‘But I’m borrred!’

As a mother, one of the best strategies I learned early on was delegation.  So, this week, when things got really busy and I started to feel overwhelmed, I reached into my bag of tricks and came up with that old standby--after which I called my oldest daughter and asked if she had anything she was just itching to tell the world.

Because, you see, I know my children. They all got WORDS...and lots of them.  They got it honest...that's all I'm sayin'.  So, for the very first guest blog post here on the HoldFast, I present to you a piece written by none other than the one responsible for the name of the blog: my daughter Lacy Burnett.  (And thanks, love.  You done me proud!)

Recently, my husband and I were watching a show in which a main character is dealing with therapy sessions that just don’t seem to be working. “It will help you to write down everything that happens to you on a blog,” says his therapist, to which he replies hopelessly, “Nothing ever happens to me.”

Of course, this being a TV show, 30 seconds later all sorts of things start happening to him, and he is extremely happy with the change.

Unfortunately, it’s just a show, and while we certainly understand his boredom and rejoice with him when things get exciting, everyone knows life just doesn’t happen like that. Life is routine, and boredom and discontent are a constant temptation.

But I argue this is often worse for Christians. We, after all, are the ones meant to experience exciting, thrilling things, similar to the stories of David, Moses, and Paul in our holy book. We’re the ones who are supposed to have the power of the Holy Spirit after all, and what good is that if it doesn’t make life interesting, right?

Too many Christian authors don’t speak against this notion, or else, they directly endorse it.

One example is in one of the most popular Christian books today, Jesus Calling. Author Sarah Young states in her introduction: “I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more.” The rest of the book consists of messages she believes God gave to her, outside of the Bible, accessorized here and there with verses, and written in first person.

What happened? Why wasn’t the Bible, the book God gave over thousands of years and filled to the brim with more than we could possibly understand about Him, not enough? Why did she feel she needed to put more words into the Creator’s mouth?

She was effectively saying “Nothing ever happens to me in the Bible.”

Of course I can also understand that feeling. When I was little, my siblings and I learned quickly that the words “I’m bored” or “I have nothing to do” were dangerous! Mom or Dad would start to smile and say “Well, we can fix that...” and if we didn’t run to find something to do quickly enough, we’d get stuck with some chore we definitely didn’t want. So we figured out how to entertain ourselves, for the most part, and even thinking of the words “I’m bored” automatically spurred our minds to think of something to do.

That still works, and just this past month I’ve found that God needed to use it with me again.

Until recently I’ve been unemployed, and with all the housework done, the meals experimented with to the limit of my poor husband’s patience, and the dog brushed within an inch of her life, I found myself sitting at the computer thinking “I have nothing to do...” Promptly the wheels started turning, and God brought to mind some Bible chapters that I was far behind on reading. The temptation then was, “But that’s not what I want to do!” and that laid bare my real problem.

See, I’d forgotten something very important: that life isn’t about me, it isn’t here to entertain me. My job is to glorify God, and that means there is always, always, something to do. While God promises us rest, the Bible never condones idleness of mind or body for it’s own sake, and there is so much written in the Word that we can be doing for the one who died for us. Sometimes it’s reading and studying, sometimes it’s working to remember and perform everyday tasks that slip to the bottom of the list because they aren’t “fun.” Sometimes it’s having fun, finding something to laugh about or to learn. Sometimes it’s doing something for someone else, volunteering, or finding a creative way to bless those closest to us.

But sadly, while reading more of Sarah Young’s book, I noticed that “Jesus” tends to be very focused on the reader. Everything is focused on bringing the reader into “My Presence,” which is described as a euphoric sort of experience that Christians ought to be having all the time.

But nowhere in the Bible does Jesus encourage this constant search for a mountaintop experience. Instead, we are told to pray without ceasing, to be thankful, to love one another, “aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands” (1 Thess. 4:11). Sometimes it’s those “boring” things, the routine things, that, when done with the right heart, glorify God the most.