Summer is here! Woohoo! Well, not technically I guess, but close enough.
When I was younger, I looked forward to summer because it was a time of great activity – hanging with my buddies at the lake, hiking, camping, golfing, tennis, fishing, travel and the list goes on and on. But now I’m old, at least that’s how I feel most days, and now I look forward to summer not for its flurry of short-lived warm weather activities but for the opportunity to sit around and get bored: thoroughly, utterly, and if I’m really lucky, mind-numbingly bored.
Boredom is often seen as a bad thing - as something that is inherently evil and must be shot on sight. But boredom can be holy. There is a sanctified boredom that we all need as it benefits our soul. There is a kind of depth and solace that can only come in the midst of the boring. It is this kind of boredom that I pray God showers me with this summer. This short, but sweet blog is dedicated to holy boredom in all its glory. Just a few quotes to get us thinking about the beauty, and dare I say necessity of being bored in Christ.
“For us. . . it is not the depth and richness of our experiences and relationships, but the quantity and perpetual “zing” we get out of them that matters. We are terrified of being bored. Educational videos and lessons for children are advertised as “fun” and that is a crucial criterion for everything from worship planning to evangelism in the church.
Let’s face it: a traditional Christian service of public invocation, Bible reading, prayer, preaching, and sacraments is not ordinarily fun. “It’s like watching corn grow,” as they say. . . on an average month of Sundays every believer should find church a little boring. I find marriage a little boring. And raising four children. And going to work every day. I am even bored by travel, although as a boy I went through the “I want to be a pilot” phase. It’s old hat now.
If we made all of our decisions based on how highly it scored today on the fun meter, we would never commit ourselves to relationships and processes that take a long time to see any results. Our culture is falling apart over this one. The result is that we demand cargo ships full of meaningful, life-altering, transformative, explosive, and unique experiences every day and are losing our appreciation for the role that a child’s smile has in the grand scheme of things. Every date night has to be the Love Boat, every family vacation must fill albums worth of memories, and church can’t be church; it has to be a “worship experience” that alters ones cell structure every time.”
Michael Horton, Christless Christianity, 230, 232.
“What we need [in the church] are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. That's my dream for the church - God's redeemed people holding tenaciously to a vision of godly obedience and God's glory, and pursuing that godliness and glory with relentless, often unnoticed, plodding consistency.”
“Our jobs are often mundane. Our devotional lives often seem like a waste. Church services are often forgettable. That’s life. We drive to the same places, go through the same routines with our coworkers, buy the same groceries at the store, and mow the same yard every spring and summer. Church is often the same too – same doctrines, same basic order of worship, same preacher, same people. But in all the smallness and sameness, God works – like the smallest seed in the garden growing to unbelievable heights. . . Life is usually pretty ordinary, just like following Jesus most days. Daily discipleship is not a new revolution each morning or an agent of global transformation every evening; it’s a long obedience in the same direction.”
Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Why We Love the Church, 222, 223-224
May godly boredom meet you all this summer.
Soli Deo Gloria
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