As a young child, I would often be in my room playing for hours on end waging epic, large scale battles with Ninja Turtles, GI Joe action figures, and whatever else looked fight ready.  Couches transformed into secret bases populated by conniving bad guys, and rogue good guys would go in and save the day.  My characters would taunt one another, make plans for war, and even attempt to find peace.  In my mind, I probably directed some of the greatest cinematic battles in history.

All of us have characters we have projected onto as children, and even now as adults.  These characters have personalities, behaviors, and languages that we give to them.  It is a normal part of being a child.  After watching Toy Story 3 again tonight and being choked up by the beautiful ending, I began to reflect on play therapy and the benefits of play in general.

Life has been a bit stressful lately. I’ve had to put in some extra work hours due to an advancing deadline. To mentally get myself through it, I told myself last week that I’d take a real Sabbath on Sunday. No work, no email, no computer, nothing. Only rest and play with my family. However, Sunday wasn’t all that restful. I struggled with the desire to do a little work here and there. When I sat down to read, I felt guilty for not working on the project. When I walked past the dirty clothes I felt the urge to do a load. When I saw my computer, I wanted to work on my inbox. My body and heart wanted to relax but my mind kept interrupting my peace. My inability to take a day off to relax kind of, uh, stressed me out.

I finally gave in at the end of the night and allowed myself to do “leisure work” on the computer. It was when I read a comment left by Adam on my Loggerhead, Lights and Landmark post, I was reminded of a lesson we learned in Germany. Adam left some great insight on rest as well as a link to the article (http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2010/05/in-season/). So, I figure this was God’s way of showing me where to begin my Culture Clash series. So Germany it is…