I have a new puppy named Abbey. She is a German Shorthaired Pointer, or Deutsch Kurzhaar, if you prefer. She has quickly become part of our family. She is an active dog with a penchant for swallowing the kids’ socks whole and then throwing them up in the middle of the night. She gets very excited to see any member of the family, and often pees a little due to her excitement. She is easily humored, loves attention and knows when she has done wrong. I have seen her happy, sad, excited, and tired. But there is one emotion I have not seen from Abbey.

Abbey is never bored. Sure, she sleeps a lot. Sure, she is distracted easily. But I have never seen Abbey bored. When the kids and I play soccer in the back yard, Abbey loves to chase the ball. She never gets bored with that game. When we walk back into the house, she waits outside for us – just in case we want to play a little more. To me, the opposite of boredom is fascination – and Abbey lives in a perpetual state of fascination.

As I reflected on my puppy, I thought of the boring things in my life. What would life be like if I was never bored? What would life be like if I was constantly fascinated? I realized that many of us get bored in our spiritual life. Perhaps the stories we read in the Bible bore us. Perhaps we have a lack of interest in the songs we sing to God. Perhaps even going to church is tedious for us. Maybe the series of sermons is monotonous. Maybe the apathy of those around us is contagious.

Typically the antidote for boredom is action. We want to do something. When we are in a boring lecture hall, we dream of riding bikes, or going to the beach, or what we will do that weekend. When we are at a boring family function, we dream of getting back home and playing Xbox. When we are bored in church… well, I do not want to give you any ideas. The point is that when we are bored, we think of what we would rather be doing.

What do we think about when we are spiritually bored? My recommendation is to not worry about what we can do. Check out Psalm 131: O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

Think about your spiritual life now – are you bored? Try calming and quieting your soul. It will do you good to stop thinking about what you can do in your spiritual life. Do not occupy yourself with things too great and too marvelous. Hope in the Lord.

This goes back to a theme in my life: want only what God wants for me. A calm, quiet soul will do wonders for your relationship with God. The opposite of boredom is fascination – a calm, quiet soul will fascinate you. Try it!

Tags: boredom, psalms

This entry was posted by zac on Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 7:56 am and is filed under Weekly Jib Jab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.