Bored - "To bore" means to weary "by being dull, uninteresting or monotonous". Boredom is often accompanied by feelings of lethargy, irritation and anger. A link exists between the increase of narcissism and selfcenteredness with the concurrent increase in boredom.
(1) Remember the Bigger Picture - What is the bigger picture that gives meaning and framework for the smaller sometimes boring details? Everything around you is God-given.
(2) Delight in the simple and the ordinary (Stop and smell the roses) - Ecclesiastes concludes that the simple, ordinary everyday routines of eating drinking and work seen in the bigger framework of living in relationship to God - bring the deepest enjoyment and satisfaction. "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too I see is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?" - Ecclesiastes 2:24-25.
(3) Cultivating Wonder - Wonder meaning intense intellectual interest - Wonder is a capacity which we, by effort, must keep alive as a part of the way we are made.
(4) Developing a Passion - Develop habits of self discipline and delayed gratification. Involves relationships.
(5) Active Engagement not just Passive Expectation - Finding interest and joy in life involves active engagement with the world. Need to be fully engaged and engrossed in some activity. The prerequisite for happiness is the ability to get fully involved in life.
(6) The Experience of "Flow" - An integration and harmony of the mind, body and emotions. The most rewarding activities are those that are not passive but active, those in which our minds and often our bodies are stretched to the limit. To be highly fulfilling - (a) Intense Concentration (b) Clear goals (c) immediate feedback. Intense Involvement, so involved, totally absorbed. The key is being actively involved and using highly developed abilities. The flow experience that results from the use of skills leads to growth. In God's creation we can find so much to take an interest in, but it takes effort and self-discipline for us to stop long enough to look and marvel ...
Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes --
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (Aurora Leigh, Seventh book)
- Unless we gain the art of silence and insight, the ability for non-activity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture - and ourselves. Leisure is a time of withdrawal from our ordinary routines to renew our priorities and our perspective on life. - Josef Pieper.
- Pursue friendship, art, literature, natural beauty, religion and philosophy.
- Reflect on and reflect the character of God. - If we are to reflect his character we cannot remain unmoved, untouched and bored with him or his creation. Often we have a very underdeveloped sense of his glory and our sinfulness. We are to be people of deep feeling and passion, aware that our feelings need to be redeemed from their distortion and deadness and given full rein in the service of their Maker.
- Christian Maturity involves learning to delay gratification, to groan, to rejoice in hope and to wait eagerly and patiently for the fulfillment of God's many promises of restoration and renewal.
- God wants us to develop our gifts and capacities and use them to the full.
- We are to work against sin in every area of our life. In any part of life where the destructive power of sin has taken hold, it will take effort and prayer to reverse the trend.
- When you hear someone saying, with a yawn, 'What am I to do - I'm no longer interested in anything?" - Kierkegaard's response - take any Christian commandment and try to practice it in his life. - "For it is clear that in effort, if it be sincere, will reintroduce you into reality, where the true conflicts manifest themselves, where the lines of the force of the spiritual and moral life appear, where the drama of a calling instantly sharpens: not even a second of boredom becomes possible any longer. And your complaint will be that you have only one life to lead."
- We are called to be faithful in every small task that God gives us.
- Summary -
(1) To contemplate the character of God and his creation.
(2) Confess getting our priorities wrong and pursuing of false god.
(3) To creatively counteract some of the tedious and boring tasks of life.
(4) To find the help and companionship we need from those in our community.
- As we see more and more things from God's point of view, we find that there is rarely any time to be bored!
- Gleaned from Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment by Richard Winters
- Gleaned from Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment by Richard Winters
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