Pride and an elevated sense of self-worth might drive us to assume we are a lot more important than we really are. Yes, our ministries are meaningful and we should be faithful, hard workers for Christ’s Kingdom. However, there are at least four important considerations before you call off another tee time.

Pastors, play more golf…or tennis, or do more kayaking, fishing, or hunting. You need to get outside, you need to unplug, you need a hobby, and you need to spend time getting better at it. We often express high esteem for great pastors and missionaries who worked themselves to death because of their willingness to give up personal health and wellbeing for the work of the ministry, but rarely stop to consider how much more useful they could’ve been for the sake of the Kingdom if they had a recreational hobby. I’ve lost count of the number of pastors who have bragged to me that they haven’t taken a vacation or even a day off for many years. If I just described you, you might seriously need to repent.

Pride and an elevated sense of self-worth might drive us to assume we are a lot more important than we really are. Yes, our ministries are meaningful and we should be faithful, hard workers for Christ’s Kingdom. However, there are at least four important considerations before you call off another tee time:

1. Bodily exercise is valuable.

I think we’ve fundamentally misunderstood Paul when he wrote, “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things” (1 Timothy 4:8). The rightful emphasis is on godliness; however, Paul doesn’t say bodily exercise has no value at all! Pastoral ministry is a very sedentary work. We spend hours in a chair, working on sermons, reading, or counseling church members. If you add the various breakfast and lunch appointments we have to connect with God’s people throughout the week, and the mid-week or Sunday afternoon fellowship meals, our bodies cannot sustain pastoral life without exercise. We often have a sense that more hours spent working means we will be more effective, when the reality is that our bodies are finite and attempts to use our minds well are thwarted without physical exertion.

John Piper wrote concerning Jonathan Edwards, “He maintained the rigor of his study schedule only with strict attention to diet and exercise. Everything was calculated to optimize his efficiency and power in study…In addition to watching his diet so as to maximize his mental powers, he also took heed to his need for exercise. In the winter he would chop firewood a half-hour each day, and in the summer he would ride into the fields and walk alone in meditation.”1 Likewise, in his Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons John Broadus wrote, “As to volume, we gain mainly by such habitual carriage and such physical exercise as may expand and strengthen the lungs. Riding horseback, cutting wood, and in a remarkable degree certain gymnastical exercises, will have this effect, as soon appears from increased breadth of chest.”2 Edwards and Broadus were primarily focused on the improvement of their physical state for the sake of preaching, yet bodily exercise was not downplayed or disregarded. It was valued and pursued.

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