“Dad, I’m bored.”
How many times have I heard one of my girls say that? And how many times has that statement been a cause for my patience and self-control to be tested?
Why do such cries test my patience? Because I know what my children are saying to me beneath the words, “I’m bored.” Firstly, they’re telling me they’re not satisfied with what I’ve given them. They want more, whether that’s more stuff or more stimulation. Secondly, they’re inadvertently telling me that they’re blind to what I’ve already given them, and what’s at their disposal. They have enough toys, books, dress-ups, etc., and they have that secret ingredient…imagination. Yet, they fail to see what’s there before them, and they cry bored.
A Problem We Don’t Grow Out Of
If you’re a parent, then you probably nodded in agreement to much of what I wrote above. You’ve heard the cries of boredom, you’ve experienced the frustration. But do you hear the same cry in your heart?
The desire to cry out “bored!” is not only for children. It’s also a far more serious issue than being between a child and a parent. Boredom effects adults too, and it occurs between Christians and their Father in Heaven.
The Parable of the Bored Life
This afternoon I began reading Welcome to the Story
“Most of the time, Timothy was bored. As a kid he seemed to care little for the things around him and even less for the people around him. Timothy’s mom would send him out to play and he would be bored. He didn’t explore. He didn’t imagine. He didn’t even look up at the birds and the clouds or down at the caterpillars and spiders (he is a boy). At school, his mind thought about play. At play, he could only think of everything he didn’t have to play with, only thinking of all the toys he didn’t have. Eventually Timothy became an adult and carried his boredom with him. At his job, he could only think of play and fun. When he wasn’t working and out trying to have fun, he could only think of everything he didn’t have. On his way home from work he didn’t look at the clouds in the sky. He missed sunrises, and he shrugged at sunsets. Timothy yawned through his childhood, school, work, family, and friends. Timothy yawned through life and right on into death. Let the reader understand the meaning of the parable. Timothy had no sense of wonder whatsoever. Timothy squandered a precious gift from God, the gift of life, by caring little for God’s gift of creation. Timothy and his boredom is not just a parable, however. And, sadly, Timothy’s not alone.”
What a tragic life Timothy lived. What a tragic life many of us live.
Nichols will go on to describe our culture as one “adrift in a ship of boredom.” While the sad irony is we’re actually in a ship “floating in a sea of wonder.”
It’s Not Only Tragic, But It’s Sinful
The bored life is not only a tragic life, it’s a sinful one too.
To be bored is to fail to see the many and varied good gifts God has given us, not the least of which is in creation.
Nichols explains that boredom “begets a loss of a sense of wonder. Our loss of a sense of wonder begets a loss of appreciation. And our loss of appreciation begets a loss of gratitude.”
And to whom are we to live in constant gratitude? God.
To be bored is to fail to see the many and varied good gifts God has given us, not the least of which is in creation. I mentioned this earlier this year when I asked Are You Grateful?
What’s the Christian’s Antidote to Boredom?
Nichols suggests the antidote to boredom:
“Embracing the doctrine of creation is the antidote to boredom. When we realize that God made us, that God made everything, life is set in a whole new light. How can we yawn at what God made? When we acknowledge God as Creator of all things, we regain our sense of wonder, we regain our sense of appreciation, and we regain our sense of gratitude. We say thank you. We stop yawning through life.”
Although I shouldn’t say it in frustration, there’s a sense in which my retort to my children, “Stop being bored. Go play outside!” is correct. It might be correct, but it’s incomplete. The answer isn’t found in simply being outside (and consequently unable to pester parents), the answer is in being outside and seeing it as the handiwork of an awesome Creator.
Today’s Challenge
My challenge to you today is this: take the time to consider this world and regain some of the wonder of creation. Oh, you may have to look away from your computer screen and look out a window.
Ok wait, so even being bored is now a sin? Christians can’t even do nothing and NOT feel guilty about it? Being sentenced to eternal hellfire and damnation because you were bored is quite honestly the silliest and most ungodly thing I’ve heard in a while. Some people on this planet worry about whether they’ll be alive tomorrow because of religious intolerance and here you people are lamenting about the fact that god gives YOU and you alone so much blessings it actually BORES you?! It sickens me really it does. Have your head checked and read something other than the bible for a change.
Should I choose to visit ESPN.GO.COM, read an article about baseball, then comment to those reader’s remarks with words such as, “You people;” to what end and purpose do I wish to make my perspective known? My point being: If you visit reputable sports sites…you get sports commentary (usually) from those who know what they’re talking about or from those who want to know more and understand more. If you visit reputable Christian sites…you get commentary (usually) from those who know what they’re talking about, or from those who want to know more and understand more. Why would I make disparaging and inaccurate comments regarding a walk-off double if I obviously don’t understand the game of baseball?
It appears that your implied word “bigot”, is hoped to be more effective than a billy club. What are you hoping to achieve by shaking that club here?
George, I see the point as being, we are bored because we are sinful. It’s not a matter of “doing nothing”, for there are times when i “do nothing”, yet am in awe and over joyed at God’s magnificent wonder – far from bored. We think of being bored as “having nothing to do of interest to me that’s fun”, when in fact we can be bored in our work, bored in our entertainment, in fact, bored in any stimulation we find not stimulating to our satisfaction. So when, out of our sinfulness, we find ourselves “bored”, it’s because our minds and spirit have ceased to be in awe of our Creator who’s established whatever circumstance that we find ourselves in; in not being amazed and content with God himself we sin. To your point about comparative situations of people in persecution or suffering, you are right. Proper perspective helps, but only when our proper perspective is in our relationship to our Savior Creator, not necessarily our perspective relative to our local situation.
Beau & Dave: Thanks for stopping by the blog and leaving a helpful response to George. God bless.
I too often fall into this trap of being bored. It’s my lack of awareness of all the marvelous things God has done and is doing. Thanks for the challenge for us to pay more attention to the Lord.
Welcome to the blog Lisa. It’s a challenge we all need to be reminded of. God truly is amazing, yet we’re often not amazed. Good to be reminded.
Whenever my kids tell me that they are bored, I reply w/the heart examiner: “Only boring people get bored.” No one wants to be boring! They catch themselves before completeing that sentance now…
Thanks for taking the time to comment Aimee.
I’ve heard people say that too. I wonder though if it’s really true. I’ve met some boring people who were not bored? Do you know the origins of the saying; I’d be curious.
Have a great weekend.
Nathan W. Bingham shares about a phrase that ought not be uttered in these here parts!
My son had a teacher who banned the word “awesome” unless it was used in relation to God. That led me to pull out a dictionary.
“Awe” is defined as: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like.
“Awesome” originally referred to that which was “profoundly reverential,” but it’s been watered down to now mean “impressive, very good”.
We need to go back to being awed by God, and God alone. Thanks for this reminder to make time to soak in the wonder of our awsome God and his boredom-breaking creation.
Hello Nathan,
Great article! I’m a youth pastor in Brighton, MI, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard sarcastically: “Wow, this is fun.” I like the tie of boredom to the doctrine of creation. I’m reminded of Stephen Covey’s children’s book version of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – a great little story about overcoming boredom by being proactive about life.
Thanks again,
Nick McDonald