the fun theory

have you heard of this theory? it goes something like: whatever activity people have the most fun doing, they will choose, all other things being equal. companies have known this for years, trying to make their advertisements the most fun, in order to win customers. shoot, chuckie cheese has always known this! hehe

i'm pretty sure i agree with this theory, and what i really like is the idea that people can be trained to do good things, simply by making good things fun. can you imagine if you could make eating broccoli more fun than french fries? (i mean, isn't that why we put cheese on it?!). we could all lose a few pounds this year! can you imagine what would happen if we could make giving money away to the poor more fun then spending it on the movies? we could make poverty disappear as fast as the electric toothbrush has made sweater-teeth (plaque) disappear! or we could start cleaning up the environment--like the electric car attempted to do--through alternative fun incentives to recycle.

in february, a group of 10th and 11th graders from the youth group here at the crossing are planning to have the most fun by putting on a concert for our friends. and instead of collecting the money for themselves they're giving it away to Living Water, an organization that builds clean water wells. the students are all helping out in some way. some are playing in the band, performing original music. some are making their own food and selling it. some are using their organizational skills to administrate the event, while others are using their math skills to make sure we break even. some are using their hospitality gifts to welcome people at the doors and get the word out for folks to come. some are using their design talents to make up flyers and create a colorful set-design.

erwin mcmanus says that "creativity is the natural result of spirituality." obviously, i think that's true, and i would add that 'fun is the process of creating something from nothing" (and i think that is spiritual). after all, that's what we are: something from nothing.

and the scriptures say after God created you and me, "God saw what He created, and it was good". i can just read the subtext of this as God looking at us with a smile saying to Himself "now, that was fun." :-)

what do you create from nothing, just cause it's fun?