play ball

(originally posted 2/25/08)

A couple of weeks ago, as I was playing with Maddox, I tried to get him to roll a ball back and forth between the two of us. I would place him on the floor and then walk away from him so that I could sit across the room, but by the time I could sit down a few feet away he had gotten up and was walking toward me. He would then sit either next to me or in my lap and roll the ball toward the spot where he used to be sitting. I tried to correct him several times repeating the process of placing him against one wall and trying to walk myself to the other wall before he could get up and follow me, but it wasn't working. Eventually we ended up where he would just sit in my lap, roll the ball to no one and then get up himself and fetch the ball. All I could do was laugh at the logic, or lack thereof, in my 19 month old. He wanted to play with mama and he wanted to roll the ball but he also wanted to be close to me and sit in my lap and he wasn't able to logically think through the fact that we couldn't do both. 

Lesson Learned? In order for rolling the ball back and forth to truly work Maddox has to do his part and he also has to allow me to do my part. Unfortunately, Maddox wanted to do both his and my part, which in the end only wore him out and caused us to have to stop playing sooner than we probably would have if we had split the "work". When we insist on "rolling the ball" both ways, between us and God we not only rob ourselves of what God has for us but we also wear ourselves out by blindly rolling the ball, running and getting it and rolling the ball again, when instead we could be sitting in one place rolling the ball one direction and allowing it to come back to us. By allowing God to do his part, and roll the ball when it's His turn, we not only won't run ourselves out of energy and excitement for the game, but we will also allow God to play a part in our lives. So...sit down, relax, roll the ball and wait for the ball to come back to you. And don't be afraid when you feel like the Lord is far away. He may just be across the room waiting for you to roll the ball so he can roll it back.