Boredom is the root of all evil

We do so much better under pressure. We need the stimulation of direction. When we are bored we invent adventure. Fred Craddock says that watching the Indy 500 can lead one to being unchristian. The cars race round and round and round. They are going 230 MPH, round and round and round. They are going so fast it is hard to see the racing, the strategies, the art of the race. Instead you see the cars whizzz and whinnne past the grand stand. The monotony creeps in and you do not mean to be ugly…but you find yourself wishing that SOMETHING would happen! I think that is why Danica Patrick is such a hit among Indy fans. Yes, she’s cute. But cute does not get that much attention these days. She is tough and can race. She breaks up the boredom!
Of course, the issue is not Indy. Craddock is talking about church not racing. Have you been bored at church? I have been irritated and anxious at church. I am seldom bored. Of course, I am the preacher. When I think about the people who have gathered with a sense of expectation, it can be intimidating. I always have a message. If it is a Christian message, I can be assured that it is an important message. What is it that makes the people tune out, bob their heads as they fight off the sleepies? Some of them have been hearing the Bible for all of their lives. More information is boring! Some of them have not been listening for years! And sometimes, just maybe, I have ground it up into pabulum, too easy to swallow. What we need is a little bit of Bible scandal. What we need is a good 23 car pile-up. What we need is some eyes plucked out and hands cut off (Matthew 5:29-30)! That would wake everybody up, don’t you think! We need a few people dropping dead because their contribution was out of whack (Acts 5:5). What we need is not more information. We cannot allow reflection and discussion to become our central business. Craddock says “As long as life can be kept at a distance by stacking to ideas and concepts, a clever head can clear the way to operate a brothel and publish a new hymnbook at the same time.” (Overhearing the Gospel, p. 20)