R.A. Feller
This book, The Playground, is actually a children’s story. When I saw there was a need to explain to my fourteen year old daughter, spiritual principles in the simplest of ways, I referred her to the elements found within a playground.
I thought it would be the easiest way for her to retain information if she drew an analogy from each element of play and it worked.
Here I use spiritual applications of the slide, a swing, a see saw, some monkey bars, a sand box, a round a bout, a barrel, and finally a balance beam to illustrate metaphysically spiritual terms in the simplest of manners.
Realizing myself how effective this is as a teaching tool, on how we relate to God, I also wanted to share this with my reader’s.
Socialization, parental guidance, and leadership are some more of the topics addressed, along with more wonderfully crafted poems to strengthen ones faith.
With holes in my mind, with slithers of reality in fragments, I went through my life making choices which got me into trouble. Steeped in warped perception, never was I found content to be just me.
I drifted through life in a sea of voices which I would gravitate to in search of an identity of my own. All my relationships caved way over the course of my first thirty years which left me with an investigation, a journey, to find the substance I needed to be real.
Where would I find a breath of life that would last to sustain me long enough to draw all of my moments of living together?
Finally discovering, reality without truth had variables, I was kept at long last from being churned around into giving up my complete identity.
Very gradually, by recognizing that truth had density, my search continued to where I could find the most stability in finding the deepest parts of it.
This reality has restored me from losing my sanity and is a beacon of light as a hope within the building blocks of eternity, found on the foundation of my Mentor and Savior Jesus Christ. The Playground is book number six on my quest in fellowship with God as I continue to learn about the knowledge of loving grace found within His character. He truly is at work on me.
I remember the innocence of a playground where children felt safe about being honest, where a friend was simply made by saying, “Do you want to play?” I long for these days of simple play. For as I grew older and encountered people who looked upon how I was dressed, or where I lived, or even who my parents were, my playmates seemed to gradually disappear. The final resounding blow came when, although my athletic abilities were accepted, my social graces were found dysfunctional to the point where no one wanted me around after the play was done.
My recovery from these days takes me back to looking at myself through very different eyes. The good Lord taught and is teaching me how to play socially, to humble myself as a child and be free within His love. After making most of my choices for life without Him in the dark I had become very skeptical on how I’d relate with other people, I did not want to be hurt anymore or hurt others. Now with my eyes on God, there is a familiar place for me to revisit as I am parented by His Spirit. It holds a common bond that I had to relearn within its simplistic setting which most call the playground. This book takes a look at what had been familiar to me as a child wherein I made poor confused choices in the dark and crosses me over from here to looking back from a vantage point with one of light.
There are common principles which I’ve learned by looking at a playground in a metaphysical way. It is my hope to make the abstract simple by identifying each principle element in child’s play, in a way where it can be easily remembered as applied to everyday life. Yes, by using the contraptions found within the playground of my youth I have found practical applications to problems that we face daily in a way that will help one to remember solutions by recalling the simple elements of play.
There are a few basic similarities in the elements of play for them to function properly: Center and balance will affect the ride and its duration. Also friction can come into play, wear and tear and weather are other factors; however, I only want to use the elements of play as a guide for you to expand upon on in identifying spirituality in our everyday walk of life.
The Slide
There are two approaches when we climb the ladder of a slide. One is that we are in control, aware of each step we are going to take. The other we anticipate the ride of the slide so the steps seem to have disappeared.
I have learned that when I seek to follow God there are two methods of climbing that come into play. In building a relationship with God there is a ride to keep climbing deeper into His love by learning about the truth of who He is. Hence, the more I know about Him the more of Him there is to love.
But when I am self-centered, in my other way, I notice not whom I’m communicating with. I have discovered when I climb the ladder in my interpretation of God too quickly, to get to know Him; I excel the pace of the rate He wants to teach me about Himself. This causes me to slide down and away from Him, for I have not been still within the order of His presence. This is made evident by the loss of my peace in my relationship with Him, for Jesus is the Prince of Peace and when I lose sight of this I lose the enjoyment of the ride.
building a relationship with us that we are lifted into the heights, widths, breadths, and depths of Him, found in the structure of the joyous monkey bars, where we can truly learn of Him as we meet with Him for play as He has now refashioned us to contain His Spirit.
The Sand Box
I can remember some of the games I used to play in the sand box with other kids. One was to burry an object somewhere in the sand box and each of us had to guess where it was to dig it up. The one who found it faster won. Playing hot or cold was another variation. Then there was always, who can build the biggest sand castle, or elaborate? Some how it was more fun when they all blended together; then everyone would cooperate to build the big community one. There was also the big smash where we all took turns jumping on the sand pile.
I could also remember learning the skills of pail and shovel coordination and of course there was the sifter to clean the sand. There was sand and then there was dirt and then add a little water, not too much or there was mud, and you could really craft the sand into some good shapes. Construction toys for building super highways, but don’t fight over space or you could get sand thrown in your eyes.
Spiritual application: did you ever notice when someone is busy building their own sand castles they become so self involved that it is hard to communicate with them. I have observed that most people look through the eyes of what they are building. Does it fit in with my life? Is it valuable enough for me to spend my time or resources on? There are also preconceived ideas of reality, relative pick and choose verses absolute consistency and they both can filter out the virgin experiences of perception in everyday life. Yes, God is consistent in His structure and order, but He is free to move even within the boundaries we cannot see of it. I believe Brother Paul had the right idea when he said to pray without ceasing, keep our sand castles out of the way so that we may have open communication with others. I see that when I’m out of the way I’m able to recognize more readily what God has actually taught me as opposed to what I think I have perceived Him to have taught.
The truth must always bear witness of itself. My peace needs to be looked at in my relationship with God for it has stability and this I can build on. Otherwise I will slide away, like dry white sand without substance to build upon, do to off balance perceptions which revealed what I had was not of the Lord in my life in the first place. Studying God’s word gets as boring as old sand when you miss out on the reality of living it which is the essence of life. I have learned to wait and receive God’s affirming love until fresh sand gets delivered in its newness where I experience Him where last left off. Life seems like it would be perfect if everyone had the same common denominator for here there would be peace, but there is an out of order devil who deceives people into instability; so until Christ returns according to scripture, I think there will be turbulence.
In marriage the husband and wife go through a continual integration process where the separate filters of their individual sand castles enter a oneness as they are taught to see each other through good communication in the Spirit of the Lord. Without the light of Christ in their lives a couples boundaries will overlap each other in the dark, for they will not truly have a complete enough picture of love and they will make the poor choice of enjoying self involved pleasures rather than entering into the oneness of the relationship.
