On Boredom: How God is Not Tame and Why We Shouldn’t Be Either

By Me (of course)

While laying on the white sandy beaches of Destin, Florida, I had a lot of time to think... And I concluded that I definitely had too much time to think. So, I had a lot of time to read... And I concluded that I definitely had too much time to read. So then, I ate... and I concluded that I definitely had too much to eat because I had so much time to spare... Do you sense a recurring theme? Well, if you don’t, then you’re just plain slow... or maybe I’m just a bad writer... I’ll just spell it out plainly then: I was BORED OUT OF MY MIND. But with all my time thinking, reading, and eating, God drew a lot of concepts together for me.

One of the books I read was The Barbarian Way by Edwin Raphael MacManus. I really recommend it... It’s only now really sinking in to me. ( And it was perfect because I was reading Les Miserables at the same time and then, on the way home, I started rereading Letters to a Diminished Church by Dorothy Sayers and they all tie in together and it’s jsut amazing!) Let me tell you my favorite quote: Well, here’s the background first: Remember Robert the Bruce from "Braveheart?" Well, when he died he requested that his heart be removed from his body and taken on a crusade by a worthy knight. So, James Douglas took his heart and found himself in a desperate battle. Knowing that was going to die, he took the heart and threw into the midst of his enemies saying, "Fight for the heart of your king." And so here’s my favorite quote: "To belong to God is to belong to His heart. If we have responded to the call of Jesus to leave everything and follow Him, then there is a voice within us crying out, ‘Fight for the heart of your King.’" To fight for the heart of your King means the exact opposite of an easy life, laying on the beach, being bored. But to know His heart means you can’t do anything else but give everything. And that’s so much what I want to do even though it scares me so much.

In my journal from my senior year, I pasted pictures on a really plain cheap one from Barnes and Nobles. Anyway, on the back, I have a picture from the illustrated version of Narnia of Aslan playing with Susan and Lucy and it always reminds me of the part where they say, "He isn’t a tame lion." And then, I pasted something else that said "God is not boring," under it. All this to say, I’m reading Letters to a Diminished Church by Dorothy Sayers ( a good friend of Lewis’) and she has this amazing quote and then, I’ll leave you.

"Somehow or other, and wit hthe best intentions, we have shown the world the typical Christian in the likeness of a crashing and rather ill-natured bore– and this in the Name of One who assuredly never bored a soul in those thirty-three years during which He passed through this world like a flame. Let us, in Heaven’s name, drag out the Divine Drame from under the dreadful accumulation of slipshod thinking and trashy sentiment heaped upon it, and set it on an open state to startle the world into some sort of vigorous reaction."

Anyway, to conclude it all, God is not boring or tame, the Christian life is not a vacation on the beach, and for heaven's sake, neither is heaven... at least, I hope not, because if it were, I would have way too much time on my hands for all of eternity...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, that was me trying not to be random and it mainly worked. I stayed on topic surprisingly well... that won't happen for a long time because I have to be random just a little..

We left and the dolphins came.

I went swimming in the ocean on Christmas day. It was stupid of us, because it really was freezing outside, the red flags were up, and then, we went back and forth from the heated pool to the freezing ocean twice and everybody felt like they were going to pass out or be sick. But it was exciting...

The whole group of us (25) overwhelmed a tiny Thai restaurant. The Thai waitress (the only one working) stared us so overwhelmed and said with the strongest accent, "If you all come, why did you not call first." We felt awful, but it ended up being hilarious because everybody in the restarant got to know each other. The Thai woman left Thailand when she was 20, and then, the CIA recruited her and she worked for them for 14 years! Random, right?

So, it wasn't all boring. I had my devotions while watching the sea... That was amazing.

And a bunch of other stuff happened that I could write about, but this is way too long as it is... I'm such a dork.. yup... oh well... that's just who I am and if you don't like that, then take it up with God...

Oh, one more thing: I'm leaving at 3:45am this Monday morning for Gretna, Louisiana.. So, if you could, pray for us...