Why be bored?

"Oh, how I'd love to get away from this dull job, this routine living, this drab sameness," we might sometimes sigh."If only I could take an ocean cruise or even just get away for the weekend!"

Occasionally we may be able to do some of these things, but if we travel in hopes of just getting away, things might still be boring. The Bible teaches that there's a better answer to boredom.

Imagine a delightful land of fountains and honey, a land of varied yet harmless experiences, a land so beautiful it shines like jewels. In a sense, you can be there as you develop the capacity to see and experience it.

But how do we develop such perception? In the Christian Science textbook, Mary Baker Eddy states, "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." n1 This exchange does not mean retreating into a world of daydreams or science fiction. It involves facing circumstances -- whether pleasant, mediocre, or difficult -- and then discerning and bringing our in action the spiritual facts, the spiritual ideas that are really there.

n1 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 269.

When moses described a Promised Land of fountains and honey, n2 he was trying to lead the sometimes stubborn children of Israel out of their forty-year ordeal in the wilderness. Much later a prophet pictured "new heavens and a new earth." n3 He was able to see beyond outward circumstances to an innocent, joyous sense of being where God's chosen people walk the earth with divine purpose and fulfillment. It was an interesting, vital kind of life, where "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord." n4

n2 See Deuteronomy 8:7 8;

n3 See Isaiah 65:17;

n4 v. 25.

St. John, exiled and alone on the bleak Isle of Patmos, had few of the amenities most of us take for granted, yet he perceived a sense of existence so inviting and awe-inspiring that he used metaphors of precious jewels and gold to describe it. n5

n5 See Revelation 21.

What did these Bible writers have in common? Spiritual sense, the ability to exchange "the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." They had developed the capacity to look beyond what the material sense were telling them to the evidence of God's goodness and, finally, to a creation of spiritual ideas.

Why is that important? Because God, Spirit, Mind, is the only creator. What could a divine, infinite Mind create except spiritual ideas? Surely it couldn't create its opposite, matter.

So when Bible writers started thinking and "seeing" in spiritual terms, they were doing a magnificent thing. They were honoring God -- giving Him back His creation, you might say. That is, they were seeing existence in divine terms, seeing the future not as fear or discouragement or limited material vision was presenting it to them, but as it really, divinely, was -- beautiful and good.

One can never imagine Christ Jesus bored. His life was no doubt a deeply satisfying round of healing, of rising above limitations of matter and material circumstances, of explaining to the people the nature of a loving God who made these things possible.

Mary Baker Eddy's life as Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science was full of both challenges and deep fulfillment. At one time she turned down an invitation to attend the exciting Chicago World's Fair in 1893. "I have a world of wisdom and Love to contemplate," she said, "that concerns me, and you, infinitely beyond all earthly expositions or exhibitions. In return for your kindness, I earnestly invite you to its contemplation with me, and to preparation to behold it." n6

n6 Miscellaneous Writings,m pp. 321-322.

As if in fuller explanation, in another of her works she writes, "The scientific man and his Maker are here; and you would be none other than this man , if you would subordinate the fleshly perceptions to the spiritual sense and source of being." n7

n7 Unity of Good,m p. 46.

As we "subordinate the fleshly perceptions to the spiritual sense and source of being," we'll never be bored. We'll have had a stimulating taste of eternal life, and our experience will become increasingly satisfying and productive. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing . . . . O Lord my God, I will give th anks unto thee for ever. Psalms 30:11, 12