We have no reason to be bored

She is 18, a college freshman; smart, pretty, but she tells me she is bored. The classes are boring, her friends are boring, and everything is boring.

Her mom and dad want her to get a 4-year degree “in something.” They both have 4-year degrees “in something.” Dad is a fork lift operator and Mom works in the office of a school.

She would really like to be a mechanic; she loves fixing cars. She says, “Apparently Mom and Dad don’t want their daughter to come to the family reunion with scared up, oversized hands with ingrown dirt.”

I can understand teenagers who are bored with life. I believe that’s part of being young. We make the mistake of comparing ourselves to others, and we feel inferior. We all make a common mistake—we compare ourselves to other people’s “highlight reel as it were.” We only see their victories and spectacular accomplishments. We don’t see the hard work it took to achieve their “highlight reel as it were.” We don’t see the long streaks of being “bored” in their life; we don’t see their everyday struggles. As a result, we view our life as boring.

Let’s be realistic, much of our life is boring. We think life is a connection of random happenings which hopefully come together to mean something. Life is joy mingled with tears. We like the joy; tears we can live without. We try desperately to star in our own “highlight reel.”

What saddens me is when I find adults who are bored with life—no purpose, no vision. We should know better but we don’t. A psychologist I know says, “We have all become perpetual adolescents.”

I think it is time to grow up… May we as Christians be brought to maturity by the power of the Holy Spirit. These times need mature people, mature Christians. Let’s put aside this silliness and grow up.