I thought I knew on Friday what my next post was going to be about. But to make a short story long, that all changed yesterday after a 'conversation' with a surprise visitor.
Last I knew her, when I was about ten and she around twelve or thirteen, she was actually a very simple, attractive young lady. Yesterday, well, I won't pick on her appearance, except to say that it was the epitome of the foolishness of modern fashion. Twenty-two, someone said. Already with one degree to her name, and working on three more.
Anyways, I sat across from her father at the picnic table, and started catching up on the family, children, education, employment, etc.
My sister joined me shortly and her father left for a second helping. We ate for a moment, and then she asked "So...what do you guys do for... fun - out here?" Her horizontally compressed sunglasses swept the landscape, taking in the cornfields, the horses and sheep in our neighbour's pasture, and the recently cut alfalfa field across the road. "I just don't see...like, anything".
I smiled. "We have fun - plenty of it. BUT, since you asked the question, and since you don't see the potential for what you're looking for, I'm going to have to ask you to define your version of 'fun things', before I can answer."
"Oh", she said, shifting slightly on the bench as her mother sat down beside her, "Like, shopping... going to the movies, that kind of stuff."
I almost choked on my egg salad sandwich. "Shopping you're looking for? Of course we have that out here - my mom goes grocery shopping every week. I used to go with her on occasion - to push the cart you know. That was a fun job I tell you, my sister can confirm, because she used to ride on the front bumper. Oh yes, those were the days.." The table started shaking with laughter.
"Nooo, not
that kind of shopping!", she protested, "I mean, like, malls, and-".
"Elizabeth" I interrupted, "You're talking to a guy here. Not even city
guys go shopping 'for fun'. But yes, if we need to we can go to malls - the less often the better of course, but on our way back from Cincinnati last week we stopped at a JC Penney, and guess what, I got four shirts - one of them I'm wearing right now, and another one is on David. And as for movies-"
"You can just sit out here and watch things 'move'," Her mother laughed, watching the younger girls running around, each carrying a puppy, some wrapped in blankets.
"Like that was even remotely funny, mom," the girl frowned, picking annoyedly at an unwelcome picnic beetle.
"I'm sorry dear, it is to me." She replied, still smiling.
"We do lots of things for fun", My sister interjected, "We get together and help Isaac put his hay in. Before he had the farm we always helped our neighbours and friends too. Last week we went to the Creation Museum, and yesterday we went to the lake for the evening. We're going canoing with some friends next week. In the winter we go sledding or skating - or have some snowball fights. We're never bored around here."
"OK. Whatever." She said, "I guess you do way different things out here than in the city."
"So what did you do for fun when you were growing up"? I addressed the mother.
"Oh" she said, her eyes drifting over the fields "We used to have chickens too, of course. My father would carry the eggs in every day to the market. And I had a pet hen all my own...she sat on twelve eggs, and nine of them hatched. She would come to me when I called, and when I had some food for her, she would just fly for it, and all those nine little chicks would be fluttering after her... they would jump up on her back, and sometimes they'd climb up on my back too, when I bent down. That was just beautiful, I enjoyed watching them so much."
I was watching Elizabeth out of the corner of my eye as her mother talked. Her head was ducking a little lower over her plate and the tips of her ears were turning redder.
"But the thing I enjoyed most" Her mother continued, "Was going to church on the Sabbath. We worked hard all week, but then we'd go to church all fresh, every one of us. We used to spend hours singing afterwards. That was really the highlight of my week, I would never have missed it, not for anything."
"You see, Elizabeth", I said, warming up to the topic, "With the right attitude, everything is fun. We enjoy all our work, as well as some play, and there really isn't any reason why we shouldn't. We were made to enjoy life, -in fact, it is our duty to do so, and we ought to enjoy that duty to the fullest. But there's one thing that no one has ever enjoyed, or will ever be able to enjoy - and that's
idleness. And THAT is why city people have to go pay for 'entertainment'!"
Elizabeth straightened up a bit. "Of course you can't enjoy idleness", she said, "It's just plain boring!"
"That's right", I answered, "So therefore, since we are never idle, we are always having fun. I can get up at 5:30 AM and work until ten at night and enjoy every bit of it. It isn't boring in the least. I can also run around and play games with these children half my age, and enjoy every bit of it. In fact, I can still even go to the MALL with my MOM and enjoy it - well, for a little while, anyways. Entertainment might be able to give you a blast for a few hours, and sure, it might be fun, but it can, and often does, strip very respectable people of the capability and opportunity of enjoying the whole of their days, and not only just the 'fun things'."
She shrugged, "Whatever".
I had more to say, but it seemed that she had heard about as much as was going to be worthwhile. We went on to other topics, with similar results. But here's the fundamental of this issue - one which I brought out in a sermon a few weeks ago:
Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; 'The days of our youth' - I don't need to elaborate upon that, 'While the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them' - Why should the 'evil days' ever come?.
The years will draw nigh - that is certain. Old age will overtake us - we can't avoid it. But what if, when we reach those years, we could look back on the days of our youth, and say 'I HAVE pleasure in them'? What if we can enjoy the days of our youth now, in the full vigor of it, and also in the days 'when the grasshopper shall be a burden'?
It IS possible. We can 'rejoice in our youth', now and in later years, under one condition: Remember now thy Creator.
There's a counterfeit, and Elizabeth is suffering from it. God says, 'Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth', and satan says, 'You're young, have fun'.
They are two different paths, with two different destinations. Of one, we can reach old age, and look back at our youth and say, 'I HAVE pleasure in them'. The other, when the evil days come, then we can only look back on our adolescence, spent in frivolous vanity, and say, 'I have NO pleasure in them'.
You see, God means for us to truly enjoy our
whole life, and ultimately, the only way that is possible, is for us to truly ENJOY GOD. This world offers vanity, entertainment, and every form of 'fun' - for a fee of course - and corruption, sorrow, and vanity to follow.
To remember our Creator, to fear God from our youth, to enter now into the joy of our Lord - this is the course of eternal joy, of profound pleasure, indeed, of eternal youth. This, my friend, is what I call a 'fun time'.
REJOICE, O young man (and young women), in thy youth.Or of course, you can always go shopping.
Labels: fun, maturity, youth
