While I was away on vacation, I came across the book, The Christian at Play, by Robert K. Johnston, (sadly, out of print) in a bargain bookstore. Johnson’s book offers some helpful insights for a Christian theology of sport. Johnston’s definition of play is broader that the realm of sport, including the aesthetic (e.g., music, art, drama, dance) and the communal (e.g., feasting, celebrating, resting) as well. In the next few blogs I intend to share a few of these insights.
One of Johnston’s insights is that play (sport) is primarily non-utilitarian. He argues that one of the ways that play is misused and becomes something less than play is when it is done for a purpose. Children will often resist adopting games that have been designed or adapted to teach a moral purpose. He refers to a study by Stanford psychologists Mark Lepper and David Greene in which two groups of preschoolers were tested for their continued interest in a certain play activity. One group was told that if they performed the activity they would be rewarded, the other group was not promised any reward. At the end of the activity both groups were rewarded with playing with special toys. After two weeks, the group that was promised a reward had diminished interest in the activity. “Because their play had become goal oriented, they overlooked its pleasures. The activity had become purposive; it was work, not play.”
Johnston also quotes Lee Gibbs: “…the purpose of play is in the play itself. If a person enters play only with useful, instrumental goals in mind, the activity ceases to be play. The most distinctive characteristic is that it is voluntary, spontaneous, a source of joy and amusement, an activity pursued exuberantly and fervently for its own sake.” There may be other benefits that accrue to the people who play, but they cannot be the primary intent, or it is no longer play.
I see this in my own exercise program. I took up running because aging and my wife’s delicious cooking were adding pounds. I ran in order to lose (or, at least, not gain) weight. I even ran a marathon (or, should I say, survived one). But I never felt any joy in running, never experienced the “runner’s high.” Perhaps my utilitarian use of running prevented it from being “play” or “sport” in the fullest sense.
On the other hand, during the last year I have returned to a sport of my youth – tennis. It also provides some health benefits, but I don’t play primarily for the health benefits. I play because I enjoy the game. It is a lot of fun. Even though I gain health benefits from both, for me, running is work, while tennis is play. Sports may have external benefits, but if those benefits are the focus, then the sports are no longer “play.” They stop being Sabbath and become work.
Perhaps this should be kept in mind by the coaches who preach that the team plays to learn life lessons. The sport is primarily about the sport, otherwise it stops being play and becomes work. When I coached my children’s teams, I said I had three goals: that the athletes are safe (avoiding injury), have fun, and learn something. Maybe my goals should only have been the first two, (or even only the middle one) but then, what need would there be for a coach if the kids weren’t supposed to learn something! We are told in Scripture to stop from our labors (which Johnston argues is an invitation to play, among other things), but if even our play becomes work, we will either burn out on an activity that is meant to be fun (by “working at our play”), or we will be diminished in our capacities to be the people we are created to be.
May all of our sports be “play,” in the truest, deepest sense.
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