around to get them to smile and laugh. I love seeing kids laugh and smile. It’s like they are wired to do so. And for so many of us, we love to see kids smile, laugh and to have fun.

What happened between being a child and now? Why are we not laughing as much? Why do we not try to have fun?  Why are we not engaging other “grown ups” around us to laugh, or make them smile? Have we succumbed to the idea that life, as we get older, must become serious?

I keep picturing God having that same personal goal with all of us. He is trying to make us laugh as if we were a child. He’s smiling at you, maybe playing peek-a-boo. Maybe at first you don’t notice, because of the circumstances around you or you are consumed with situations that are surrounding your life. Maybe you hide your head in shame or embarrassment, like a kid buries his face into some object to hide, not sure what God would want with you. But eventually the laughter and the intrigue of fun draws us out from focusing on our junk, and allows us to focus on our Creator, the one who created us with the ability to laugh and to have fun. When was the last time you took time to engage the fun side of God? When was the last time you let God break through and get a smirk out of you?

The next couple weeks, Heather Zempel, NCC’s Discipleship Pastor, and I will be blogging about fun. Not just fun in general, but the Theology of Fun. How does fun relate to God and how does God related to fun is the adventure that we will embark? We hope you enjoy this journey, because I can tell you that Heather and I are definitely enjoying it!

Blessed Exhaustion

This summer has been a CRAZY summer. There has been a lot of travel, a lot of adventures, but there has also been a lot of mess. Being in community with others – essentially makes for a messy time. Searching where God is leading you, hurt feelings, job searches, frustrations, disappointments are among some of the things that are the perfect ingredients to making life a little messy (or a LOT…).

But it’s a matter of where you turn to when the mess gets crazy, or seemingly overwhelming. Whether you are trying to trust God for your next steps, feel like God is not answering, or there are so many directions to go that you are confused on where God is leading you, it can be exhausting.

But choosing to hold firm to God’s faithfulness amidst the mess, confusion or hurt is the best thing you can do. Because when God does come through – in HIS perfect timing – you experience His blessing.

Its called blessed exhaustion. Being exhausted beyond measure, but experiencing the faithfulness of God. And it makes the constant mess worth it. I am blessed beyond my exhaustion every day.

Nifty Fifty!!

After MUCH planning and keeping secrets from my competition (namely my family), I have made it to FIFTY states!! 

I am  not gonna lie - it was kind of awesome sending this picture to them, and seeing their reactions.. Some were quicker than others.. but I WIN! :-)

Thanks Dad for the competitive genes, and I WIN!! :-)

More to come later!

Jenilee

Reminicing.

 I just spent several days in California, and am about to head out of Washington State. I got to spend some time with my California-surfin' brother, and got to spend time with my dear sister in Washington! (Along with the parents and family!!) Today I was talking with my sister, and we were remembering some of the great moments of our childhood.

The more I think about it, the more I am so incredibly thankful for the way my parents have instilled adventure into their kids’ hearts. It was rare for long family road-trips that lasted over two months, let alone the fact that we enjoyed them (most of the time… It was always the pesky little brother…. Haha just kidding Nick!). I really can trace back my love for adventure and travel to my parents. From living in Seattle and hiking and camping at every state park in Washington, and then hitting every Kampground Of America in the United States – or what felt like EVERY one. We were too “cool” (read: cheap) for hotels, and where is the adventure in sleeping in a plush hotel room? I mean, when you can sleep in a van that has been decked out to a “red-neck” motor home, with a generator strapped to the back, and a window AC unit to provide cool air to the 1980 12-passenger van LeFors-mobile. I meannnn.... Come on!! We were living LARGE! And not only large, but got to 

There are a lot of sweet memories encapsulated in those road trips, and I am going to attempt to name off some of my favorite. 

1. Melting Crayons on paper when we went into a restaurant for lunch. We had to make use of the scorching heat somehow.
2. Getting our allowance and Archie comic books at the start of every family-cross-country road trip.
3. My mom telling me that thunder and lightning was God taking a picture of us, which turned my fear of lightning to love. (maybe that is where the obsession with pictures come from? I blame Mom.)
4. Reaching Montana on the first night of the road trip. Same KOA, same routine, same conversation with my parents about the lit-up “Mother of the Rockies” statue in the mountains.
5. Corn Palace and Mount Rushmore – the regular pit stops no matter where we headed.
6. Discovering “Clear Pepsi” in Colorado and thinking it was the coolest thing ever!
7. Breaking both my wrists at the same time in Colorado.
8. Attending the National Deaf Culture Fellowship Conferences as a part of the road trips.
9. Driving into Michigan, so we could count it as state.
10. Playing the Dot-to-dot games.
11. Watching Old Faithful at Yellowstone.
12. Touching the 4 corners and checking out the markets nearby.
13. Playing navigator with my dad when everyone else was still sleeping.
14. Learning to navigate a map (the pre-GPS days.)
15. Eating Lobster in Maine, and checking out the lighthouses there.
16. Hanging out with a Mennonite Family and going to an Amish residence.
17. Going on the Hershey tour in Pennsylvania.
18. Recognizing the I-90 route home, and being able to estimate the arrival time to home, and running into the house once we got home to check ALL the mail I got.. (which was typically none… boo. Haha)
19. Getting my picture with the Oscar Meyer Wiener car.
20. Tasting hot spring water from Arkansas