ON BEING BORED

 “Laziness casts into a deep sleep, And an idle man will suffer hunger.” 

(Proverbs 19:15, NASB).

If we are honest, we all had moments when we were bored and complained about it. The word bored is defined: “feeling weary because one is unoccupied or lacks interest in one's current activity.” Another dictionary online puts it this way: “to weary by dullness, tedious repetition, unwelcome attentions, etc.” Despite these definitions, I believe being bored is a choice. We choose to have an attitude of boredom over things we find repetitious, dull, or uninteresting. The Biblical terms “vanity,”(what appeals to one's pride) "futility,"(what is useless, hopeless) “idleness,” (what is inactive, not working) and “laziness” (being unwilling to use energy to work) are closely associated with the word bored (see Prov. 19:15; Eccles. 1:1; Eph. 4:17).  Such terms have more to do with the person bored than with other people. A friend of mine recently told me a female acquaintance of his made this statement about the term: “If you are bored, then you are boring.” This statement carries some weight of truth to it. Often, we are bored because we have nothing to do, or we are bored due to not being entertained by others, or we hear the complaint that a certain person is bored with life, but rarely do we hear of a person claiming they are bored with themselves due to their ego. If you are bored, then you’re boring; if you enjoy having fun, then you’re fun. You are what your attitude reflects to others; people who get bored need to take responsibility for their own boredom, instead of shifting the blame on others for being bored. People are not responsible for our boredom, we are. So the next time we go out with friends or an acquaintance, let’s not put our responsibility for being entertained on them. Now it’s true, there may be times we may find a person boring, but it is usually not that person’s fault. They just have a different personality and different tastes in what entertains them as opposed to what entertains us. So the issue here has more to do with compatibility then the person’s ability to entertain. 

Lord, we can be so selfish at times in expecting others to entertain us when we are bored, when we are the ones responsible for our own boredom. Lord, forgive us for our self centered selfishness and help us to find our own ways of entertaining ourselves in times of boredom. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.