Bored? – 11th October 2007

I’m reading a book called “Real Christianity” at the moment. It’s a paraphrase in modern English of William Wilberforce’s book “A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity” published in 1797. It’s not a fluffy book, and I rather liked the commendation by Chuck Colson “This is a book I strongly recommend”. To the point!

It may be a ‘cop out’ to quote a section of a book as a devotional, but hey – if it’s good…

“Personal pleasure and personal peace become the regulators of where we live, where we work, how we spend our time, what we think, what we say and how we amuse ourselves. The great issue of our lives becomes boredom. What a tragedy!

To live our lives and miss that great purpose we were designed to accomplish is truly a sin. It is inconceivable that we could be bored in a world with so much wrong to tackle, so much ignorance to teach and so much misery we could alleviate. It seems that ambition and avarice know no boundaries.

Yet life goes on with too many living in a kind of shapeless idleness. Recreation become the goal of life. Pubs abound, sports are perpetually proliferating, gambling consumes many, and almost any form of entertainment is pursued to fill the void created by a meaningless life. Year after year goes by in unprofitable pursuit. Young and old alike live for things that do not satisfy and ignore the very things that bring fulfilment. We are not criminals or murderers or thieves. Our sin is not so obvious. We live according to the standards of society, drifting along on this world’s ideas of living, oblivious to the consequences.”

Meaty stuff. He could be describing life today!

Maybe take a moment to reflect on the “great purpose” of your own life, what is God calling you to accomplish?

Take encouragement – Wilberforce’s perseverance produced great fruit; so can ours.

God bless