There’s a downside to having a job you love.
Here in New Zealand, I manage, edit, and write for the blog at YWAM Furnace—sharing testimonies and tips from the mission field. I’m passionate about storytelling and I could spend hours staring at one blog post (or even one paragraph).
In short, I love what I do.
Wait, Kayla, I hear you protest. Isn’t that a good thing?
Well, the problem is, I forget to do it for myself.
When I started managing the YWAM Furnace blog in 2018, it was a dream come true. Writing wasn’t “on the side” anymore. It was a central—and recognized—part of my ministry. But as I poured my time and energy into my day-to-day role, the number of my personal blog posts dwindled down.
My creativity already had an avenue. I didn’t need anything more, right?
But at the start of 2020, I looked at how few blog posts I’d written here. And it hit me. No matter how much I felt fulfilled in my role, there would always be a part of me that needed a blank page. Where I wasn’t trying to write for someone else, but for myself.
Sounds selfish.
But you never know what could happen when you give yourself a blank page.
A few weeks ago, I wrote Dear Landlocked Citizen, With Love From International Travel. It didn’t go viral, and I wasn’t trying (okay, maybe I was a little bit). But at the end of the day, I just wanted to grieve the loss of something that meant a lot to me, travel—and finally published it here.
The next morning, I got back to collecting and scheduling YWAM posts.
That’s when I got a message from Abigal, one of our YWAM Furnace team.
“I was thinking about writing a Mother’s Day letter to my mom, could you use that as a blog post?” she asked. “I saw your latest blog post and was inspired!”
A week later, we shared “An Open Letter to a Missionary Mom”. Abigal had come back with a heartfelt post to honour the real heroes of the mission field—our mothers. People started sharing it, and kept sharing it.
Even though I loved how many moms were encouraged around the world—a different thought kept running through my head.
See what happens when you take the time to write for yourself?
Sometimes we think taking time for personal creativity is going drain our energy for anything else. Personal projects do take time and energy—but I think our lack of prioritizing creativity is what really kills us.
So, there’s a downside to having a job you love—but it’s only a downside as long as you’re unaware of it, or ignore it.
Don’t ignore what you love, and take time to do it for yourself.
Really—you never know what could happen.
