When I really got into my faith and my Christian walk during high school, a few things really annoyed me…(In no particular order)
- People who left right after Communion at Mass.
- Some “Christians” who persecuted me for being Catholic, or told me I’m was going to Hell.
- Watching friends from school act one way at Church and another way on Friday nights.
- Guys who were “too cool” to sing or worship their Creator.
- Some teens who used their faith walk as a way to “pick up” the opposite sex.
But over time, those things didn’t annoy me as much. I realized that praying for those people (and myself) got me a lot further than being annoyed or bitter. One thing that still really irks me, though, is when I hear someone say that Christians can’t have any fun. That’s just idiotic. It makes about as much sense as an inflatable dartboard…just stupid.
Christians can absolutely have fun. If Christians don’t have fun–that’s nobody’s fault but their own…it has nothing to do with living out their faith. The people who claim that without alcohol, drugs or premarital sex that there can be no fun, have NO conception of or true relationship with Jesus Christ.
I hope this feature helps make your life–and your faith–more interesting. If you’re stuck in mid-summer boredom or if your summer is going by too fast, then it’s time to have some fun.
The Most Fun Fun
There’s nothing more fun than laughing so hard your abs hurt and having your head hit the pillow at the end of the day knowing that your words and deeds did not offend your Creator and Father. Christian fun can be found almost anywhere, it just takes humility and creativity–it takes remembering that God is God and you’re not, and that He created us with a creative spirit, we just need to tap into it. True “Christian fun” necessitates a few things and has a few criteria:
- Constructive not destructive – it doesn’t damage anyone else or anything. It builds up and doesn’t tear down. There is no victim.
- Inclusive- it doesn’t shut people out. It’s not cliquish, the more the merrier.
- No regrets- you don’t feel ashamed afterwards. You could share it with anyone and not feel the need to hide it or to go to Confession afterwards.
- Creative- means opening your minds and eyes to the fun around you, thinking outside the box.
- Christ-centered- life-giving, it flows from Christ. It forms us into the image of Christ through innocence and deepens our overall holiness.
- Prayer- should be able to incorporate prayer very easily, at the beginning, middle or end.
Nine Good Ideas
Recently, we had a LIFE Night on Christian Fun at the LIFE TEEN Headquarters Parish, St. Timothy’s, in Mesa, AZ. We asked the teens to offer ideas for a night of good Christian fun this summer. They were limited to $15 dollars a person (to spend) as they put together their best nights. You can do the same thing within your LIFE TEEN Program.
Here are a few of the things they came up with:
- Hose: Take an old garden hose, make small holes in it and turn it into a wet-n-wild limbo stick at a pool party.
- Disco Stu: Have a disco party in a ramada or gazebo at a public park. Disco wear is mandatory, 70′s tunes a must.
- Garage Saling: Break into teams, assign a budget of $20 to each and go “garage-saling” for three hours one Saturday morning, meet back up at the Church and compare buys. The winning group gets all the stuff or can donate it to the program.
- Movie Madness: Break into small groups one Saturday, take video cameras out and create music videos. Have an “Oscars” showing the following Saturday and competition. The winning group is given an award
- Mobile Water Bed: Line the bed of your truck with plastic and make it a pool. Get inflatable toys and virgin daiquiris. I repeat: VIRGIN. Park it in a public place and invite people to the party.
- High Rollin’ Holy Roller: Create “activity dice”. At 5 PM roll the “dinner dice” with six sides could include different fast food restaurants or other places with cheap menus. At 7 PM roll the “activity dice” with six activities like:
i. Kickball
ii. Water balloon fight
iii. Bowling
iv. Karaoke
v. Scavenger hunt
vi. Cardboard sledding - Iceblocking: Get a large block of ice from the grocery store, the kind that is the size of a small box. Find a grassy hill. Sit your butt on the ice, kick up your feet, and get ready to fly. (This is a West Coast favorite.)
- Scripture Softball: Every time someone gets up to bat they must recite the Scripture verse that they learned (at the beginning of the game) from memory. Failure to get it right in three tries retires the batter to the dugout, before they get a chance to hit.
- Cave Day: Blacken all the windows in someone’s house one Saturday morning and turn the air conditioner down to about 65 degrees (if your parents will let you), invite over about ten friends with their sleeping bags and watch rentals of classic ’80s movies all day.
I really wanna encourage you to head into Teen Talk; share and offer your ideas and add to these listed here.
This could be the greatest, funnest (how’s that for terrible English) summer of your life, one in which you explore and discover dozens of new ways to celebrate life and laugh yourselves sick–all for the glory of the Kingdom of God.
Or don’t, the choice is yours…
