WHY DO SOME FOLKS CONSIDER CHRISTIANITY TO BE BORING?

Date: Tue Jul 10 01:17:22 2007

You cannot escape the fact that a whole lot of people are bored. Nothing seems to be able to hold their interests. The big man around the house monopolizes the remote control so he can flock to twenty different programs in an hour. School children challenge their teachers to hold their attention or teach them ANYTHING. Every other kid seems to be diagnosed with ADD or ADHD.

I teach teenagers in Sunday School and I know what it takes to hold their attention. It is real work! When I preach, and other ministers tell me the same thing, many if not most people donít seem to be truly listening. You focus on the ones who are.

Why are so many people SO bored? It is nothing new. The scribes and Pharisees were bored, too. When Jesus came over for dinner and healed a man with dropsy, they werenít rejoicing ñ instead they were thinking about whether one could heal on the Sabbath. Today, children observe their parents following hard after God and they simply shrug their shoulders.

One of the biggest raps on Christianity is that being a Christian is boring. People figure that if they are terminally ill or in a hospice, it might be a good idea to do business with God, but certainly not in the prime of life. They want to sow wild oats and rule their lives before they give God the left-overs.

Frankly, I never understood why people think Christianity is boring. I see teens out in the parking lot of the Seven-Eleven dressing the way they want, listening to what passes for music, and engaging in banal conversation. Night after night. Now THAT is boring. I see people watching reruns and sit-coms where any person with one whit of intelligence could tell the ending. Some watch the same shows every day. Now THAT is boring. On Super Bowl Sunday, men watch people talking about who is going to throw what or run where for a few hours. Then, they watch what usually is a lopsided game. Afterwards, they watch people talking about who threw what and where they ran. The first half of the game MIGHT be OK, but the rest is boring.

What is boring about talking daily to your creator, the God of the universe? What is boring about following your assignment for the day, simply following an exciting agenda Jesus figured out for you? What is boring about seeing lives changes because of what you do and what you say? NOTHING.

The CHRISTIANS who are bored with Christianity are NOT talking daily to their creator, the God of the universe, and probably have never prayed even ONE minute without repeating themselves. The people who are bored with Christianity probably donít even know what their assignment on this earth is, so they canít follow it and see what surprises Jesus has for them. And of course, the bored ones donít witness, so they do not know the joy that comes when one sinner repents.

The NON-CHRISTIANS who are bored by Christianity sometimes have seen loveless and joyless people who are Christians in name but not in deed. It is a tragedy that a significant number of lukewarm Christians do nothing to win the world or even live an exemplary life. The world can take or leave them ñ and almost always leaves them. Even Jesus is disgusted with them. In Revelation chapter 3, he spits these Laodicean Christians out of his mouth. Now if our Lord does that, can we blame the world for doing the same thing???

When non-Christians meet on-fire serious Christians, their opinion changes. They may not flock to follow the Lord, but they will no longer be on the fence. They will either embrace the Lord or fight Him!

Are you going to bore the world with a listless brand of Christianity, so are you going to set the world on fire? You donít need a match ñ the Holy Spirit will anoint you, equip you, and show you what to do and say. The Holy Spirit is NEVER boring. He is creative and magnificent. Letís not give the world even one excuse not to follow our Lord, Jesus Christ!

Hey, letís not give OURSELVES even one excuse not to run HARD after the Lord!