MY MOM USED TO TELL ME, “Randy, you need to find a hobby.” And being the good dutiful son that I was I went out to find a hobby, and I have been hobby hunting ever since.
As a kid I collected things, like snow globes, Matchbox Cars, and even a try at numismatics (coin collecting). Growing up (a debatable term in some people’s eyes) my hobbies turned to such pursuits as model railroads, model rockets, stamp collecting, fishing and various sorties into the field of sports, from racquetball to weight lifting to golf, and of course let’s not forget geo-caching! Some might say I am a hobby schizophrenic, I rather see myself as kind of a “renaissance man of hobbies.”
The problem with hobbies is that they can become consuming. They can consume our time, our energy, our focus, and certainly not least, our money. If I could recoup the resources spent on my past hobbies I would be a rich man, or at least I would have more coins to collect!
The purpose of a hobby is to give us a release from the regular pressures of life. To give us time to re-gather our thoughts and to engage in a creative outlet. All good things. With this in mind, I would like to suggest that each of us find a hobby for 2007, and I have one to suggest. Here is a hobby that will give us release from the pressures of life, to re-orientate our thoughts and to give us a place to pour our creative energies. That hobby is the serious study of God’s Word.
We spend hundreds of dollars on craft items, fishing supplies, paint brushes, sporting equipment, etc. and yet shudder at dropping some bills in order to buy a good study Bible, or heaven-forbid, a Bible commentary! We shrink back at having to spend money, or time, on a Bible study book, but we think nothing of acquiring the latest tool of our hobby. I maybe wrong here, but I think there is something askew with this.
Hobbies are good, that’s for sure, but why not take up a hobby that is truly life-changing. I challenge us this year, as followers of Jesus, to get serious, and to put our time and resource where our heart is said to be. The cost benefit is well-worth the effort.