Quarantine Devotion – Day 5

Passage to Ponder: Psalm 39:1-7

We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.” --Psalm 39:6 (NLT)

     Here we are: 5 days into our societal shutdown. Some of us are finding that staying at home around the clock is going well thus far; others are already suffering from cabin fever and boredom. How do we deal with boredom? I used the search function on my Bible software and looked for the word “boredom” (and its variants) in 17 English translations of the Scriptures. Guess what? None of them contained the word “boredom.” The references to the word “bored” had to do with making a hole such as piercing something or woodworking.

  Sometimes the Bible speaks to us in what it doesn’t say. Why do we not have counsel on dealing with boredom in the Bible? Could it be that the ancients were too busy trying to make a life for themselves that they didn’t have time to get bored? Is boredom a recent arrival in the human experience? The logic here is easy to follow: the people who preceded us were simply too busy trying to stay alive to experience boredom in any real fashion. I have trouble imagining that my grandfather, a Texas rancher, said to his parents that he was bored and there was nothing to do! The cure for boredom is staying busy.

  Now, let’s examine this concept of staying busy. It is good to do your necessary work to earn your income. It is necessary to do the good work of maintaining your home. Yet, the Bible tells you to keep all this busyness in proper perspective. No one had more to deal with than King David. The one time the Bible records that David was lazy and not at the front of the battle, you see a bored David making his greatest mistake: the Bathsheba affair. Read carefully his sobering words in Psalm 39:6. Billy Graham used to say he had never seen a hearse on the way to a cemetery pulling a U-Haul trailer behind it. 

  Make sure you are busy doing what you are supposed to do. At the same time, recognize and make time for what is truly important—your walk with Christ, your relationship with your family, your fellowship with friends and neighbors. Keep it all in proper perspective.

 

  If you find yourself dealing with cabin fever and boredom during the next couple of weeks, get busy! Make productive use of the extra time to invest in what matters most. King David prayed, “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath” (Psalm 39:4-5 NLT). 

  “Lord, You alone are eternal. Thank You for the time You have given to me. Help me to make wise use of it. Show me how to keep my priorities focused on what are the most important uses of my time. Let me do more than make a living for myself and my family; let me show them how to truly live in the moment for You! In Jesus Name, Amen” 

Love,
Pastor Larry

(This is from a series of devotionals written during our time of restricted meetings and activities due to the coronavirus.)