My wife and I were at a Christmas party a year ago and I just couldn’t help myself. Maybe it’s the actor in me, but when I saw my friend’s nephew had left his toy ninja mask and toy sword in the corner of the living room…I had to play with them. Then our friends served coffee to everyone, and, somehow I ended up standing on a chair…I don’t know if I’ll ever grow up. Maturity isn’t really my point though–playfulness is. When’s the last time you just played? Playfulness is not regressing to some form of childish behavior (though it may appear to be so at times). Rather playfulness is taking pleasure in the life that’s been given to you. Opportunities to be playful, or shall we call them…ninja gear (symbolism!)…Anyway, when the ninja gear is right there in front of you, are you gonna play or what? Most of us want to, so why don’t we? Usually, we don’t play because we’re afraid of what people will think of us. Often times, those same people are looking for opportunities to be playful themselves, but feel like they need some form of permission to act out. Well, if you’re courageous enough to put on your ninja gear, maybe they will do the same. Then we’ll have a world full of stealthy assassins that start to form clans and kill each other off…wait, that’s not my point…I think I forgot the symbolism…Playfulness reflects God’s joy in your heart! (there we go).
So everyone at my friend’s Christmas party laughed at the goofy guy in the ninja gear, took pictures, and there was much rejoicing. Later my friend came up to me smiling and revealed that the toy ninja gear wasn’t his nephew’s…it was his. He grew up, but he didn’t forget how to play.
Matt Sherman
Great story. Great reminder.
dude, you are a story master!! Awesome post. This reminds me of a talk that Kevin Carroll of Nike led at Catalyst 2006 about playing at work. Glad to have you as a contributor here.
Dude you like a member of the Foot Clan, you know the turtles enemies. Great story amigo
Caffeine Ninja: I had a good laugh at your picture but more importantly sobered up quickly to what you where trying to say. Aerospace is very high pressure job which lives depend on how well my employees process or manufacture product which for the most part end up on either military or commercial planes. To put this into focus, three of my personal friends in the same industry committed suicide in 2008 because they took too much too serious…what a wake up call.
What’s the answer? I have to believe that God has to have a sense of humor and also provides plenty of material to laugh at, and in this case; a picture of a caffeine ninja holding a cup of coffee. To preface this closing thought, an excuse is redirected blame; and if your excuse for not laughing is because nothing is funny then don’t blame the environment but your focus. Before I could start laughing, I first had to learn how to smile… Seven