The Benefits of Boredom
It's summertime.
The weather is beautiful. Your high school and childhood friends are home from their respective schools. You hang out with your favorite brother or sister. You have that summer job. And most of all, you have no school work.
So that big question comes up: what in the world should you do with all this free time?
I actually have had extra time to think about this. This past spring I participated in an Architecture Internship with Engineering Ministries International - India. As I prepared to live in India for six months I never thought I was going to have to address this question of "what do I do with my time?"
I was moving non-stop at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Between being the President of our InterVarsity chapter and the New Member Educator for my Fraternity, taking a full course load, and maintaining a social life, free time just did not happen. In contrast, my lifestyle in India includes waking up, working during the day, and then figuring out where to eat dinner before lounging around for an unproductive evening.
So here we are again. It's summertime.
When not at work I want to relax. I want to sit on the couch, play outside, watch TV, go to the movies, play games, go out with friends... or just do nothing. That's what I want to do. For some reason, I feel like that's not allowed.
We have all heard the talk of investing our time by going out and doing—through InterVarsity summer projects, volunteering at church, or just volunteering anywhere. To help this happen, my summers usually begin with a personal spiritual challenge: "I'm going to read through the Bible, cover to cover." "I'm going to do a manuscript study through this book." "I'm going to memorize this many verses."
For those keeping score at home, the success rates on these summer challenges are often low. The distractions and laziness of summer kick in quite easily. How can I spend my time better so I can grow my faith?
I need to do something about this.
What if that "something" were to do nothing? I'm not suggesting that this is in replacement of all forms of spending our time with God. We definitely still need to spend our time in prayer, reading the Scriptures and worshipping God. However, what if we add what I'm going to call "bored time" to this? This is what "bored time" looks like: we completely take away every single item in our lives that causes us to do something. Instead, we do nothing.
Stay with me here. What if we intentionally let ourselves get bored? And I mean real, intentional, boredom. Shut off the phone. Put down what you're reading. Close the laptop. Mute the radio. Absolutely nothing to occupy our mind. You know what can happen here? God.
This is an amazing opportunity for God to meet with you, while you are not so busy with sending that next tweet. As God spoke to Elijah in a "gentle whisper" in 1 Kings 19, he can do the same for us in this completely silent time. The Spirit will move your heart—he's just waiting for you to stop so you can be filled by God.
How much should I do this?
Between getting bored, reading, worshipping and praying, I could spend anywhere between 30 minutes to half the day! Maybe we look at our time through a new perspective. Just as we tithe our income and first-fruits to God, why don't we tithe our time to God?
A common theme throughout scripture is that a tenth of our first-fruits are given to God; therefore, what if we give up 2.4 hours (or round up to 2.5) to God?
There's the challenge. What do you do with your free time? Tithe it! And add getting bored to your spiritual routine. Really bored. So bored that all you have on your mind is to ponder and meditate on God and your imagination. Let God meet you in your undistracted state. Your time is valuable. Take advantage of these moments.
Ryan Sutton is a student from the InterVarsity chapter at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he’s studying architecture. He spends his time discipling the younger members and leaders and is also heavily involved with their Greek ministry.
