Let Them Be Bored

Boredom is not something that I am familiar with.

I love long flights, long car rides, long empty days… because I have a mental list a mile long of things I could fill them with if I ever have the time.

You should see the bag I bring with me on the 1 hour car ride to my in laws. Or my carry on luggage for a flight.

So many activities and so little time.

Free time feels like a gift, and wasted time is a source of frustration.

Once, I looked up the actual definition of frustration, which is the feeling when you are prevented from doing something. This description made so much sense. The feeling that wells up in your chest. The anxiousness and tapping of feet when you have to wait or endure distractions instead of accomplishing the things you want to do.

Frustration rises up in me because I highly value efficiency. Productivity is one of my highest goals. Not necessarily because I am a motivated person, but because there are so many things I want to fit into the day.

Productivity and efficiency can be good things. We can use our time well instead of wasting it away.

But doing and accomplishing and completing can also crowd out other good, more important things.

I laid in bed one night thinking of all the things that I did not mark off my list that day. All the little pockets of time that had not bore the fruit of my industriousness as I had hoped.

We only have 24 hours in the day, but I wanted squeeze every bit of usefulness out of each one.

And as I laid there ruminating about how I would trade this bit of sleep for just a bit more efficiency, I felt a pull on my heart.

We are not made Holy by the productiveness of our day. Or by what we produce.

The Lord does not want us to be lazy, that is true. But is there a possibility that in running for what might potentially be “laziness’ we miss the moments of quiet that He offers. We miss the unhurried moments of connection that He made us for.

The Lord wants me to choose Him, even above other seemingly good or urgent things. He will not let us be successful at things that take away our intimacy with Him.

Inefficiency is not the greatest sin. But missing out on intimacy with our Savior because we want to hustle and achieve is a tragedy.

The Lord is not impressed by our productivity. He is perfectly content with all the things we do not accomplish, because He already accomplished it all. Nothing we produce or earn is done in our own strength. There are times when just working harder will not produce the results that we want. And that is grace. To remind us that we are not in control.

The One who is does not need us to work ourselves to exhaustion to prove our worth or value. He just wants us to rest in Him.

Boredom is not a judgment on your worth. Productivity is not producing righteousness.

Let our anxious performing drive us to the One who keeps no record or our accomplishments. And let our boredom drive us to the One who satisfies completely.