Could This Be the Best Lesson About Loneliness and Boredom?

Ironies of life there are very many of. Look at this one: when we are lonely or bored we are likely to gain most being by ourselves. We are closest to our core selves when all barriers of distraction are removed – yes, loneliness and boredom are the states of feeling.

What I learned years ago when I couldn’t escape my loneliness was... just add God!

The more palpably lost within life we are, the closer to a salvation experience[1] we are. But we must add God. Boredom is similar, but it won’t prompt the sort of salvation experience that indelible loneliness ventured with God will.

The good news about bad news is that the worse it gets the more intense the experience of God’s Presence we may have as a result.

Humanity has a common problem. We all feel pain and try our best to avoid it. But it’s in pain that we learn most about ourselves. And it’s in loneliness that we find out who we are. If we go to God in that loneliness, believing in our hearts, we are met.

We feel we are met. That is how we are met. We feel because we believe.

When we are bored and we take our boredom to God in prayer, a salvation experience is something we don’t actually need. So God provides some revelation. We learn about life, about ourselves, and about others. We are taught discernment.

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When we are lonely or bored, we do all we can to escape. Trouble is we will often do unhealthy things in our clamour to escape. Right before us is the opportunity: remain in the lonely or bored state and take God in there. It’s not an attractive invite, but we are shown by God many things when we arrive in our loneliness and boredom before him.

The paradox is we are probably never closer to a real experience of God than when we are truly lonely. And boredom is the invitation to grow in God.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.

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[1] I call a “salvation experience,” in this context, something of an experience of God breaking through the consciousness, saving the moment, teaching a vital life lesson that will prove beneficial for the future.