So, God has been working a lot on my heart the last year or so – cancer scares, debt, and the normal stress of raising three boys will do that. One of the biggest things he’s done has been what I’ve dubbed the “meat and potatoes” regimen. This doesn’t mean I’ve gone old-school with my diet, it refers to focusing on the fundamentals.
I’ve slowly been identifying the things in my life that make up the building blocks – the important stuff.
For me, that’s connection with my family (wife and kids, in that order), community, and putting the hobbies that DON’T fit in either of the above categories a distant last, and in one case even getting rid of an entire collection of beloved “stuff”.
Today “Meat-and-Potatoes” was driven home by a tiny dragon model – only about an inch tall. He was mixed in a bag of Heroscape miniatures I had thrifted for resale. It was the simple fact that I recognized him as belonging to Yu-Gi-Oh [Dungeon Dice Monsters], a game I have never owned, much less played or even watched any of the anime. In order to get to a level of knowledge in that, I’d need to be immured in Yu-Gi-Oh adjacent hobbies to a rather large degree.
Except I don’t play any CCGs right now. I’ve played plenty in the past – Star Wars Unlimited, Lorcana, and even Versus System pre-2009, but nothing at all in the last year or two. How in the world did I recognize Red Eyes Black Dragon?
It’s not bad that I know my nerd lore. I’m proud of my otherwise useless Star Wars knowledge – last night in fact, I tasted sweet victory when my children challenged me in naming Star Wars ships (my son even pulled out a gem of an answer with the Wild Karrde). Proud dad moment.
The point was that I’ve spent too much time consuming brain junk food.
It didn’t bother me at all to recognize (from the same box) a model for the skiff Jabba used to drop Luke in the Sarlacc pit. That’s media I love and enjoy, but Yu-Gi-Oh? Nothing wrong with that franchise, but it’s not my wheelhouse. How much CCG doomscrolling did I need to do in order to be able to recognize it?
Yu-Gi-Oh (for me) is neither meat nor potato. As God was working on me, he kept pointing to one hobby that I didn’t want to let go. It may come as no surprise to some that I was being stubborn.
Many of my coworkers and friends (and friends’ kids) know me as the LEGO guy. I do LEGO conventions, build crazy models for events and so on. My home office has (had) wall-to-wall LEGO bins and models. When I taught a “Basic Machines” lesson for scouts? You guessed it, they were all made out of LEGO.
You might be surprised to find out that I drove my LEGO collection (minus a handful of home-built models) to Bricks & Minifigs and sold it all. It hurt a little bit.
But truth be told, LEGO is not my identity, and it didn’t serve to connect me more with my wife or kids.
My kids love LEGO, yes, but we connect playing and building with THEIR collection.
Interestingly, my NERF collection – yes, I know I’m a giant kid – is still going strong. Here’s the difference: it helps me connect not only with my own kids, but I use it to put on events for my scout troop, and local youth groups. Rather than a “junk food,” NERF (like my perpetual love for Star Wars) is a hobby that I love, but also connects me to people, and even helps me serve those around me.
Throughout scripture we are called to act in community – my pastor mentioned this morning the “one anothers” of the Bible. How many commands do we see that have community baked into the foundation?
Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you”
Colossians 3:13: “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you”
Galatians 6:2: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
All of this to ask you the question… what’s your meat and potatoes? What hobbies draw you into greater connection? Where might God be calling you to put away the junk food? What habits or hobbies increase your disconnection?
Don’t put away a hobby because a stranger on the internet told you Yu-Gi-Oh was bad. For the record, I didn’t say that. I’m saying that God is calling you to live in greater connection with the people around you. Find out what connects you, and dig deeper there.
Nicholas Wood
Nicholas works in healthcare by day and serves in ministry through Trail Life USA and his church’s youth group. A lifelong nerd, he gravitates toward computer gaming, TTRPGs, CCGs, and the rest of the gaming alphabet soup. His most dubious claim to fame is owning more NERF than you.
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