It’s Friday. Usually in America, Friday is the start of the weekend break. On weekends most people seek some form of entertainment, such as going to the movies, a play, games, musical performances, among a plethora of other options. The fact of the matter is that Americans have plenty of opportunities to entertain themselves … but most people today are bored! A survey done among 2000 people living in the most entertaining city in the US, New York, indicates that most people are bored out of their minds. The survey indicates that Americans are mired in boredom 131 days a year. However, “Despite so much boredom, the survey showed that Americans still spend an average of $303 each month on fun activities, or about $3,500 annually. For parents, that number balloons to about $5,000 on the year.”* This is a stark contrast from the rest of the world, comprised of billions of people, who live on a mere $2 budget! How can Americans, the richest people on the planet be so bored!?? Today, we pend billions of dollars to entertain ourselves, not to count the mountains of money we spend on anti-depressants to try to cure our boredom.
But how do we cure boredom? I believe the answer is a spiritual in nature. This world cannot offer us full satisfaction (Luke 6:21; 25). The human soul longs for purpose. However, ultimate purpose is only found in God. Augustine is known to have said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” This restlessness has a remedy = The person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Christians should be the least bored, or boring, people on earth.
Christians in 21st post-modern America are bored out of their minds. This should not be! We live in the age of smartphones where we can watch videos about the Bible. We can have the Bible read to us via an App on a smartphone. We have about 120 translations of the Bible in English (though not all are good) available to us. If you live in the United States, you can buy a Bible at Walmart!! We have hundreds upon hundreds of Christian Bible-study videos. We can listen to sermons online, and turn on Christian radio stations. We can listen to Christian music all day long on Pandora if we so choose! So, how can Christians be bored?!!
What is the cause of our boredom? The answer to that question is multifaceted. But, I think one of the main causes is busyness! How counterintuitive is it right? How can someone who is busy be bored? Well, when you don’t know how to rest well, you in turn become dissatisfied. We must resurrect our resolve to seek God above all things. We must regain our sense of awe before God. Frank Powell is right when he says, “One of the greatest threats to Christianity is familiarity with an all-powerful God.”* We also need to turn our hearts and minds toward God. We need a recalibration. And how does this start?
First, it starts with remembering who Jesus is and what he does in and for us. Jesus said to the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” John 4:13-14.
Second, it takes directed action. The psalmist said, “I stretch out my hands to You; My soul longs for You, as a parched land. Selah” (Psalm 143:6). Note that he stretched out his hand toward God. Not anything or anyone else. He then acknowledged his soul’s longing can only satisfied by God. Your parched soul can be restored by God … stretch your hands to God and watch him cure your boredom!
Third, it starts with an adjustment of our desires. Psalm 73:25 says, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.” What does it take to desire nothing else on earth but God? Is is even possible? I will venture to say that is it just nearly impossible to desire anything else on earth but God. There are days I long for God. And then, there are days where my soul feels parched, as the psalmist described it, and I have no desire to find satisfaction in God. I believe the psalmist is employing hyperbole to highlight the yearning of his heart toward God. Though it is not possible desire nothing else on earth but God, it certainly can be our goal! We must always go back to the cross. Go back to God when you’re feeling bored and discouraged!
David wrote in Psalm 37:4, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” The fact of the matter is that boredom is present in the life of many believers because we have not learned to take delight in the Lord. Instead, we have sought to cure our boredom with video games, movies, Netflix, social media, the internet, and our cell phone devices. Want to do a test to find out if you’re NOT taking delight in the Lord? Here’s some quick questions for reflection: When you wake up in the morning, do you pray or read the Bible first or check your phone for the news? Do you check your Facebook or Instagram first before being in the presence of God? Track how much time you spend on entertainment on your phone, then compare that with the time you spend reading God’s Word and reflecting on it. Have you memorized a Bible verse lately? Why not? If we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds HBO certainly is not the conduit for it, God’s Word is!
The challenge we currently have as American Christians is not that the Gospel is boring, but rather, that we are bored. We are bored because we haven’t found our delight in the Lord. We are bored because our minds are not being constantly renewed in Christ. We are bored because often times we believe the world’s serving of entertainment seems more appealing to us than God’s Word. We are bored because prayer has become just a tool to get God to do something for us rather than something in us.
Need help for your boredom? Pursue Christ! Remember Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8.
Written by Daniel Messina
*https://www.studyfinds.org/no-fun-americans-mired-boredom-131-days-year/
Theresa Rogers
dcmessina
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