Biblical Text: Jeremiah 33 (Alternate Text: 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13)
An invitation to insert strong emotion into an encounter with scripture. Emotion can be a critical guide and help us as interesting and challenging questions of each other and of the text. An opportunity to give ourselves (and each other) to feel human feelings . . . which opens us up to imagining that folks in these bible stories and the authors of the text actually were real humans with real feelings.
Bible. Pen and several sheets of paper. Perhaps a timer.
Spend a moment in quiet prayer. If you wish, begin by freewriting for 3-5 minutes. Just let the pen empty out your concerns and thanksgiving for the day. Breathe.
How to Play . . .
It’s very important to retain the spirit of play in this playdate! Strive not for “meaning” or “understanding”—strive, instead for seeing the weird, the scary, the hard, and the stupid. No explaining!! Play instead.
NOTE: You may wish to do each of the following items (1-4) on a different day of the week. You could do some freewriting each day or do freewriting on separate days, based on the lists you’ve already made.
It’s you’re playdate, do it your way!
Weird:
Scary:
Hard:
Stupid
This is enough! But if you want to extend the playtime a little more, spend some time freewriting . . .
Take a moment to breathe and let the playtime settle around you. Carry your curiosity and insights and questions into the day.
This Playdate draws directly from the work of Judy Carter, in The Comedy Bible. She suggests the weird-scary-hard-stupid structure.
On Emotions
On Being Ridiculous
First Response, Best Response
Freewriting
Playdates with Scripture by Virginia Wiles is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at virginiawiles.com.