No, I’m not talking about the danger of dying from a collapsing pile of clutter. Consider this quote:
The desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.
I read this quote from John le Carré in Larry Michael’s Spurgeon on Leadership(p. 29; Kregel, 2003) and thought it applied nicely to counselors and professors as well as to pastors. We need to be out there interacting in the real world if we want to be effective in our teaching, pastoring, and counseling. While the desk provides some distance that may help objectivity, sitting too long leads to arrogance, listening to our own kind, and the loss of realism.
Musings on Faith and Psychology 