Bored?

I find it increasingly difficult to keep a track of what day it is at the moment! Every day has the same feel as I attempt to work from home, do jobs around the house and keep a toddler occupied. The inability to leave the house can create in us a deep sense of boredom. The same four walls, the same people around you, the same children’s book (again and again!).

Then I came across this quote from G.K Chesterton...

‘A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.’1

We can grow so easily bored with life. We quickly can move on to find the next thrill, the next moment of excitement, the next new thing. Being forced to repeat the same things day after day, can create a sense of impatience as we desperately wait for lockdown to end. The time spent being irritable or daydreaming about the next meal out or place to visit can mean we miss the opportunity to enjoy life. It can also mean we look to other things than God to satisfy and excite us during this time (the Bible calls this idolatry).

But just as children enjoy fullness of life through repetition and ‘doing it again’, we find God who is one who never bores of life. Never tires of getting the sun to rise and never tires in sustaining us (what a relief!).

Proverbs 8:30-31:

Then I was constantly at his side.

I was filled with delight day after day,

rejoicing always in his presence,

rejoicing in his whole world

and delighting in mankind.

God is life and in his presence, we find fullness of life. In our day to day monotony, boredom does not need to be inevitable. Every day we can find delight in his presence, enjoy the creation around us (even if that is the blue sky or rain out of our window) and enjoy intimacy with our Heavenly Father who neither gets bored or fed up of our sight.

As we do that, we start enjoying a taste of eternity. In eternity there will be no rushing around or busyness. Each moment will be full of new adventure and new delight. As Tim Chester puts it “We will cry to God: ‘Again, again, do it again’. Now we are old and tired and cynical. But then we will be young again, for ever young; for ever delighting in God.”2

Let us delight in God today and find fullness of life in Him.

1 Ethics of Elfland, G.K. Chesterton

2 You Can Change, Tim Chester