Holy Play: The Joyful Adventure of Unleashing Your Divine Purpose

by Kirk B. Jones

In Holy Play popular author and teacher Kirk Byron Jones shows how to move forward together with God to imagine and live your true life purpose with creativity and joy. This extraordinary book gives you permission to stop waiting for God to tell you what to do and start doing what God has been inspiring you to do all along. Through provocative stories and helpful exercises, Jones shows you how to foster the openness and energy that allow you to engage with and construct a fulfilling life that uses all your God-given talent. Jones shows how to humbly and gladly accept the sacred incredible in you--in particular the creator in you.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 2007

Reviews

[Tracy Blanchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the beginning of this book. Theologically it jibes with my impression of life as a co-creation rather than a depressing slog trying to discover the cryptic and elusive “will of God.” I’m more of a Process Theology kind of a girl. But then about halfway through it got kind of self-helpy and not-so-substantive. Jones would start talking about something really interesting but never dove deep – as if he just made a list of his thoughts on the subject, each of which is summed up in vague page or page-and-a-half chunks. And what was the point of the little call-out circles? They weren’t extra information or a deepening of the main text, but simply a quote pulled out from the main text pulled. Once I realized this, I stopped reading them. They just became filler and I have to wonder if it was the publisher’s way of making the book longer. Plus the exercises at the end of each chapter are kind of lame.

I like what the author had to say about the roles of creativity and joy and play when searching for and living from purpose, as well as his emphasis on dreams (day and night) as a source to understanding what we might really want. But in the end, this book was primarily a cheerleading, rah rah, you-can-do-it book about finding your purpose yourself and not waiting around for God to reveal it, not a substantive book on how to do such a thing.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating book. This will challenge your theology a little bit, but also introduce concepts of God that are sweet to consider. This book has, and will continue to, inspired me to see God in a new way (specifically related to my work)-- I hope this will lead to bolder, more intentional living in terms of vocation.

This book is an absolute must read for anyone getting ready to graduate from college... anyone who has graduated from college in the past 2-3 years... and anyone looking at a career change.

Maybe it's up to you! God will go with you where you take him.

[Mary Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am half way through this book and it is making me rethink some things!

[Briana Grenert]

Difficult to rate. Some things really resonated - like several of the basic ideas - but the extensions of those ideas left me rather skeptical.