This morning I am bored. I don't think it is a coincidence that my boredom comes the day after my last exam. I slept early last night, so I rose early this morning. There was nothing interesting on television, I flicked through the Telegraph. Bored.
It seems as though the Christian is not ever allowed to say that they are bored. I hear the voice of an entirely hypothetical, stereotypical Christian: "Bored? What do you mean you're bored? If you're bored you're obviously not redeeming your time. Bored? Time is short, go evangelise someone you lazy sod."
Must I always be doing something? Is it overkill for me to feel bad for sitting idle for a few hours? The irony here of course is that I have wasted countless hours on the banality of Facebook. A habit which I am now kicking because I am tired of being controlled by my account rather than the other way around.
I do have a couple of things to think about. The first is the topic of contentment because I have been asked to help write a bible study on it for a women's event. Any books, sermons, blogs, bible passages (apart from the obvious ones) you can recommend on the subject would be appreciated. It is surprising that my concordance only shows four references to the topic in the bible. Paul Grimmond once mentioned in growth groups a concordance that listed where the desired idea or theme you were looking up may be discussed in the bible even if it didn't mention the word specifically. I think that would be quite useful. I was reading through Barbara Hughes' chapter on the Discipline of Contentment last night and was interested by her explanation of how Eve's discontent was stirred by the serpent and finally manifested itself in her rebellion. I'd never have thought to go to the creation story to examine contentment, but there you go.
I'm also planning to finally listen to Claire Smith's Different by Design talks over the break. I'm really looking forward to hearing what she has to say on 1 Timothy, having not actually heard or read a comprehensive and trustworthy complementarian exegesis.
Right. Still bored. I guess I could... No I absolutely could. I could go for a run! I haven't had time for that in ages!
The boredom hasn't quite set in for me just yet, but I can totally relate! When uni starts getting busy, I would hack off my left arm for an afternoon of 'nothing'. Then as soon as I hand in my final paper, I find myself in a state of catatonic boredom and I want some direction!
ReplyDeleteContentment has never been my strong point either - I have 'the grass is greener' almost literally tatooed across my face. Hope the women's event goes well, I'm sure you'll write an amazing study! x