"The trials and tribulattions of an extremely mediocre mechanic."
Hobbies have always been an important part of my life. Even in elementary school and Maybe I should have had more supervision than I did, but I enjoyed that, was interested in the space program and studying what was going on with that as well as the usual things kids do All of that was really essential for me and my development as a person. Then when I went to work, I found that I still needed to keep that sense of play, to have some balance of work and play, or I could get pretty weird. It would come out in ways that were bad for me personally and bad also for my work. There's been a couple of times in my life where I've essentially burned out in ministry, or I've just gotten to a place where I just couldn't put one foot in front of the other, it seemed. A major cause of that as I looked back on those experiences was that I'd lost that balance of work and play. It's tempting, I t A lot of times they choose hobbies that are really basically work in disguise, or they choose hobbies that will enrich their work. Well, if it's enric It's not really a hobby. You need to find some t Example, as an adult, some of my hobbies have included astronomy, flying, I'm a pilot, haven't flown for a when I approach it that way and do it as something I find illustrations from astronomy, from flying, from camping, from gardening, whatever it is, but if I do it for the purpose of getting sermon illustrations or otherwise enhancing my work, then it no longer serves as a hobby. So I would say to people, if the hobby you have is really about work, you probably need to find another hobby. And even in retirement, I those are the kinds of t And so it's really a spiritual exercise to be playful and to have they open you up and make it possible for you to follow the Leader of the Spirit.