EMO: What's Up With All These Emotions
Sermon 4: Boring! When Great Isn't Good Enough
Ecclesiastes 9:10 & Colossians 3:17
August 5, 2007
Pastor Paul W Newell

“Sassy Spice Girl Victoria thinks she and David are quite "boring" people as they don't go out to nightclubs and prefer going to nice restaurants occasionally, but most of the time they are at home watching television and putting the kids to bed.” [TMZ.com, July 21,2007]

So, if being in the “limelight”, in front of cameras, multitudes of fans, and knowing all the “in people” in Hollywood is “boring”...it certainly doesn’t bode well for the rest of us; does it?

I guess boring is in the eye of the beholder. Boring is relative – especially if you’re dealing with relatives! Boring isn’t much of a friend – especially if your friend is boring!

But before we go too far with this line of reasoning – look in a mirror if you’re bored, because normally – bored people are the most boring of all!

You might be wondering why we added “BOREDOM” to our EMO list, it’s because, in our society of fast everything, more and more people are living “bored lives”.

One study concluded that over half of Americans go to work every day only to escape the boredom of the rest of their lives. And in preparing for the talk I came across countless studies on boredom in teenagers. Who hasn’t heard it at least once... “I’m bored”.

A 2003 survey said that bored teenagers are 50% more likely to become involved in substance abuse and crime than those who say they are seldom bored.

Another survey said that 37% of women blame their weight gain on boredom. (I wonder where men fit into that percentage.)

One of my biggest concerns this morning is the worry that this talk will be...boring!

Believe or not, there is almost a whole book of the Bible devoted to being bored! Listen to this:

1I said to myself, “I will try having fun. I will enjoy myself.” But I found that this is also useless.  2It is foolish to laugh all the time, and having fun doesn’t accomplish anything.  3I decided to cheer myself up with wine while my mind was still thinking wisely. I wanted to find a way to enjoy myself and see what was good for people to do during their few days of life. 4Then I did great things: I built houses and planted vineyards for myself.  5I made gardens and parks, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.  6I made pools of water for myself and used them to water my growing trees.  7I bought male and female slaves, and slaves were also born in my house. I had large herds and flocks, more than anyone in Jerusalem had ever had before.  8I also gathered silver and gold for myself, treasures from kings and other areas. I had male and female singers and all the women a man could ever want.  9I became very famous, even greater than anyone who had lived in Jerusalem before me... 10Anything I saw and wanted, I got for myself; I did not miss any pleasure I desired. I was pleased with everything I did, and this pleasure was the reward for all my hard work. 11But then I looked at what I had done, and I thought about all the hard work. Suddenly I realized it was useless, like chasing the wind. There is nothing to gain..."
Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

This guy had everything could imagine to make someone happy and excited about life. He shouldn’t have been a bit bored!

We could spend a lot of time talking about societal boredom and all of its consequences, but I’d like to narrow it down a little more:

I believe that a lot of the reason why many Christ-Followers never progress very far in their spiritual journey is due to boredom.

Boredom causes us to flat-line feelings, emotions and concern for God and others. Boredom causes us to simply go through the motions.

So what causes boredom?

We feel weary and restless at the same time. We feel like we should care, but we don’t care. We feel no motivation at all. There’s no motivation to connect with God, with others...with anyone or anything. We’re simply bored!

What’s the cause of boredom?

Ray Prichard, a commentator and speaker (see footnote), has noted that there are two primary causes of boredom, the first is...

OVERSTIMULATION

We live in a media rich society. Our senses are stuffed full of stuff! It is almost impossible to be anywhere without the noise of radio, television, cell-phones and I-pods. And when we do find those rare moments when our ears are given a break, our eyes are still bombarded with visual noise. And the tragedy is, we like it that way!

We have grown so accustom to being passive and allowing ourselves to be entertained that we don’t know what it’s like to have to occupy ourselves!

Not only media; but our pace of life leads to over-stimulation. We really don’t know how to live quietly. We move from community to community looking for a better lifestyle. We make friends and leave friends quickly. We change jobs often. We’ve grown accustomed to movement, not rest.

We replaced the solitude that we talked about last week for boredom – and we’ve reluctantly accepted the change, assuming little can be done to change it.

We’ve become adrenaline junkies; needing excitement and thrill. And we need large doses of it to keep us going.

I call it the Disneyland Syndrome.

Several years ago friends made it possible for our family to purchase season passes to Disneyland. It was great; whenever we didn’t have the funds to go anywhere else, we went to Disneyland (which was quite often).

What I remember was the excitement and thrill of the first few visits to the Magic Kingdom. Everything was exciting and fresh. But after a while, Disneyland became “normal”. We were no longer excited about visiting the various “lands” of Disney, we just sort of walked around. We even started making up our own games and things to make the visits more interesting.

Disneyland almost became...shall I say it...boring.

It’s very easy for life to become like that. We experience the Disneyland Syndrome. We get used to what should excite and thrill us. Life get’s boring in spite of all it’s simulation.

If over-stimulation causes boredom, so does...

UNDERCOMMITMENT

Under-commitment is often the result of over-stimulation. There are so many things pulling at us that we don’t seem to give much effort to any of them.

Pritchard laments that, “Too many people live at the 20% level of commitment.”

We’re like the old man who, when asked what he believed, said “A little bit of everything.” The only problem is that a little bit of everything turns out to be a whole lot of nothing!

We want “a little bit of this” and “a little bit of that” and end up with not much of anything.

• We give a 20% commitment to our work or schooling.
• We give a 20% commitment to our spouse and a 20% commitment to our family.
• We give a 20% commitment to our hobbies; another 20% commitment to our friends, and maybe a 20% commitment to our church.
• If there’s anything left of us, we try to give 20% of our energies to Jesus Christ.
• And just as all of the 20% don’t add up, none of it adds up in our lives.

We end up weary, flat-lined emotionally, and less than concerned about much of anything.

In both cases: over-stimulation and under-commitment, the root cause is still the same: BOREDOME COMES FROM TOO MUCH SELF-FOCUS.

As we’ve been working through these EMO series, one theme keeps floating to the surface over and over again: self-focus. Whether it’s loneliness, anger, guilt, or any number of the vast assortment of emotions we deal with: emotions always get out of hand when we keep the focus on ourselves. That statement is especially true of boredom.

Bored people tend to be selfish people. Bored people tend to expect others to entertain them. There is a real temptation to sit back and wait for someone or something to “un-bore” us.

Look: THE REASON YOU ARE BORED IS THAT YOU HAVE BECOME A BORING PERSON.

Man, I hate to say that. I don’t want to call you boring or admit that lots of times I’m a bore! But the truth is bored people are boring to others!

So what’s the solution?

I want to take two verses and quickly give you a radical solution for boredom! The first is found a little farther in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes and the other is its “twin verse” found in the New Testament.

Here they are: Ecclesiastes 9:10 and Colossians 3:17

Let’s look at Ecclesiastes first...

The same guy (Solomon) who wrote the passage we read earlier finally came to the point that he wrote this:

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NIV)

That’s my problem, you say. I’m bored so I can’t do what that verse is telling me. It’s too hard to shake this boredom.

If that’s how you’re feeling or have ever felt before; look at that verse again and notice that it gives the first three steps to overcoming boredom!

First, just DO IT!

There it is, I said it. Just do it! That’s the first step out of boredom.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it”!

I love the way The Message paraphrase of the Bible puts this part:

“Whatever turns up, grab it and do it!”

It’s not that there aren’t things to do; we just don’t want to do them! On the other side of the coin, no matter what we expect out of our day, there are always things that simply “pop up” unexpected. So, whether planned or unexpected, whether we want to or not – just do it.

There are lots of “just do it” things that need to be done. No matter where you are there’s always something near your hand...

There’s a table to be cleared.
There’s a book to be read.
There’s trash to be taken out.
There’s a car to wash.
There are bills to be paid.
There are lessons to prepare.
There are people to be greeted at church.
There are children who need to be taught.
There’s a band that needs musicians.
There are Discovery Packs and brochures to prepare.
There are lonely people who need a touch.
Do I need to go on?

Our lives are filled with a whole bunch of things that need to be done and whether large or small, they are all just as important and need to be done! Which brings us to the next step in stepping out of boredom:

Second, just DO IT...WITH PASSION!

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,”

One of the chief symptoms of boredom is loss of passion, we just assume that what can be done or needs to be done just isn’t that important or significant. We’ve lost concern. We’ve become apathetic.

Do you know the worst thing about apathy these days? It’s that nobody seems to care that they are apathetic! Then again, why should I care?!

The Simpson Movie just came out this past weekend (July 2007), it’s been a box office hit – maybe part of the reason is because people relate so well to Homer’s “BORING”...self-focused attitude.

We’ve come to view most of our work as mundane and boring. We’ve forgotten that there is no such thing as insignificant work; there are no small jobs.

The story is told of two men digging with shovels on hot summer afternoon. A stranger walks past the first man and asks him what he’s doing. The man’s rough reply is...I’m digging a ditch! However moments later another stranger passes and asked the second man the same question to which he replies... “I’m preparing the foundation for a brand new health clinic.” Two men, one sees a ditch, the other sees a hospital. Same work, drastically different perspective.

Notice something else about the verse, it doesn’t say “Do it with all your might if you feel like it or enjoy it.” It says “whatever...with all your might”.

The key to stepping out of boredom is putting yourself into everything you do – completely.

One other thing from this verse; look at the last phrase:

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NIV)

Do it...with passion...now (it’s the only time you can)...

Do you know what that’s telling us? It’s telling us that this life matters! What we do now matters!

Life is too short to waste. Time passes too quickly to not enjoy it to its fullest.

Jesus said:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Let me ask you a question...what would you do today if you knew you weren’t going to be here tomorrow? Whenever you’re sitting there bored with life...ask yourself what you would do if you knew your life were about to be over...it might be a good time to start doing it.

The Bible tells us:

“But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away.” James 4:14

When you are bored you can...

Do it...do something!
Do it with passion! Put yourself into whatever is there to do!
Do it now! You’re not promised tomorrow.

Now turn to the second passage as we wrap this up...

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17

Here’s where everything turns ETERNAL.

Much of our boredom comes from living too much in the present.

Now, there is a danger of living too much in the past...or waiting too long for the future...but there is also a danger of assuming everything is just about “now”.

The passage tells us that whatever we say and whatever we do should be done in “Jesus name”.

MAJOR LIFE PRINCIPLE: WHAT WE DO, WE DO FOR JESUS CHRIST.

Do it...with passion...now...FOR CHRIST

As Christ followers we are representatives of Jesus Christ. When people see us they’re not just looking at us, they are looking at Jesus.

In the same way that when the world sees “GEORGE BUSH” they see the United States (He is the ultimate representative of our country), when people see us they assume they are seeing a representative of Jesus.

What we say and do matters for eternity.

When we are living “bored” lives we are telling those who see us that life does not matter and what needs to be done isn’t worth doing. That is a poor representation of Christ who came to give us a FULL LIFE...the FULLEST of lives!

Want to step out of boredom...realize that what lies in front of you to do, to say, to listen to, so share...those things should have Jesus Christ written all over them by your actions.

Which is why we should take the final step out of boredom by...

LIVING THANKFULLY

Boredom is unthankful living. You can’t be thankful and be bored at the same time. You can’t be appreciative and be bored at the same time.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17

Giving thanks.

Do it...with passion...now...for Christ...THANKFULLY

The next time you feel boredom coming on...start working on a “thanks list”. Start listing the things to be thankful for.

1. Make a thanks list
2. Then, make a “to do” list...
3. Then, get started...you don’t have that much time left
4. Then, put yourself totally into it. If you don’t feel the passion at first, you will. Excitement often follows commitment!
5. Then, get your hands busy...do it.

Are you suffering from boredom? It’s a sure sign that there’s something out there God wants you to do...if you don’t know what that something is – start doing something else and you can be sure you will soon find what it is!

Pritchard: http://blog.keepbelieving.com/

Prayer:

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