For the Days You Crave Being Bored: How to Let God Slow You Down

There comes a day when you realize you crave being bored. Expending good mental energy to come up with something to do feels nostalgic now. Boredom goes by a different name—margin, white space, rest—but it’s become elusive, something that needs ferociously protected not where you land by default.

This is where your mind wanders as you wash water bottles for school tomorrow. Funny how a decade or two changes your perspective.

We spend our childhood trying to hurry along the pace of time. Make Christmas, birthdays, summer vacation get here faster. One thing common to humans is that we aren’t great at waiting.

But the difference between waiting as a kid and waiting as an adult is that we’re juggling a lot more while we wait. We are impatient. Frustrated. Maybe anxious. But, at least for me, not bored.

Perhaps it’s my Enneagram 1 wing keeping my must-do list, and how well it’s done, at the forefront of my mind. Rarely is there a moment when I can’t think of something that I need to do (or re-do!). Can you relate?

You’re tired long before you crawl into bed. You add items to your list faster than you check them off. You need a vacation, but also vacation is mostly exhausting.

Where does God’s Word meet us in the twists and uphills of our busy lives? What does He place a gentle finger on? How does He tenderly lift our chin, look into our eyes—open our eyes?

God, in His grace, trains us

As I glance up from my desk, I see this verse written in my imperfect cursive:

For the Lord’s training of your life

Is the evidence of his faithful love.

And when he draws you to himself,

It proves you are his delightful child.

Hebrews 12:6

I’m new to choosing a verse of the year, but this is where I’ve landed for 2023. As I lean into my word of the year, umbrella, looking for ways to help the people right in front of me feel seen, I want to also keep a tender and obedient heart. Embrace God’s gentle correction. Trust His heart. Come near when He draws me. Live and love from the overflow of knowing how I delight God.

It’s the faithful, loving ways God corrects me that make me mirror Him. And in the tension of keeping tasks and relationships in the right order, I find that I need Him to do what a loving Father does: call out the best in me.

If the term discipline makes you squirm, let’s talk about it. You may have seen too many examples of ill-intentioned discipline to trust that God offers it to us as a gift. Perhaps it’s been used to break you and the wounds have left scars. Or you’ve gone too far and you’re not sure you trust yourself.

Shame and blame can beat us down. But God. God reaches through and lifts us up. He looks us right in the eyes and tells us we’re His.

Let’s pick up in verse 8 of Hebrews 12:

We all should welcome God’s discipline as the validation of authentic sonship. For if we have never once endured his correction it only proves we are strangers and not sons.

TPT

God loves us too much to make us figure out the best way to live on our own. Instead, He comes close and leads us by the hand. Invites us to fall in sync with Him.

Verses 10 and 11 remind us that

God corrects us throughout our lives for our own good, giving us an invitation to share his holiness. Now all discipline seems to be more pain than pleasure at the time, yet later it will produce a transformation of character, bringing a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who yield to it.

TPT

If you’re anything like me, you wish you could fast forward to discipline’s rewards. Get the harvest without the planting, watering, tending, and waiting. But that’s not how things grow.

What happens when we won’t slow down

And all our rushing and climbing and artfully fitting things into our days have a consequence. I appreciate Jennifer Dukes Lee’s wisdom immensely, and this is what she has to say:

In my experience, here’s what suffers most in the chaos of a rushed existence: relationships. Hurry wounds the bonds of connection.

Growing Slow, p. 113

Could it be that God slows us down and walks some hard roads with us because He knows what’s lost when we get ahead of ourselves?

Relationships need time and intention in order to grow, but sometimes I forget. And maybe you’ve been holding a pace too that pushes away boredom but also pushes people away.

5 things to help slow you down

If that’s you, I want to share a few things I’ve implemented this year as a response to God putting his finger on this area of my life:

1. An early-morning brain dump into the Reminders app on my phone. This lets the things I need to do rest until it’s time to give them attention.
2. Setting timers. This gives me concrete boundaries for the tasks that eat time.
3. Keeping my phone out of sight when it’s a distraction rather than I tool I need.
4. Pausing to eat when I’m tempted to keep pushing through on empty.
5. Scheduling hours to work and not work. This may or may not apply to you, but it’s especially helpful when you work from home.

The goal of missional neighboring is to do life with your people and let the things God is doing inside you ripple out beyond you. We can’t do that if we’re too busy to be relational. But there is so, so much grace to learn as we go, let God rearrange our priorities, and lean into His loving and faithful correction.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, You could be the busiest person to ever live, and yet You’re entirely about relationships. Show how You do it. We welcome Your guidance and Your grace when we stumble. Lead us, teach us, train us.

Just a friend over here in your corner,

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Find out if you are ACCIDENTALLY building walls instead of friendships—and what to do about it!

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