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You're listening to The Allender Center podcast with Dr. Dan Allender.

This week, Dan and his wife, Becky Allender, continue our series on play by wrestling with some of the obstacles and demands that often keep us from engaging in play.

Dan and Becky remind us that play should not be an afterthought or addendum to the rest of our lives,

but something we cultivate day in and day out. We're in a conversation about play and hoping that this conversation will invite you to maybe just glory in the play that you already have been engaging in, or at least invite

you into not just pondering, but in practicing and entering into what play is available

for you.

And we left you with a couple of quick thoughts that play involves entry into danger. Therefore,

there's a competitiveness often. But play requires that you be inquisitive and open to

experiment because we're exploring the unknown. But play ultimately is allowing us, I think, a little bit of a grasp of the eternity of what it is, to in many ways not be burdened by the past, not be worried about the future, but to be in the moment, in the moment in a way in which you're not denying past and future, but you're allowing yourself to be fully transcendent in the moment,

and therefore in many ways fully alive, but also not bound to your own self-consciousness.

And so in that sense, we've talked about competitive play, inquisitive play,

restorative play. And again, one of the comments

made after someone heard this last podcast was, are you making them three separate kinds of

play? And I think in some ways, a very slow walk. I don't really feel a lot of competition.

And I don't really often feel like I'm exploring the unknown, but there are overlaps between restorative and inquisitive and in many ways competitive play.

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