First World Problems

 

 I have a First World problem: I have lost my TV remote. I've looked everywhere--around the house, in the garage (which is so cluttered it could easily be there without my seeing it) and even in the garden shed, where I spent some time yesterday. I'm concerned about this because if there is a way to watch TV without using the remote I have no idea what it is.

 

My sister suggested looking in the fridge where she found hers the other day.  I did that, out of desperation, even though I couldn't imagine myself being quite that ditzy (my sister is a blond, after all), but it wasn't there either.

 

My best friend suggested the loss might be a case of divine intervention. I know she's kidding, sort of, but I have to admit that thought had occurred to me. I have been more or less addicted to the TV lately. It's an easy go-to antidote for COVID ennui.

 

It also occurs to me that boredom, itself, might be a First World Problem.

 

It might not be at the top of the list of problems in India, for example, where masses of people are anxiously helpless in the face of COVID, or in parts of Africa, where civil wars constantly create a rather pressing kind of tension and excitement, or in Iran where you can be executed for converting from Islam to Christianity.

 

But in my world, boredom attacks whenever I have nothing to do, and, as I've mentioned in my previous two posts, I struggle with an overwhelming feeling that I always have to be DOING something.  Simply "being" without "doing" is difficult for me.

 

Interestingly, John Comer has some challenging things to say about boredom in his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.  For some reason he connects hurry with boredom, and I think he might be right to do so.  He points out how quickly we hurry to eliminate boredom in our lives, especially in this digital age when distractions are literally at our fingertips. And he suggests that trying to eliminate boredom with distractions is not the proper approach.

 

Instead of avoiding times of boredom, he recommends the spiritual practice of Silence. Practicing silence requires us to quit fighting against inactivity. When we do that, we create an empty space in our hearts that God can fill with good things.  Things that would pass right over our heads when we are busy doing less refreshing things.

 

It's not surprising that boredom seems to be a universal human problem today, at least in our part of the world where the basic needs of human survival are more accessible than in other places.  Everyone seems to be running from anxiety of one kind or another. I believe a general, overarching angst hovers over any society that is not grounded in a positive worldview, and ours certainly is not.

 

So I'm thinking about it lately--asking why and how boredom happens. Were we created to experience boredom? Or is boredom a symptom of a deeper problem we were not created to experience? And more to the point, what should we do with boredom?

 

Comer tells us Christians that we are to imitate Jesus--to follow Him--to mimic his ways of living.  We're called to do this because we believe He lived the way human beings were created to live.

 

I am pretty sure Jesus was never bored.  It just doesn't seem like He would be.  So why not?  If I want to live like He lived then I need to understand how He did this.

 

In my next post I will continue this topic, and suggest, for your consideration, one cure for boredom based on how Jesus lived.   

There may be a couple of others.  If so, there will be more posts.  We'll see how far we can go with this topic.