Bible Text: Psalm 127:3 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | Are you bored with life and feel like you have a squirrel cage existence–the same thing day after day with no change? Dr. Edward Thorndike of Columbia University conducted a series of experiments relating to boredom and fatigue. He took a group of students and kept them awake for almost a week by constantly changing their interests. Dr. Thorndike concluded his tests saying that “Boredom is the only real cause of fatigue.”

Just because you are not bored does not mean that all of you can go for a week without sleep; but chances are, you are may not be nearly as tired as you are just plain bored. Remember the day last week when you were constantly interrupted? Every time you started to get your work done, something happened–the phone rang, or somebody stopped to chat–and all the time your work hung over your head. At the end of the day you went home exhausted and you had accomplished absolutely nothing! Then the next day everything worked. You had a productive day and accomplished something. You went home tired but satisfied. Why? Because most fatigue is caused by boredom!

What can you do to overcome boredom? One thing that you can do is to decide to make a dull job interesting. Take the case of a machinist by the name of Sam. He had the dullest job in his company. He stood at a lathe all day turning out bolts. He wanted to quit, but he was afraid that he could not find another job; so he decided to make his job interesting. He began competing with another lathe operator and he improved his speed and accuracy! That was the start of a whole series of promotions that thirty years later took Samuel Vauclain to the presidency of his company.

There are times when it is perfectly understandable why we get bored, but often we are bored with life because we are bored with ourselves. We keep looking for a new jolt, a new thrill, something different for kicks. Sometimes we are not sure what it is that we are looking for. We are like an airplane without a landing field–a misfit in life.

Hundreds of years ago Augustine wrote, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they find themselves in Thee.” He is right–you may be restless and bored with life because your life has no purpose or meaning.

If this is not true, then explain the disinterest that so many people have in life. Today people have more and more, yet are dissatisfied, annoyed, restless and–let’s face it, just plain bored with life, with themselves, and with others. Is it any wonder that Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life has spoken to the hearts of a disconnected generation?

What are you living for, anyway? If you had the promotion you have your eye on would you really be satisfied, or in short order, would you be as bored as you are now? Do you really think that what you want out of life will satisfy?

Boredom in life–a lack of purpose for living–is also the cause of thousands of suicides every year. I am thinking of an e-mail I received. A young woman in Russia said, “Life isn’t worth living because it makes no sense to me.” Lots of people reflect that attitude, yet your life can have purpose, and the flip side of purpose is knowing that God has a will for you and cares for you. Your despair may be a good thing because it can drive you to the feet of Jesus Christ, who still says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” There’s more. Find out about it.

Resource reading: Psalm 18