Boredom Should Not Be In Your Dictionary!

Recently, my dear husband John and I returned from a dreamy vacation on a Princess cruise ship. Gents, if you want to impress your wife with a bit of romance, take a tip from me and book a cruise. A cruise is other-worldly… all is taken care of and it’s constant fun, fun, fun. Well, mostly…

The highlight of our particular cruise was floating through the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is one of the wonders of the industrial world and didn’t we know every fact and detail after attending numerous lectures and dull discussions. As our ship entered the first lock with only one foot of clearance on both sides, we cheered our handsome captain and lifted our glass. This was exciting!

Along with eight busloads of passengers from the ship, we boarded a ferry that would take us through the entire canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific…at walking speed. I’m not kidding. Our ferry moved so slowly that I’m sure I could have swum along at the same speed. It was about 9:30 in the morning and we were scheduled to hit our next lock at 1:30. Do you know what there is to do on a small ferry? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I knew I was getting a bit bored when massively ugly cargo ships would pass us by and I snapped numerous pictures of them.

Finally, 1:30 came and we approached a lock and guess what happened? We sat there in the lock and watched the water drain out…and then we floated on to the next lock and guess what we did…we sat there and watched the water drain out again. This happened six times. Frankly, it was very similar to watching a bath tub fill with water and drain out, over and over and over again. John was so bored he threatened to jump overboard. The Panama Canal, built over one hundred years ago, is an engineering feat and masterpiece, but floating through it is a lesson of patience.

After a total of eight hours, six solid-sugar sodas, and a whole battery’s worth of Angry Birds (only lite, mind you,) we were released from the ferry. We got bored. SO VERY BORED.

This feeling of boredom is a rare experience for me and I was reminded that so many people walk through life full of it. People are bored. Look around you. You can see it in their eyes. They feel there is nothing to do and nothing to get excited about.

That is so opposite from the God of the Christian Bible.

The words of the Bible offer a life of adventure and fullness. I have never found God to be boring; He’s full of creative power and strength. He’s full of surprises and hands out blessings and gifts galore. God challenges me to think outside the box because no box could ever contain Him. I have found that, day after day, God is bigger and better than I could ever hope or dare to dream. He loves endlessly. He cares. He speaks. He leads. He provides. He is exciting. He is miraculous. And the best news is: God is approachable and available.

John 10:10 (NIV version) says, “I (Jesus) have come that you may have life and have it to the full.”

I like the Message version even better:  “I (Jesus) came so you can have real and eternal life, more and better life than you could ever dream of.”

God is not dead and God is not boring. Choosing to follow God will become one of the most exciting adventures you will ever embark on…even better than a cruise.

“This original content, created by me, was originally published on http://thoughtcirc.us on March 18, 2013. Thought Circus is a media & publishing brand that shares extraordinary information about our world.”