How My Horse Taught Me to Be a Parent

by Annie Crawford

The summer of 2001, I graduated college, married a man after knowing him for less than a year,...

Kings Over Bishops: The Play of Chess in Late Medieval and Early Modern England as a Vehicle for Understanding English History

by James L. Underwood

Introduction Man is wired by his Creator to first play at that which he must eventually take more...

Bombs, Board Games, and Bede the Venerable: But Mostly Chess

by Seth Myers

When every guest had been welcomed inside the gate, there were songs, dances, music, games, and of...

Take Me Out to the Ballgame: How Baseball Can Restore Our Senses and Our Souls

by Sandra Hicks

Rest, respite, relaxation. Leisure. Many people equate rest and leisure exclusively with bodily rest, kicking back in a recliner after a long day at the office, or spending a week on a beach, cabana boys bringing you drinks – and that does have its time and place.

Counterpunching Trials With Joy: Boxing as a Unique Parallel to Christian Sanctification

by Matt Hill

Athletes who play basketball, golf, gymnastics, and a host of others all, in some way, display a beauty intrinsic to their chosen sport. Boxing is different.

Craft and Glory

by Molly Hopkins

In communal leisure activities such as sports and games, bringing God glory is fairly straightforward: love your enemies as yourself. The concept is simple, though challenging. But how do we honor God with our solitary hobbies, such as painting, baking, writing, sewing, or woodworking?

Forgiveness in the Foam: A Poem

by Dwayne Sheridan

The motivations behind this hobby vary wildly, from honing the precision of the crafting itself, to stage for dramatic performance, to wanting to be in someone else’s shoes for a while.

Bones Will Sing: Dance in Spiritual Formation

by Rachel Bruce Johnson

The dance opened with a quiet exploration of gestural language. My hands circle an imaginary cup and I raise it slowly toward my lips.

In the Image of a Playful God

by Anna Beresford

God is also playful and desires a real, intimate connection with humankind and creation.

Leisure the Basis of Education: Applying the Sabbath Principle to the Classroom

by Alex Markos

One of the best pieces of advice I have received regarding education came in the form of a question posed at a summer conference for classical Christian education in 2021.

Sea Reflections

by Tiffany Kavedzic

What brings you a sense of stillness and calm? Perhaps a sunrise, cup of coffee, tidy...

Obeying the Rules of the Game

by Zak Schmoll

Games require boundaries. I play a sport called power soccer. It is a four on four contest between power wheelchair users on a basketball court. We attach metal guards to the front of our chairs and strike oversized soccer balls at speeds up to thirty miles per hour.

Fly Fishing and the Fall

by James M. Swayze

I am a fly fisherman and a broken man – broken by nature, and a fly fisherman by choice.

The Curse of Gnosticism and the Cure of Play: Why Leisure is Essential for Spiritual Health

by Jasmin Biggs

Many Christians raised in American evangelicalism struggle to practice leisure. Between the endless needs of a destitute world, our relative material wealth compared with the world’s poor, and an impoverished anthropology that says true Christians must perennially function beyond their human limitations in order to be radically committed to God, the practice of rest is rife with shame. Leisure is tantamount to backsliding.