Fleeing Boredom

We watched a movie the other night called “The Visitor” about an economics professor who is a widower whose life has fallen into a very hopeless rut. His life intersects with this foreign couple who are very creative and musical, but who are also illegal aliens living in our country. I won’ go into all of the specifics of everything, but there is one scene where he is getting to know this woman who is the mother of one of the illegal immigrants and he is having dinner with her. The conversation is going pretty well until it turns to the ominous subject of what he does for a living. He describes his life as very boring. He has been teaching the same course for the past twenty years and he doesn’t really work hard at what he does, but instead keeps himself “busy” with stuff that doesn’t really matter. Because he has been doing this for so long, he doesn’t have to put the same effort he once did in, and he can pretty much do the same task in his sleep.

As I was watching this, I really felt bad for the character, because I saw myself in his shoes, going through the motions, doing busy tasks without any real purpose, being lazy and not really being passionate about what I am doing. I am fearful of this and it brought me to a prayer yesterday morning, where I asked God to rescue me from the futile existence of boredom and meaninglessness. In a day where I consume myself with schedules and to do lists, it is easy to lose passion and focus, and I have to dig deep every day and week, so that I don’t become just another person struggling to find happiness in what I do and what my life is about. Boredom is one of my greatest temptations and has led me astray in the past, and it is overcoming me even as I write th...

(Ecclesiastes 2:22-25) “What has a man from all of the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”