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go here to buy my stock photography Alan Creech
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aaron klinefelter
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I get so frustrated with my kids, though, when they say that. "I'm bored" seems like a give-up kind of statement, a cop-out. Usually, what it means is that there is nothing to entertain me at the moment, please entertain me! Our minds crave action, motion, noise, movement. One good thing is, you're alive. OK, your mind is active and wants to do something - nothing inherently wrong with that. This basic living activity isn't what I'm talking about though. I'm talking about constant desire for stimulation on an abnormal level. We don't even know what abnormal means in this regard any more I don't think. Even those who study such things scientifically are steeped in the cultural goop they're trying to understand. It's very difficult to step outside that mess and look in on it from some pure place where you can see all the untainted norms and measure everything against them. Very difficult. Thought-work can be done on it though. I believe that. We've got to see what we've created for ourselves - a world full of constant visual and auditory stimulation. Not only that, but one also of actual physical and chemical stimulation being encouraged and sought after in ways that go far beyond normal human existence. Music and talk everywhere, all the time. Television, movies, videos, constantly streaming into our eyes and ears. We can't just take a walk, we have to run. We can't just run on an even path, we have to run cross-country. We aren't satisfied by going on a trip, we have to climb a mountain at the top of which, we cannot breath properly, in the cold in which we often lose a finger or a toe. We can't stand calmly on the edge of a cliff, looking at the amazing view, we feel it necessary to jump off the cliff with a parachute on our backs. We jump off bridges with stretchy strings tied to our ankles for Christ's sake! It's a little out of hand when you step back and look at it. Obviously, this carries over into our spiritual lives, into church, etc. Our lives are one. We can talk about them like they're segmented but they're not in reality. Everything we think and believe spills over into everything else. There is no real separation. So, are you bored with God? Are you bored with your "walk?" How are things with your church, your faith community? Frustrating? Nothing happening? Hmmm. Yeah, I thought so. So, we look up and say "I'm bored Daddy!" - I mean, "Send revival Lord!" - "Let the fire of your Spirit fall so we'll feel your Presence again O God!" I pray and I pray and I pray and nothing happens! I go to church every week and we do the same things over and over; pray, read Scripture, have Communion, talk, Teach, preach, talk to each other and leave. Nothing ever happens! We should perhaps step back a bit (I know it's hard) and see how much of a little kid we sound like sometimes. Entertain me Daddy, swing me around again! Yeah, I understand that from a 4 year old, but when you're 30, uuuuhhhh, maybe you want to stop. Understand, boredom is conditioned. It's not innate. We learn to be bored. And we can unlearn it. It takes a long time though. Sounds fun doesn't it? Let's sit quietly and practice. Grace be with us. technorati tags > boredom, culture, acculturation, christianity, spirituality, spiritual life Labels: spiritual formation :::
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three quotes |:: "Then, if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike. Herein we cannot possibly do amiss." "Keep your eyes on the crucifix, for Jesus without the cross
is a man without a mission, and the cross without Jesus
is a burden without a reliever." "...I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be
completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self."
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