I'm Bored.

Have you ever made the comment "I'm bored" or heard it from your child? Well, it might be a sign of a fundamental misunderstanding of recreation and the benefit of lack of amusement.

Check out this excellent commentary on boredom and media by Justin Taylor. This applies not only to the postmodern but to anybody influenced by modern thought on amusement and recreation.

Check out Short Attention Span Theatre or http://theologica.blogspot.com/ .

A few questions to go with this:
1) How are we addressing the comment, I'm bored'?
2) How are we training our children (and ourselves) to use spare time to grow versus merely amuse themselves?
3) What recreational habits do we need to change for our own lives?
4) What do biblical rest and recreation look like?

Enjoy!

Paul

Christian Leisure

“Human life is incomplete if it does not follow the lead of God in balancing work with leisure." - Leland Ryken

Are you convinced? What does God's word teach? Check out these verses:

Exodus 20:8-11 (ESV)

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Psalm 127:1-2 (ESV)
¹ Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. ² It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Mark 6:31 (ESV)
³¹ And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

How are you practicing Godward leisure?


Check out these resources:

Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy
John Piper

Sanctifying the Ordinary: A Biblical Understanding of Leisure
Jeff Purswell

Redeeming the Time: A Christian Approach to Work and Leisure
Leland Ryken

A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life
J.I. Packer