We rarely read about recreational activities and interests of John Wesley. He certainly was not a "gym rat." He apparently had very little interest in, not to mention time for, personal recreation. He encouraged physical fitness and surely his rugged lifestyle contributed to his own health and well-being. We even have some accounts of his walking in large circles as if to get his circulation going before taking to horse.

Even so, he would not have been used as a model by today's proponents of physical fitness and daily workouts. He even issued some statements that suggested that too much such activity could be called "forbidden pleasures."

Evidently Wesley's prohibition on "forbidden pleasures" did not exclude mountain climbing. On May 24, 1762, he went with two friends to see one of the "greatest natural wonders in Ireland." "Croagh Patrick," or "Mount Eagle," as the English called it, was a mountain 14 miles from Castlebar. At the foot of the mountain, Wesley writes: "We left our horses and procured a guide. It was just twelve when we alighted, the sun was burning hot and we had not a breath of wind. Part of the ascent was a good deal steeper than an ordinary pair of stairs. About two we gained the top, which was an oval, grassy plain about an hundred and fifty yards in length and seventy or eighty in breadth."

It is important to remember that John Wesley was a flatlander. His experience with mountains is limited to what he had seen in England, Georgia and parts of Germany. Describing the peak of Croagh Patrick, he says, "I think it cannot rise much less than a mile perpendicular from the plain below." (Actually, the editors of WORKS say the true height is 2,510 feet. But for one born at an elevation near sea level, that height would appear wondrous.)

It's refreshing to know that even our leader John Wesley enjoyed a good respite from his daily work and travels. Makes me feel better about my recreational pursuits.