Bored To Death

"For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God ....Deuteronomy 10:17..."When you look at the facts, it's easy to see that one of the great dangers facing God's people is in this area of religious boredom. Boredom with religion is conceivable, but being bored with God is not. Those who have encountered God and His mighty, awesome presence could never come to the point of boredom." A.W. Tozer

You're likely familiar with the term "bored to death." It might be a more relevant term for our culture, especially the culture of the church, than ever before. Our attention spans grow shorter while our need for "thrills" grows ever larger. We're easily bored in our day to day living, so we look for means of stimulation. This has carried over to what we call "worship."

Not long ago, while walking in our local mall, I passed an area that had several "chairs" offering a "virtual reality" experience. The young man operating it asked if I wanted to try it. I declined, thinking I was satisfied with my actual reality, and didn't need an artificial substitute. It made me think of how, in the church, we're offering our own "artificial substitutes" for His presence...our own kind of "virtual reality." It's our guard against our people becoming bored with what we're presenting. Do we ever stop and examine the truth of that? Do we ever ask ourselves if that's what we're actually doing each week?

I've often heard in recent years the need for a church fellowship to be a welcoming place, but the emphasis seems on creating an atmosphere that welcomes people. I get that, but it seems the major part of our effort goes to that, while we miss having a heart atmosphere that welcomes Him. We concentrate on effects while missing the Cause, the Source. So we end up having to seek out more and better ways to keep people engaged, missing the fact that though they may be engaged with us, they're disengaged from Him....and so are we.

It's been a deep prayer of mine for a long time now that our fellowships would be composed of people who come expecting to encounter Him, to behold this awesome God we proclaim. Are they? Do the people come expecting to find everything but Him? Friendly people, good ministries, welcoming atmosphere, an easy place to fit in. Who expects to come face to face with the God His Word calls "a consuming fire." A fire that will consume us, transform us, and send us forth? Who could ever be bored with such a God? Who could ever remain unchanged after encountering that God? What "virtual reality" trip we could ever devise could compare with that God? Our God.

Throughout our fellowships sit people who are being bored to death, and if our response is to try and minister to their flesh while missing His Spirit, than we will have to give an account for that. We will have to explain to Him why showing Him, in all His splendor and glory, was not enough? Why we settled for our own "virtual reality booths" while completely missing the One who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords? He who holds all things together, and is a Reality words will never be able to describe.

Blessings,
Pastor O