Boredom v. Contentment: A Ponder

Are you bored with school, yet? If you're following the traditional school year, you've been back at it for about a month. That's just long enough to get past all the "new" feelings and fall into the routine of classes and practices and studying and all the social joy and ugliness. My guess: Some of you are tired of the whole thing already.

I get bored in the daily sometimes. And it's not about not having enough to do. In fact, sometimes it's about having way too much to do. I get mentally and emotionally itchy. My mind won't sit still long enough to trudge through what must be done. You?

"But godliness with contentment is great gain." (1 Timothy 6:6)

A lightbulb went on recently: Boredom is a contentment issue. Maybe that's a no-brainer, but I didn't get it. I thought of contentment as being okay with being broke or sick or rejected. "Life on the rocks? Let God help you push the contentment button." And He does help us trust Him and be okay in those moments.

But I give myself permission (sometimes) to be discontent with the moments when everything is okay -- just not all that interesting. "I'm bored!" I'd rather blame my boredom/lack of focus on the pile of tedium in front of me instead of the lack of trust inside of me. Yes, lack of trust. I don't really believe that God has given me everything I need in this moment to be content. I need more. Or I need less. But this moment is broken. That's a lack of faith in this promise:

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness . . ." (2 Peter 1:3; click for the whole mind-blowing paragraph)

It's a wild idea to me. You mean every moment -- even those I use to force myself to study or clean something or listen to someone -- comes from God packed with everything I need to be content? By trusting Him to provide in a boring moment, He can turn mundane into meaningful? Apparently. I don't understand it, exactly, but I think it's worth figuring out. I'd love to hear what you do with your boring moments.