Summertime Boredom 3
The dog days of summer are here! There’s nothing like some 95-degree days from mother nature to slow us down a bit. While we can be grateful for the gift of modern air conditioning that graces pretty much every corner of the USA (looking at you, Europe!), the long, hot days still have a unique power to slow down our appetites, thoughts, and frantic pace. This is to be embraced as one of the great gifts of summer.
Whether you’re sitting by a pool, or a porch, by a cottage or campsite or your couch, summer invites us to sit and linger a little bit longer. Please, friends, say “Yes” to that invitation whenever it comes your way. Along with the sitting, some healthy boredom may be yours for the taking! Healthy boredom can act as a signal that invites you to step back and consider the big things in life, and maybe reevaluate where you’re currently going. Healthy boredom is an emotional cue telling you that your current situation is lacking and stirring up holy longings for more.
More of what?!
That’s where the help of the Holy Spirit comes in. I’m NOT recommending that you start blowing everything up in your life. Rather, by allowing yourself to feel dissatisfied with the status quo, healthy boredom drives your God-given human curiosity and holy motivation to seek out what could be better. Or what could be next. Or what could be possible…
Over the month of July, I’ll be engaged with a couple of “Continuing Education” experiences that I’m praying will do this for me both on a personal level and on a churchwide level.
- I’ll be at the University of Saint Mary’s in Mundelein, IL for three days of rigorous thinking (facilitated by the CS Lewis Institute) about the tensions of living as Kingdom citizens inside a fractured, secular society. Instead of trying to aggressively conquer or "take back" cultural losses through political or social ambition, we’ll be dreaming about ways to help guide believers on how to overcome the world through faith.
- Later in the month, I’ll be in Nashville, TN for three days with a group of leaders from around our denomination to work on personal and organizational goals for the coming year. In addition to hanging out with some creative, Christian leaders and receiving some good content, I’m hoping for some hours outside in the Tennessee sun and the slow, healthy, holy boredom that shines down with it. That’s typically when I can hear the quiet guidance of the Holy Spirit the best!
I’m reminded of the experience of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19. On Mount Sinai, while he was deeply alone, Elijah felt the rush of a powerful wind – and then was shaken by an earthquake - and then regaled by a fireworks show of flashes and lightning. But God wasn’t in any of the sound and fury. Elijah waited through the chaos and was rewarded by the presence of God which came as a still, small voice. And from the quiet place, God stirred up amazing new things!
This July, may you experience some quality moments of healthy boredom and be met there by the still, small voice of God.
– Pastor Gregg