The Fun Lifestyle

What is life about? The other day one of my coworkers and I were talking. She had just gotten off the phone and stated, “sometimes I think people just forget what life is about.” And you know what, she is right. Often times I am guilty of forgetting what life is about too. I get caught up in the routine of the day and forget my main purpose.

Over the past few months the Lord has really put Thailand on my heart {why thailand? i’m not sure… asia has never been high on my bucket list of places to visit}. But after doing a little bit of reading the Lord has used the Thai culture to teach me. For those of you who don’t know {aka people like me} Thailand is known as the ‘Land of Smiles.’ In everyday life Thais’ put a strong emphasis on the concept of ‘sanuk,’ the idea that life should be fun. They also deal with disagreements, mistakes, or other problems by saying “mai pen rai” (translated ‘it doesn’t matter’). Thais’ shrug off less-than-ideal situations by simply recognizing that in the scheme of life, it doesn’t matter. A smile and the sentence “mai pen rai” indicate that an incident is not important and therefore there is no conflict or shame involved. They forgive and move on.

The Word tells us that Christ came so that we can have life, and have it to the fullest {John 10:10}. I believe that if we are living life to the fullest, as Yahweh intended for us to live, life should be fun! We should embrace the “mai pen rai” way of thinking because life is too short to let the little things bother us. And can you imagine the ministry opportunities? If I saw someone with a smile on their face 90% of the time, who emphasized the idea of ‘sanuk,’ and ‘mai pen rai’ I would want to know what made them different. Can you imagine how brightly the light of Christ would shine?

Life is about Christ {2 Cor 5:17}. We are called to live for Him {Gal 2:20}. We are called to be imitators of Him {Eph 5:1-2}. We are called to be joyful always {1 Thess 5:16-18}. We need to forgive one another as we have been forgiven {Col 3:13}.

I am going to embrace the Thai ‘sanuk’ lifestyle and “mai pen rai” way of thinking!