I just finished reading Donald Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, and I am beginning to feel convicted of my lack of pursuits and hobbies in life. Perhaps "convicted" isn't quite the word – inspired is probably a better fit. In the book Miller structures his narrative entirely around screenwriting and the importance of story in one's own life. I really took to his format and literary voice in A Million Miles. Thought provoking, raw and emotional, this book truly hit a nerve. I have been pondering some things for awhile now, and his emphasis on living one's life not by success but by story and memory making is something I know I need to explore and unearth more than I have been.
I am primarily interested in what I could be doing with my spare time. In reflecting on my hobbies and interests I've realized that I don't really have something I can claim as "my thing" in life. I have a strong interest in video production and have always been "the video guy" just about wherever I go, but I can't really say it's something I yearn to do in my free time anymore. Part of this is that video production takes a team effort, and my access to fellow videographers is limited. I have introduced my love of production and creativity into my ministry and have found it to be a great tool especially with youth – but again, it's not really something I can escape to like kayaking or knitting. I guess what I am really trying to get my head around at 31 years old, is what I can possibly do with this "hobby vacancy" – what can I tell people about when I'm not at church doing my pastor thing?
Without further ado, here are some ideas I've started to entertain. I list these in no particular order and all under the premise of "if money and time was not an obstacle…" I feel like an addition or two of something other than making line-up changes for my fantasy baseball team will greatly enhance not only my mental and physical health but give me that much more to write about in my blog account (which has obviously taken the backseat over the last several months.) I could:
Train for Triathlons, take up mountain biking or kayaking, enroll in cooking classes, become one of those trained weather spotters, hike/backpack the Appalachian Trail, learn to speak foreign languages and travel, learn how to build websites and other techno-nerdery, learn woodworking or some other hands-on craft, rock climb, etc.
I am really interested in environmental issues and anything having to do with sustainable resources and reduction of our carbon footprint. Social justice has become an area of great importance to me. In fact, there are so many organizations and causes I find worthwhile that I would have to devote an entire post to them and yet, I seem stuck in my actual involvement and participation. And when I say "stuck" I mean I either don't know how to participate or I do know how and for whatever reason I have not gotten off my butt.
I have to do something – and like Miller in A Million Miles, I want to invest for the sake of meaning-making. Not that I view my life as meaningless – far from it – but with many changes and transitions on the personal front coming up at lightning speed, I just feel that having some kind of a real hobby would be beneficial for me and everyone else close to me. I've borrowed so many other people's hobbies for long enough. It's time to sink my teeth into something that lights my fire – something that I can truly claim as my own "scene."
