"If the Church should request your services, do not accede to this request out of a desire to get ahead, nor refuse it moved by pleasureful idleness. Obey God, rather, in simplicity of heart, submitting yourselves humbly to him who directs you. Neither should you prefer your peaceful leisure to the needs of the Church. If there were no people to minister to her as she gave birth, not even you would have found a way to have been born."
Augustine calls for Christians to put aside their own desire for personal pleasure and recreation in order to serve and minister to the people of God. I do not believe that Augustine is saying that there is no place for recreation and leisure in the life of the believer but I do think that he would argue that the believer's personal pursuit of recreation and leisure takes a second place to the life lived in service to the community of God's people.
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