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

This week, Dan continues a series about the nature of play and the importance of pursuing play in our everyday lives.

Play, says Dan, requires that we confront risk and danger with exuberance and abandon.

In that way, deep play is really an

invitation for us to engage more fully in the kingdom of God. As we consider the topic of play,

I want to read an excerpt from the book that I mentioned before, A Deep Play by Diane Ackerman.

And I'm going to read extensively from page 23.

She says, we want to muscle into life and feel its real power and sweep. We want to drink from the source.

In rare moments of deep play, we can lay aside our sense of self, shed time's continuum,

ignore pain, and sit quietly in the absolute present, watching the world's ordinary miracles. No mind or heart hobbles.

No analyzing or explaining. No question for logic. No promises, no goals, no relationships, no worry.

One is completely open to whatever drama may unfold. With innocent surprise, one regards

live spectacles and underpinnings. All one feels is affectionate curiosity for the whole

bustling enterprise of creation. It doesn't matter what prompts the feeling, watching Albatross's court,

or following the sky-blown oasis of a tumultuous sunset. When it happens, we experience a sense

of revelation and gratitude. Nothing need be thought or said. There is a way of beholding that is a form of prayer.

I think that's beautiful writing. In one sense, just to read it feels playful. So as we engage this

category of play, quickly reminding that the kind of play we're talking about isn't just play

in a game. It's not just a board game. It's not activities that you do outside. It's not

fundamentally a way of distracting yourself from life. It actually is an entry into the richness, the mystery,

the ambiguity of life itself. So what I want to begin to think through is, what does play

require of you if you're going to play well? And if you want to do a little diagram,

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