Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Wrestling with Boredom

With three children ages 3 and under, people comment to me all the time "Oh, you must be so busy." My "pat" answer usually goes along the lines of "Oh, I guess, busy in a slow kind of way." While my kiddies do keep me busy in the sense that I am constantly pulling them out of trouble (i.e. toilets), cleaning up messes and wiping up runny noses, we don't get out much. As they grow up and increasingly play better on their own I am finding myself with more and more downtime. Sometimes I feel bored.

I just read a quote on boredom I would like to share with you by Dr. Harold Dodds (I found it in the book Stop Pretending by Luis Palau.)

"It is not the fast tempo of modern life that kills, but the boredom, a lack of strong interest, and failure to grow that destroy. It is feeling that nothing is worthwhile that makes men ill and unhappy."

After that quote Palau references the verse John 10:10 "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." As Christians we were not meant to be bored. In other words, God is not the author of boredom, although he can use it.

I am learning that when I find boredom creeping into my life, when nothing feels worthwhile, something is wrong. Usually it means that I am neglecting my primary calling in life, my God. When our relationship is not where it should be and I am "failing to grow", my motivation can slide and life loses its joy. Sometimes it means that I am neglecting my primary task in life, my family. When I try to follow my own agenda and "put off" my children I loose patience and again life loses its joy.

And sometimes, it means developing an interest so that when I have downtime and my kids are playing on their own I have something to do. (Something besides the never-ending housework and laundry that is!)

I want to live out John 10:10 and live life to the full! And in that kind of life, there is no room for boredom.

5 comments:

Rebekah said...

Hey Megan! Thanks for inviting me to your blog. I feel so honored! Your blog is so great!...you have quite a talent for expressing yourself in writing! I'm a hopeless blogging addict so I'm sure I will be checking your blog often. It's fun to read from someone else in the same place in life. Good reminder on the boredom thing!!

Anonymous said...

i tend to have the opposite problem. sometimes when life is just too busy i find myself neglecting my "primary calling" and even though my life is full of projects i love they suddenly lose all their flavor and it all becomes meaningless work. i wrestle with myself, thinking "what is my problem? i used to love this!" then i just have to stop, readjust my priorities and start over. i find over and over again that the more i love my Jesus the more i love everything else and the less i love Him the less i'm able to love anything at all. kind of cool how that works. anyway i've babbled for long enough...great thoughts, meg.

Anonymous said...

oh, this is leslie...i don't know why, i used to have an account, but it won't let me log in so i'll just be anonymous.

hubergal said...

thanks for the invite!! i'll enjoy keeping up with your life. :)
~shar

Taylor said...

Sadly, I often know what that feeling is like. Although for me, it is more of a sense of a lack of purpose or something to drive me. I am rarely ever bored but I just have this overwhelming sense that there is nothing this side of heaven that will ever fill me like being in the presence of God will someday in heaven. Sure I love learning, studing, and spending time in prayer with Jesus - it is the one excitement in my life. More so I love speaking to people about Jesus, specifically non-believers. But really, I just find that so much in life is so depressing, so for me that is my battle. When heaven is supposed to be so wonderful, and life here on Earth is so the opposite...