boredome

The risks of neglecting boredom :
Doing nothing goes against our drive as individuals and the entire grain of our culture. Most of us may not even know how to leave room for nothing, let alone how to do nothing. Even the way we phrase it—"doing nothing"— suggests that nothingness is still an act, something we do (worthy of putting on our to-do lists). And maybe it should be put on a to-do list, or scheduled in blocks of “nothing time” on the calendar. I'm honestly not sure how one gets really good at being bored, but I think we stand to lose a lot if we don’t figure it out. We lose access to our best creativity and problem-solving skills. As the article by Lindstrom points out, "When we’re at our most bored we’re forced to push our creative boundaries, and unearth the root of whatever problem we're working on.” It seems possible that as we increase our emphasis on efficiency, we decrease innovation and the ultimate effectiveness of the outcome. We also risk losing touch with ourselves. Without boredom, you lose the things that would make you, you—even if you had been born 100 years ago and didn’t have a smartphone for passing the time.

Although the life you live is impacted greatly by where and when you live, the person you were created to be is not dependent on those factors. More space in your life can help you uncover and better understand who you are. And finally, as Christians, filling all our minutes leaves less room for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Listening to God, following His detours, and being available to His people—they all require more open-ended time and space. As author Ann Voskamp said in her talk at this year's Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College, most of us are rushing through our days, “blurring moments into one unholy smear … In all of our rushing, we’re like bulls in china shops: We break our own lives.” If we want our lives to be holy and whole again, we need a little space ... for nothing.

 Kristin Tennant is a freelance writer and blogger at Halfway to Normal and the Huffington Post. She and her husband and their blended family live what she calls a “halfway normal” life full of stories, surprises and redemption in Urbana, Ill.