When boredom becomes a spiritual red flag
Do you find yourself thinking, “I’m bored” a little more than you should? If so, you’re not alone.
A study published last month by Katy Tam & Michael Inzlicht in “Communications Psychology” entitled “People are increasingly bored in our digital age” found that, although we have more stimuli than ever, we’re also more bored than we’ve ever been. The researchers say:
“In today’s world, where entertainment is readily accessible at our fingertips, reports of boredom are paradoxically on the rise, especially among younger generations. We can instantly stream movies, interact with friends online, and consume an endless supply of content. Yet, data from national surveys and studies indicate that people today report feeling bored more frequently than ever before, with boredom rates significantly increasing among adolescents and college students since 2009.”
Get Our Latest News for FREE
To overcome what we consider to be our dull living experience, we’re constantly on the hunt to add more pizazz and entertainment to our lives. As just one example, recent data says you and I spend around 110 hours per year scrolling through streaming services looking for something to watch, which equates to roughly four and a half days of time spent just searching for pleasing content.
As you might guess, this problem can get worse, with some people going so far as to develop an unhealthy fear of boredom, a condition called thaasophobia. It’s defined as the fear of being idle or sitting still and it can result in some experiencing panic when faced with empty “space”, as if their lives need constant entertainment to be meaningful.
Hopefully, things haven’t gotten that bad for you, but if they have or are progressing to an uncomfortable point, it may be a red flag that something is amiss in your Christian walk.
Kierkegaard’s three stages of life
Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard had an impact on the Christian faith and religious thought. One of his major contributions is found in his work Either/Or where he argued that there are three stages of life in which human beings find themselves.
The most immature stage is what Kierkegaard called the “aesthetic life,” which he defined as persons primarily concerned with their enjoyment, but at some point realize their pleasures are fleeting. Boredom constantly haunts them.
Philosopher Jeff Mason describes the aesthetic life as promising: “A series of temporary reliefs from the consciousness of despair. However, pleasures pale before the onslaught of experience … The appeal of pleasure itself evaporates … The important thing is not right or wrong, but the interesting or the boring.”
This is exactly how poet and playwright Oscar Wilde described life, saying: “Nothing succeeds like excess … nothing is good or bad, only charming or dull.”
Scripture says we all start out believing and living like this, but that way of life fades after we’re reconciled to God through Christ’s death. For example, Paul writes: “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy” (Titus 3:3) and “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (Eph. 2:3).
Although Kierkegaard believed we never truly break free of aesthetic desires in this life — also something confirmed by the Bible (e.g., see Rom. 7:14-25) — he argued that once the aesthetic life had bottomed out, we next move on to the ethical stage of existence, which is characterized by rule-keeping. This stage, however, he says is no better than the first.
Of the ethical stage, Mason says: “The ethical life fares hardly better than the aesthetic. Obedience to duty brings no relief from anxiety. Duty and inclination pull in opposite directions, and we learn what duty is by contrast with what we want to do. Guilt belongs to the ethical life, and one never does one’s duty perfectly. Even in success, thoughts of extraneous pleasures or desires cloud ethical motives.”
I couldn’t have said that better myself. Any of that sound familiar with what you’ve experienced?
Not surprisingly, the Bible also confirms this stage. Describing the futility of trying to live by God’s Law, Peter said to the legalists in the early church: “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? (Acts 15:10). Paul adds: “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith” (Gal. 3:10–11).
Living by faith is Kierkegaard’s third “religious” stage, which he discussed in his work The Sickness Unto Death, arguing that the religious life is the only truly satisfactory one. Mason sums up this stage by writing: “To live religiously, we ‘die to the world’ and afterward start to live in earnest. By ‘dying to the world’ and giving up our lives to God, faith promises a miraculous return of life and possibility. This paradox is at the heart of religiosity.”
Kierkegaard thought the only way forward out of boredom and guilt came through his hotly-contested “leap of faith”, which I think falls out of the boundaries of what the Bible teaches and the very definition of the word “faith” as found in Scripture. Contrary to what Kierkegaard thought, trust in God is indeed logical, rational, and reasonable.
In his book Truth Decay, Doug Groothuis describes it like this: “Jesus called his disciples to believe truths as a necessary condition of salvation and discipleship. In addition, one must entrust oneself to Christ as Lord. This involves a whole-hearted commitment beyond bare assent. However, without the assent, the devotion makes no sense. Christian faith involves both intellectual assent (fides) and personal trust (fiducia). In fact, the latter is logically dependent on the former for its rationale.”
Again, I couldn’t have said that better myself.
The spiritual rebirth brought about by the Holy Spirit (see John 3) is yours and my ticket out of the aesthetic life that is marked by boredom and the ethical life, which is dogged by guilt. If you haven’t turned to Christ yet, or if you’ve forgotten this truth and have fallen backward in your Christian Walk, don’t despair; remember and meditate deeply on Jesus’ words: “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
You and I are now free from boredom, free of guilt, and free to be righteous, just as Paul says: “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to [i.e., couldn’t be] righteousness. Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life” (Rom. 6:20–22).
Now that's living!
Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master's in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.
