Why You Need a Hobby

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, PublisherI have a confession to make—I can be a workaholic.  I’m not as bad as depicted in this picture but I have caught myself checking emails on my iPhone in less than appropriate places!

Work is good.  God gave man work to do as a reflection of his image and as a statement of the honor that God bestowed upon us when he entrusted the earth to our care.  Work gives purpose to life, provides a productive outlet for our God-given talents, and is a means to enrich our lives and those around us.  Work was not the curse, work was cursed.  There is a big difference.

Nevertheless, excess can make the use of God’s good gifts a curse or even a sin.  Food is good and meant to be enjoyed.  Too much eating is gluttony, which is dishonoring to the Lord and bad for our health.  Sex is a good gift of the Lord.  Sex outside of marriage or self-centered sexual activity within marriage is sinful and demeaning.  Work is a good gift.  Workaholism can be a sin and harmful to us and to our families.

As I contemplated my life recently I realized that I have workaholic tendencies.  I am typically in the office by 6:15 to 6:30 AM, I work a full day without stopping, taking about a 15-20 minute lunch or having a working lunch meeting.  I often have evening meetings or functions to attend.

When I am home in the evenings, I am responding to emails, even while “watching” television or I am working on the graduate class that I teach.  I usually spend four to five hours on Saturdays writing articles (like this one) and preparing Sunday School lessons and faculty devotionals.  Then, there is the pool to clean, the yard to mow, the shrubs to trim.  This doesn’t even count the three miles of brisk walking I do six out of seven days.

I don’t mind work, in fact, I like it.  The Lord has given me the honor of serving the students and families of Briarwood Christian School.  I have a wonderful wife and three beautiful daughters.  The Lord has “blessed the work of my hands.”

Nevertheless, it occurred to me that I was not living a holistic life that reflected what it means to bear God’s image in all of its dimensions.  While work is a fundamental aspect of life—it is not life—there is more to life than work.  I came to the conclusion that my life was out of balance.

What to do?  I decided to restart an old hobby that I had abandoned 25 years ago—photography.  Although my skills are rusty, they are beginning to return—slowly.

The  Benefits of a Hobby

There are many benefits to a hobby.  The benefits of my photography, many of which are applicable to many hobbies, are:

• I have learned to see.  There is wonder and beauty all around us but we miss it because our minds are preoccupied.  Photography forces me to actually see.  In fact, even when I don’t have my camera with me, I find myself looking much more closely and creatively at my surroundings, the people milling around, expressions on their faces, patterns in architecture and nature, and different colors of light, shadows, and reflections. 

For example, in the past I would have missed the simple elegance of the wine bottles and glasses sitting outside a store in Birmingham.  I would have walked by with hardly a glance.  Instead, I stopped and took a picture.  I was surprised by how nice a picture such a simple sidewalk display could make.

Likewise, I would have never walked into a local hardware store to ask permission to take pictures.  I told them I needed practice taking difficult indoor pictures in preparation for my trip to Lebanon and Germany.  I promised to send them copies of the pictures to use anyway they desired.  They readily agreed.  To my delight, I was able to capture several interesting pictures from the hardware store.

I would have missed the intensity of this great grandmother’s conversation with my wife.

I would not have seen this sad sight because I would not have been out and about looking for subjects to shoot (pictures of course!).

Again, my photographs are not particularly good, as I say, I’m rusty.  The point is that photography has given me “new” eyes—eyes that see more of life around me.

• I am less one dimensional.  The nature of my work causes me to focus on the analytical.  Photography gives me the opportunity to explore the artistic.  Photography can be thought of as “painting with light.”  It involves light, color, composition, perspective, patterns, and much more…all elements of art as depicted in the photograph below that I recently took.

This focus on the artistic encourages me to explore the more creative side of what it means to bear God’s image.  After all, God is both the master artist and the master physicist. 

• I am able to combine my interest in the technical along with developing skills in the artistic.  Digital photography correctly using an advanced DSLR camera is very technical.  I find the ability to combine both the technical and the artistic to be invigorating. To be a good digital photographer requires an understanding of some physics, light, focal length, depth-of-field, white-balance, filters, photo editing software, and more.
• My hobby can make me a more rounded and interesting person (Lord knows I could use the help!).  Conversations can be more interesting when they extend beyond work, family, and the news.  Photography also gives me more illustrations, literal and literary, to use when teaching lessons or making presentations.

• More personal quiet time.  Photography gives me the opportunity to “withdraw” from the rush, from work, from responsibility.  I am able to meditate, to consider, to think, and to savor.  I have time to create, not merely to do.  There is no “to do” list and no deadline.

• It encourages me to make new acquaintances and forge new friendships.  I have found myself walking up to strangers and engaging them in conversation, usually to ask permission to photograph them or their children, as in the photograph below.  I did not know the parents but I asked them to take photos of their girls selling doughnuts in front of a local store.  They were delighted to allow me to take photographs of the boys (of course I promised to email them copies, which I did).

The picture below was taken during the state championship baseball game.  I would have never noticed this little boy at the baseball game or his contemplative expression if I was not thinking about finding good pictures.  Many parents are delighted to receive my email with the free picture of their child attached.

I expect to have the same experience when I travel to Lebanon and Germany this summer.  I plan to do a lot of “street photography,” which will require that I initiate conversations with people that I would otherwise simply walk past.

You may already have a hobby or you may have other activities that add variety and interest to your life such as golf or scrapbooking.  If you don’t, I encourage you to consider finding a hobby that will stretch you as a human being and as a servant of Christ.  After all, he made us to enjoy him, his creation, and the life he has given us.

Are You a Workaholic?

Your life may be far more balanced than mine has been.  To check, take this “Workaholic Quiz”:

Twenty Questions from Workaholics Anonymous

• Do you get more excited about your work than about family or anything else?
• Are there times when you can charge through your work and other times when you can't get anything done?
• Do you take work with you to bed? On weekends? On vacation?
• Is work the activity you like to do best and talk about most?
• Do you work more than 40 hours a week?
• Do you turn your hobbies into money-making ventures?
• Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of your work efforts?
• Have your family or friends given up expecting you on time?
• Do you take on extra work because you are concerned that it won't otherwise get done?
• Do you underestimate how long a project will take and then rush to complete it?
• Do you believe that it is okay to work long hours if you love what you are doing?
• Do you get impatient with people who have other priorities besides work?
• Are you afraid that if you don't work hard you will lose your job or be a failure?
• Is the future a constant worry for you even when things are going very well?
• Do you do things energetically and competitively, including play?
• Do you get irritated when people ask you to stop doing your work to do something else?
• Have your long hours hurt your family or other relationships?
• Do you think about your work while driving, falling asleep, or when others are talking?
• Do you work or read during meals?
• Do you believe that more money will solve the other problems in your life?

If you answered 'yes' to three or more of these questions, there is a chance you are a workaholic or well on your way to becoming one.(Source: Workaholics Anonymous)

If you need more balance in your life—consider a hobby!  It will make you a more rounded individual, give glory to God, and be a more effective leader.

Technorati Tags: Hobby,Photography,Productivity,Digital Photography,Workaholic,Balance,Interesting,Interest,Art,Light,Work,Pattern

What Do Good Coffee and Good Teaching Have in Common?

 By Jason A. Van Bemmel (Headmaster, New Covenant Christian School)

In our School Business class this summer, Dr. Mosbacker had us read “The Peanut Butter Manifesto” by a VP from Yahoo! I was inspired by the title to do some reflection on the connection between good coffee and good teaching. My reflections then became “The Coffee Manifesto.” I shared this with our teaching staff at an in-service a few weeks ago, and they loved it. It humorously serious, and I thought you might find this enjoyable.

The Coffee Manifesto: Will it Be Starbucks or Sanka?

I love watching old Andy Griffith shows on DVD from the library. They are a perfect way to unwind after a long day. The DVDs from the library have the original sponsor spots which closed the shows when they aired. These old commercial spots are fun to watch, but one thing really bothers me: Andy Griffith pitched Sanka.

I love Andy Griffith.

I hate Sanka.

Sanka is an example of what should never be done to coffee. Sanka has two nasty qualities, which make it barely qualify as coffee:

1. Sanka is chemically decaffeinated.
2. Sanka is instant coffee.

Coffee should never be robbed of its stimulating effect. This is why most sensible people drink coffee. Rob coffee of its caffeine and you have lost the essence of what coffee is. The only worse thing you can do is to then freeze-dry the coffee so people can make it in an instant.

Coffee is meant to have caffeine. Coffee is meant to be brewed right before you drink it. Sanka is an attack on the essence of coffee. As much as I love Andy Griffith, it pains me to see him hawking this rubbish that no human being should be forced to drink.

Teaching is like coffee, and the same kinds of critical elements that make for good coffee also make for good teaching. The essence of coffee is to stimulate. The essence of teaching is the same.

John Milton Gregory says that the essence of teaching is to stimulate the mind of the student for self-activity. “The true stimulant of the human mind is a question, and the object that does not raise any questions will stir no thought.”

Compare for a moment the stimulating effect of Sanka with a more excellent coffee – Starbucks. Drink Sanka and you are ready to fall asleep. Drink Starbucks and you’re ready to take on the world.

What is the effect of your teaching on your students? Does it call for action, stimulate thought, excite the mind, get the life ready for response?

Good coffee takes time to roast and brew properly. Starbucks roasts their beans until the bitterness is gone and the complexity of flavors can be fully tasted. If the beans are not roasted as long, the bitterness of the raw bean remains and the complex and more subtle flavors of the bean cannot emerge. Yet even properly roasted coffee beans must be ground and brewed properly, too. BUNN coffee makers can brew a pot of coffee in just 2-3 minutes, but coffee grounds need to be exposed to hot water dripping through them for 6-6.5 minutes for ideal results.

Like good coffee, good teaching cannot be rushed. It takes time to stimulate the minds of our students to inquire, discover, know, understand, appreciate and apply the complex truths we have to teach them. The bitter flavors of a rush to judgment, a quick and dirty answer, will dominate teaching that is rushed. The more subtle and complex flavors of contemplation, genuine understanding, appreciation, delight, discrimination, and transformation take much longer to emerge and can be overwhelmed by cheaper and easier and much less transformative elements if teachers do not have patience with the teaching process.

Good coffee is roasted and brewed carefully, with attention to detail and discrimination. Roasted coffee has over 1,000 flavor and aroma compounds. Only 30 of these make the best-tasting coffee.

Likewise, good teaching must be careful and discriminatory. The world is full of thousands of ideas. Most of them will not make our students think God’s thoughts after Him. They will poison, rather than enhance, their ability to live a life that pleases God. The teacher must be careful and pay attention to detail so as not to confuse, overwhelm or dishearten students.

Good coffee can stand on its own or can be enhanced and enjoyed with a variety of flavors added to it. Starbucks comes in different roasts and brews and adding flavored syrups and creamers makes it taste even better without obscuring the essence of what makes the coffee excellent. Cheap coffee, on the other hand, needs flavor enhancers to try to mask the cheap and bitter quality of the coffee.

Quality teaching also speaks for itself. It can come in a variety of subject areas (or “roasts”) – history, English, math, languages, etc. Each of them, while varying from each other, can still be recognized as excellent teaching with the same core essence – stimulating the mind of the student to self-action, discovery and understanding with patience and discrimination. Teaching can be flavored with field trips, feasts, celebrations, videos, games, etc. These additions make excellent teaching even more enjoyable. Poor teachers try to mask poor teaching with videos, games, and field trips (often meaningless ones), trying to compensate for poor teaching by adding lots of flavorful fun. This may amuse some students, but it cannot really make up for the fact that the teaching itself in its essence is poor and does not stimulate the minds of students to quality thinking and acting.

Good coffee must be properly strong, as even quality coffee is not very good when it is too weak. The more coffee grinds you use, the more complex and robust the flavors you can produce. Of course, you can also make coffee that is too strong.

Good teaching must also be delivered at the appropriate strength. Teachers need to be assertive, bold, joyful and confident. They should lead and guide their class from a position of strength, not weakness. Of course, a teacher can be overbearing – too strong – and overwhelm their students and keep them from being able to properly express themselves, ask questions, discover the truth for themselves and exercise dominion over their piece of God’s creation. So teaching, like coffee, must be properly strong but not overly assertive.

Finally, when good coffee is brewing, it is enticing. The aroma of good coffee draws people to it – even people who don’t drink coffee. In fact, I have heard many people smell good coffee brewing and say, “I wish I drank coffee.”

So also, good teaching should be enticing. It should attract students to the truth. It should make them want to have a drink from the fountain of knowledge. As our teaching entices students, we can then equip them to be life-long learners because they will want to learn and to love to learn.

God has given us the highest privilege – to stimulate the minds of our students to know God’s truth, to embrace His goodness, to love His beauty. We have been called by God to entice our students to the highest truths, the greatest goods. We have the opportunity to make an eternal difference in the life of a child made in the image of God. Our students are looking for something to believe, for someone to follow. They want to be stimulated. The real question for us, as educators, is simple: What will we offer them – Starbucks or Sanka?

Technorati Tags: Teaching,Coffee,Starbucks,Sanka,Andy Griffith,Engaged,Effective Teaching,Education,Reform

How to Get Your Ideas and School Philosophy to Stick with Parents and Donors

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, PublisherHow do we get parents to understand and buy into Christian education? How do we get them to understand what developing a biblical worldview means and why it is important? How do we get our staff to catch the vision of what is possible? How do we get more people to give and donors to give more?

I recently read the book Made to Stick, which I found to be excellent. The authors, one of whom is an educator, outline the essential ingredients for getting our ideas to stick with others so that they both understand and care/act. These principles are:

• S--Simple (Short compact proverb)
• U--Unexpected (Break the expected pattern)
• C--Concrete (Put the message in language connected to everyday life, avoid abstractions)
• C--Credibility (Appeal to authority and passing the Sinatra Test)
• E--Emotions (People will only act if they care)
• S--Stories (A story is powerful because it provides the context missing from abstract prose)

An easy way to remember these principles is to put them into this sentence: Put your ideas into a "Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story."

This sounds a lot like the way Jesus taught.

Each of the chapters explores each of the principles outlined above. I found the book to be very informative, well written, and practical. I highly recommend it.