Digging for Hobbies

A visitor came to chapel some weeks and he engaged me in conversation beyond the small-talk. He wanted to get to know me and asked what my hobbies were. I was baffled. I could not think of any. I used to do amateur dramatics, but no more. I used to reenact civil war battles, but no longer. I am no longer a magistrate, or chair a local political party. “What a dull fellow I am become”, I thought as my new friend awaited my answer, my pause becoming increasingly awkward. Thankfully, I was participating in an archaeological dig that week, so I was able to blurt that out and save the day. My acquaintance nodded with satisfaction, and regaled me with some tale of a dig on his land.

The conversation should have been forgotten, but it wasn’t. Pastors in particular are in danger of living an insular life, revolving around church and Christian people. Meeting folk, getting to know them and befriending them is good for its own sake as well as a fine opportunity to share the gospel. Let us not become worldly, but neither let us become too sacred to mix with the unregenerate. Some of us cannot always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you because we do not know many people who do not already believe. All credit to those who go out and share the gospel, and those who make friends with the lost.